Letters

Congress to be blamed for its downfall

Editor,

The story of the Congress fortune in the near future in 2022, 2023 and 2024 does not seem to instil much hope and confidence for its High Command and the rank and file of the party in India. No effort is being made for its revival because the High Command of the party refused its total overhaul right from the topmost level. In fact, Sonia Gandhi, in spite of her long years of presidentship in the party, has not instilled much leadership into the rank and file of the party, nowhere near the leadership, dynamism and mass following of her mother-in-law. Turning to her son and daughter, except that they are the children of former Prime Minister of India, so far, they are yet to make any impact on the party and Indian politics and instil confidence into the demoralised beleaguered party rank and file. Again, if we turn to the Congress bigwigs who radiate around the Gandhis, most of them are deadwood and have no more vigour, dynamism, attraction and appeal to the millions of new aspiring ambitious dynamic voters of progressive India. They have no more hope in this grand old party because they have seen enough of it.

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The dismal performance of the monolithic old party has drifted sharply since 2014 and deteriorated further in 2019 in the Parliamentary general elections. Again, in the Assembly elections held since then (2019), out of 17 states it has failed to win any state on its own. Except in Maharashtra when it won quite a few seats while in Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu it became a mere junior partner, just by winning insignificant seats. In some states the party was able to win only in single digits.

The General Elections to the Lok Sabha slated for 2024, the party may face another rout if the political scenario is of any indication as of now. It will be very difficult to get seats from Uttar Pradesh, Assam and seven other northern states, West Bengal, Odisha, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Goa but it may fare a little better to get some seats from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh.

However, judging by the present political physical signs the party’s performance will not be as bad as doom but it will take quite long to come to power provided it is humble enough to admit its mistakes and adopt drastic steps even to the point of doing away with the power circus of the Gandhi family. But there is no magic wand, not even that of PK, to propel Congress to power at least in 2024 or in the near future at the Centre because the political space of the Congress has firmly annexed by the regional parties in different states and regions, including the advent of AAP and owing to the political might of the RSS-Bjrang Dal-VHP-BJP combined. The Congress has to blame itself because of not changing itself with the changing times.

Philip Marwein,

Senior journalist,

Shillong

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