Freeze-frame: Congress must articulate an alternative vision

Mere aggression in Gandhi's speech will not help unless it is backed by a clear and granular action plan

The Indian National Congress (INC) concluded its 84th plenary session over the weekend. If one looks at legislative strength, the most obvious parameter for a political party’s appeal, the Congress is at its lowest point. The 2014 general election saw the party decimated, as its 10-year rule at the Centre ended with it winning less than 10 per cent of the Lok Sabha seats. Four years on, the Congress has lost several state governments as well. With just about one year to go for the next general election, this plenary, therefore, was an opportune moment for the new party president, Rahul Gandhi, to unveil his team for taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). What one saw instead was the same old guard of Congress politicians who were rejected by the voters in 2014 and who had nothing new to offer. Placing them in critical positions means the party will lack the fresh ideas it needs to compete with the BJP and will remain a victim of its own groupthink. Even the so-called young brigade on display comprised all products of political dynasties. In effect, therefore, there was hardly any difference between the party that was rejected in 2014 and the one that now claims to be “the voice of the nation”.

 
Mr Gandhi’s speech, though combative, did not go beyond raking up old allegations of scams such as the purchase of Rafale aircraft. He also kept harping on the BJP-led government’s failure to keep the promises it had made to the nation, especially to farmers and the poor. But one would have expected the party president to figure out a way to capture public imagination by articulating an alternative vision that went beyond making personal attacks against the prime minister for his “divisive ideology and his failings on the governance front”. Instead, Mr Gandhi sought to shape the contours of his party’s election campaign for the 2019 polls as the battle of Mahabharata between the Kauravas of the BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — who are well organised with immense resources but are arrogant, indulge in falsehood, and are drunk on power — against the Pandavas of the Congress, who are humble, speak softly, and are fighting for truth.

 
In terms of policies, there was hardly anything new or path-breaking in Mr Gandhi’s promises. If anything, he is leaning more to the left of the spectrum than even his mother or grandmother. It is unclear, however, whether that is what India needs at this point, or whether that positioning will be enough to blunt the BJP’s edge. Mere aggression in his speech will certainly not help unless it is backed by a clear and granular action plan. Mr Gandhi, instead, banked on vague generalities and gave the impression that the party’s approach still relied heavily on appropriating the ideas of earlier years and regurgitating them for modern-day audiences. As a result, the Congress embodies opposition to what the BJP stands for, but has failed to carve out a new identity. Mr Gandhi could have certainly done better.