Will Congress introspect at least now?

 

 

Immediately after the elections to five states, intellectuals, political analysts and journalists began comparing the journeys of the Congress, the oldest political party in the country and the BJP that had started as the Jana Sangh in 1951. In the backdrop of the Lok Sabha elections to be held in the next 4-5 months, these people are trying to evaluate the possibilities that shadowed Congress’s performance over the years while analysing the upward progress including the resounding success of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent elections.

Definitely, the decline of Congress’s performance, that had once enjoyed power in various states including the Centre, is bothering many pro-Congress intellectuals and journalists who sympathize with them. But instead of taking it as an opportunity to introspect, these people are taking an easier route of disrespectfully targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Unlike in the story of the elephant and the seven blind, Congress’s supporters are giving their perceptions on BJP’s growing popularity. But I wonder how Congress leadership will apprehend and take cue from this analysis. If we look at the statistics, we will see how the vote percentage of the Bharatiya Janata Party doubled after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. One must understand that vote percentage does not increase overnight. Building an electorate for a party is a long process. During 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party secured 7.8 crore (18.8%) votes. In 2014 elections, the BJP bagged 17.16 crore votes. The BJP had managed to garner 31 per cent of the total votes polled, an increase of 2.5% over the period of 5 years. In 2019, the vote share of the BJP was 37.5%, an increase of 5 crore votes as compared to 2014 elections.

Now let us look at the performance of the Congress. Congress got 11.9 crore votes (28.5%) in 2009, 10.69 crore (19.5%) in 2014 whereas 11.94 crore (19%) in 2019. This means that the votes polled by the Congress between 2009 and 2019 remained more or less the same. It also clearly shows that while the BJP’s vote share doubled during these 10 years, there wasn’t any substantial change in Congress’s vote share. Doesn’t it infer that this party failed to attract new voters?

Seeing the developmental activities during the 5 years tenure, i.e., from 2014 to 2019, voters brought the slogan ‘Phir ek baar Modi Sarkar’ to reality. After 2014, there has been an increase in the number of states where the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi often uses the term ‘double-engine government’. If the same party is in power at the Centre and the state, development process gets accelerated.

After 2014, many central government’s schemes for the benefit of the poor and the underprivileged got the desired boost from BJP-ruled state governments. Let us take the example of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. In this scheme, the central government deposits Rs 6,000 every year in bank accounts of the farmers. The state governments of both Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra agreed to give equivalent amount to the farmers from their treasury. Benefits of such schemes had never reached the needy in this manner during Congress’ long tenure. In fact, in Madhya Pradesh, when the Congress was in power from December 2018 to March 2020, they stalled many welfare schemes for the women, farmers and senior citizens introduced by the Shivraj Singh government.

Not only people-centric activities, but BJP’s work at the organizational level has also been a determinant factor in its success. Congress leadership, however, never showed the intent of implementing public welfare schemes through any of its governments. At the same time, it also did not work towards improvising its performance at the organizational level. This could have been the reason for the decline. The party also failed to make attempts to garner support from new voters. Congress’s tradition of ‘collective leadership’ gradually faded during the 1970s when both, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were at the helm of affairs. Although Indira Gandhi’s ‘one-man’ style of functioning brought her success, in longer run it became detrimental for the party. No doubt Indira Gandhi’s political acumen was outstanding. History shows that she had identified with the common Indians. But with regard to the current leadership in the party, one better not speak about their acumen. Unfortunately, none of the senior leaders within the party also have the guts to apprise Rahul Gandhi. Instead of identifying the reasons behind Narendra Modi’s rising popularity, Rahul Gandhi takes pride in rudely and publicly defaming Modi.

Of the 4 states, Congress, whose control rests with the mother-son duo, became victorious only in Telangana. In fact, some years ago, some senior leaders had expressed their displeasure about Rahul Gandhi’s functioning and had demanded that the president must be selected from outside the Gandhi family. Since the letter sent by these senior leaders to Sonia Gandhi became public, the dissatisfaction within the party towards Rahul Gandhi’s style of working also came in public domain. This could have addressed the issue of weakening of the Congress at the organizational level. Recently, Revanth Reddy was seen seeking blessings of Smt. Sonia Gandhi while taking oath as the chief minister of Telangana but he ignored Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge who was sitting right next to her. This was enough signal on how, despite Kharge being older than Gandhi, the newly sworn-in chief minister did not show basic courtesy of paying respect to Kharge. It also exhibited how the party values its seniors, especially its national president.

One thing is for sure, no matter how hard they try to evaluate the rising popularity of the BJP in every election, Congress will never realize the issues within the party. They are satisfied with reading scripted texts – ‘Panauti’, ‘Maut ka saudagar’, etc and not evaluate the actual cause for their downfall. I sincerely hope the party introspects and understands what people expect from them especially after the recent elections.

 

(Article Pre-Published in Times of India -11 December. 2023)

Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson