Share
It’s a pity to watch Indian National Congress (INC), the century-old political party of the country collapse in such a manner. It’s not the question of a state going out of hand or a senior leader of the party quitting the pack, the Madhya Pradesh situation has exposed that in reality a free for all wrestling match is now going on inside the party. The party may have leaders and office bearers on paper, but no one listens to them and all are out to fulfill their own agendas. Now the question is without internal discipline how long will the grand old party survive? How relevant is ‘Gandhi Family’ under such circumstances?
The answers are not difficult to find. Congress is not a party which is known for its discipline. Yet, the party remained united in recent times as the ‘Gandhi Family’ was still garnering some votes. But the glue called the ‘Gandhi Family’ has now lost its adhesive quality as evident in the last two general elections when Congress’ tally in Lok Sabha election was less than 60. At the same time, it lost various Assembly elections too. As a matter of fact results of general elections and various Assembly elections, proved that Congress is no match for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Rather, a weakening Congress leadership is the strength of BJP and the party is using this advantage quite well.
Congress has lost much ground to BJP and with every passing day it is becoming more difficult for the party to regain it and power-loving Congress leaders become restless. Madhav Rao Scindia’s resignation from the party is an example of this fact. The scion of erstwhile Gwalior royal family wanted to be the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. But his claim was overlooked and Kamal Nath was installed as the chief minister. Since that day 15 months ago, Scindia was looking for revenge and finally managed to ensure the downfall of Kamal Nath Government.
But what were other party leaders doing when Scindia was plotting his revenge? It’s an irony that despite knowing what was cooking, no one made any efforts to sort out the differences or redress the grievances of Scindia. In fact, there was no one to look after party affairs. Sonia Gandhi may be the acting president of the party but her contribution to the party functioning is limited. No one knows when and how to catch a hold of Rahul Gandhi. Since failing to lead the party to an election victory, he has been sulking. In his opinion everyone else is responsible, barring him and so is not attending party meetings, is not very active in campaigning and even more silent inside Lok Sabha. Rahul’s attitude has made the party so demoralised that even die-hard Congress men are also thinking that the party has lost every hope of regaining lost ground.
So, it is no wonder that there is an on going exodus from Congress. It began with Congress MLAs in Karnataka leaving the party and now 20-odd Madhya Pradesh MLAs have also tendered their resignations. In both cases, Congress lost the states which it was ruling. No one is interested, including Rahul Gandhi in reviving the Congress. Instead, all of them are busy organising the funeral of the party by promoting self-interests in the name of Congress. Clearly, Congress needs a new Messiah.