India wants Congress, not Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka

Whether Congress' black shirt protest on August 5 was successful was eloquently answered by BJP leaders, Union Home Ministers Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who accused the Congress of protesting against the Ram temple in Ayodhya, whose foundation was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the date a year ago. The ruling party had taken note of the protest, and in its angry response made a bizarre connection with the Ayodhya temple. The connection with the Ram temple was a perfect non sequitur. There was no connection between two – Congress' protest against price rise -- which is a fact, and even the BJP leaders only argued that it was not as bad as in other countries – and the temple. It only revealed that the BJP wants to use the Ayodhya temple as its calling card for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. It wants to use faith to beat down a nasty fact like price rise.

The real issue is the Congress' successful attempt to make a point through its protest, and not just in Delhi, though the TV focus was on the Delhi part. This is the first in a long series of failed attempts to nail the Modi government. But is it enough? Is the Congress on the comeback trail? The answer has to remain tentative because Congress knows how to make enough blunders for every advantage it gains. The black shirt protest however showed the obvious weaknesses of the Congress leadership structure. All the senior and middle rung leaders in the Congress were keen to be seen in the same frame as members of the Nehru-Gandhi family – party president Sonia Gandhi, former party president Rahul Gandhi and party's general secretary Priyanka Gandhi. The desire to be seen in the company of Nehru-Gandhis is understandable. Most of them are organisation folk and not leaders of any standing.

More important than the Delhi protest were the ones of the party in the state capitals which showed that Congress remains the only party that has a nation-wide footprint. But it has a lot of work to do before it can clutch its way back to a position where it poses a challenge to the BJP. And in many states, it looks an impossible task, as in UP, Bihar, West Bengal, and even in Tamil Nadu. Two other states in the south where the Congress is becoming a political cipher is in Telangana and in Andhra Pradesh. It has not yet reached the nadir in these two states and it is on the verge of near extinction in these places.

The Congress has its peculiar problems. The traditional dominant groups continue to hold the reins of leadership in the party when there has been a radical shift in the social base. Congress leaders of all generations might feel that they have no alternative to the Nehru-Gandhis at the top. But in the states, they need new leaders, and preferably younger ones. And the leadership base has to be expanded in the states. They may have a Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, a Siddaramaiah and Siva Kumar in Karnataka, but with the two prominent leaders at loggerheads in each state, the party loses the ground which they can gain. There is then a need to sort out the inner party squabbles in the face of a formidable rival at the national level in Modi-led BJP. The BJP is pushing Modi as the single leader because it has a strong party base in many parts of the country, especially in the Hindi heartland. In the case of Congress, they have the Nehru-Gandhis as the indisputable leaders at the top, but the leaders do not have the support of a strong base.

It would be wiser if the Congress party is promoted and not the Nehru-Gandhis because people are more likely to believe the 137-year-old party than the dynasty, however sincere – and they are very sincere – they may be. Congress can challenge the BJP, but Sonia Gandhi-Rahul Gandhi-Priyanka Gandhi cannot challenge Narendra Modi. The difference is not in the leadership quality in one, and the lack of it in the other. Modi has a strong party to back him. Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka do not have a strong party backing. The

party has grown rickety over the years. In many ways, Congress is senile. It can get out of its frail condition by enthusing a new generation of party workers. The country too looks to Congress. But they do not want the Congress of jaded socialist, secularist slogans. The country has moved on. The BJP is indeed a Hindu party, but majority of people are voting for it for other reasons. They are tired of the old Congress. They want a 21st century Congress to beat the 19th century BJP. The Congress should stop refuting the communal BJP. It must offer the message for a futurist India. Prime Minister Modi is at sea about the future. It is for the Congress to go past him.