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Congress dreams

To say that the dynasty is the totem pole around which the Congress worships is to reiterate what every well-informed schoolchild in India knows. A key purpose of the just-concluded session of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) was to introduce the heir apparent to a breathless, mostly sycophantic flock. Actually Rahul Gandhi held centrestage for the shortest time and made the shortest speech but for the stampeding delegates it was indisputably the defining moment of the session. That the stadium emptied out soon thereafter speaks to the bizarre meaning of the event, which outshone keynote addresses, resolutions, and such. The party general secretary’s first official outing turned out to be a confirmation that the legacy of the Grand Old Party had passed into the hands of yet another Nehru-Gandhi. Consider the matter-of-fact manner of the coronation: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was confident that the junior would take the country to the pinnacle of success. Sonia Gandhi did not protest the assumption, arguing merely that neither she nor her son had “a magic wand” with which to transform the fortunes of the party. Mr. Gandhi’s speech to the cadre rested on two planks: youth power and meritocracy.

The Congress can justifiably claim to have a more youthful profile than the Bharatiya Janata Party whose leadership looks fatigued and baggage-ridden. But only Congresspersons of today are capable of missing the irony in the situation: that Mr. Gandhi should emphasise meritocracy in a party that is happiest led by the dynasty, and whose youth leaders are mostly children of Congress leaders. Mr. Gandhi would also do well to look at his own performance in the recent Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh where, with him leading, the Congress finished last — and with a tally lower than in 2002. Youth power can energise the cadre but it cannot guarantee electoral success, which requires strategic vision, commitment to ideology, and, in the coalition era, flexibility and smart footwork. The Congress is self-admittedly absent, more or less, in key States like the U.P., Bihar, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu — underlining the impossibility of the party gaining a majority on its own any time soon. Yet the party showcased in this AICC session was more the old-style, imperious Congress that shunned alliances than the Congress that went the extra mile to win allies and form a government in May 2004: “The AICC is clear that such a coalition cannot be at the cost of the revival of the Congress itself …” The message is unlikely to escape the attention of other constituents of the United Progressive Alliance who might interpret it to mean they are free to explore other alternatives. Nor will the message escape the attention of the BJP, with its proven skill at wooing and retaining allies, and currently celebrating the formation of its first government in the South.

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