India: Congress Party Needs to Change Its Style of Politics to Revive Itself, Says Political Pundit

India’s main opposition party Congress is struggling to keep its flock together as an exodus of its members continues. The party is suffering from infighting in states where it is in power. A group of senior politicians, called the G-23,has emerged and usually goes public in pointing out the lacunae of the party’s policies on various occasions.

Ever since being humbled by its main rival the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the 2014 parliamentary elections, India's main opposition party -- the Indian National Congress -- has appeared to be struggling to make a resurgence at the national level.

Not only Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but senior members of the BJP have also lampooned or attacked the Congress party on various issues.

Since losing federal elections to the BJP, Congress has witnessed fissures emerging largely among the old-timers and the new faces of the party over fixing accountability and exploring a new path for a revival.

The developments have made many senior members either quit the party or join the rival BJP or other parties. The rift in the party and the exodus of senior members has raised questions on the party's top leadership.

Now, ahead of the crucial legislative polls in early 2022 in some states, including Uttar Pradesh, Congress hopes to revive its fortunes.

Congress' Interim President Sonia Gandhi’s daughter and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has taken the lead. She is campaigning rigorously in Uttar Pradesh, a politically significant state.

Some political pundits believe the results of these polls will determine the results of the 2024 general elections.

Sputnik reached out to political expert Sanjeev Kaushik to talk about Congress’ strategy for its revival and possible solutions to some of its main problems.

Sputnik: Congress has been on the back foot since 2014. What has led to its consistent decline?

Sanjeev Kaushik: Indian politics has seen a massive change after 2014. The BJP has adopted it while Congress failed in it. This is one of the main reasons behind the decline of Congress. They have to change the style of politics.

The BJP gradually started promoting youth while Congress didn’t do it properly. Apart from this, Congress also needs to understand that now the party can’t only rely on the appeasement of minorities, rather it has to appease the majority community too.

The BJP understood it. Ever since it formed the government in 2014, it has been trying to appease minorities as well as the majority community (Hindus) of the country.

A massive rejig in the party is the need of the hour for Congress. It has to strike a balance between experienced politicians and the youth.

Sputnik: What made the country’s oldest party, Congress, lose its massive base and cadre? Was it due to lack of good leadership or absence of proper policies?

Sanjeev Kaushik: Congress has a rich history of 135 years, and in these many years it has been fragmented into various other parties almost 60 times. Still, it was in power in the country for 60 years.

Therefore, we cannot say that there is any lack of policy. But as I said, the party needs to change its style of functioning.

The party and its workers are aware of the issues to be raised, but they are not raising them strongly. When the BJP was in the opposition, it used to hit the streets on every issue and trouble the government. But Congress is not doing so. It is only doing politics on social media platforms, but largely sitting inside the air-conditioned rooms.

As far as leadership is concerned, in the last several years it has been seen that Congress doesn’t have a full-time president.

Had there been full-time leadership (since Sonia Gandhi is an interim president), the crisis (infighting) in Punjab state could have been solved much earlier. If the leadership would have been strong, they would have not taken so much time to resolve it. Such incidents have harmed the party.

If we talk about the exodus of the leaders from Congress, a lot of people have left the party because a lot of them wanted to remain in power while some had a feeling of insecurity.

However, I feel that Congress should have tried to retain some of the politicians who were close to Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

Sputnik: Sonia Gandhi has said that she is the party chief, but health issues prevented her from being quite active. What strategy could help Congress in terms of strong leadership?

Sanjeev Kaushik: I think there is no doubt on the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, because after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government lost the elections in 2004, she led the Congress to power for two regular terms.

As of now, she is having health issues. But still, if she is the interim president, she has to make sure that the decisions should be taken fast. Lingering on the issues will harm the party itself.

If we talk about the strategy, we can see how the party’s cadre is active in Uttar Pradesh. They have raised various issues and succeeded in putting the ruling government on the backfoot.

So, I think apart from taking fast decisions, the strategy to raise the issues strongly and timely should be followed by the party across the country.

Congress should understand that despite being on the margins, the people of the country look at it with hope. They might cite various shortfalls of the previous Congress government but they know that people were not dying because of hunger.

Sputnik: Rahul Gandhi has failed as a party chief previously; will it be prudent to give him a second chance ahead of the polls?

Sanjeev Kaushik: I personally think that if the Gandhi family doesn’t lead the Congress, the party will not exist. A lot of people might differ with this opinion. Since Congress has been in power for 60 years, this has brought a sense of laxity in most of the party workers, whereas this is not the case with the BJP.

We have seen how the BJP workers put in hard work in 2019 despite being in power for one term. They had the zeal to retain the power.

As far as Rahul Gandhi is concerned, I feel he is a visionary and honest leader.

On several occasions, he has raised issues much ahead of time. He had cautioned the federal government on COVID and the intrusion of China too.

But the BJP has very smartly outplayed him and showcased him in such a way that people don’t take him seriously. If he gets support from his party men, we will see him rise as the tallest leader.

Sputnik: Will the decline of Congress give an opportunity to other parties to unite and be a good alternative to the BJP, or even a strong opposition in parliament?

Sanjeev Kaushik: I don’t think that any other party will be able to replace Congress as the opposition. If other parties have to dethrone the BJP from power, they will have to go with Congress only.

However, it is true that if any party is able to counter the BJP, then everyone looks at it with hope. This is the reason why Mamata Banerjee (the Trinamool Congress leader) is being seen as a strong leader. But one should understand that her party only has a presence in West Bengal state, while the Congress has a presence across the country.