G-23: Message in a bottle

By Ranjit Monga 

The Congress party is indeed at a crossroads with a considerably reduced representation in parliament since the past two Lok Sabha elections. But in my view, it is more because of most of its leaders refuse to come to terms with the changed reality since the late 90s. That was the time when, having been out of power for some time, they were rudderless. Then Sonia Gandhi joined the party as its president and the party's resurrection began. 

It is one great lesson they seem to have forgotten, the ability of the Gandhi name to draw voters and their connect with the people of India. After the NDA’s term lead by Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Congress held power for a decade. From the turn of the century the world has now moved on to end of the second decade of the 21^st Century. The generation which grew up without cell phones or were using the early models of Nokia phones of the late 90s, is now well into middle age.  Today’s young generation thrives on social media which they access on sophisticated cell-phones. This has necessitated changes in governance and politics. Ease of outreach available to government departments as well as politicians is  the single most important change in the new reality, which perhaps many in the congress failed to take advantage of. 

To his credit Rahul Gandhi tried to bridge the gap of this changing reality for his party.  After the 2014 defeat, he fought hard and from the front to register wins in many states, even ousting the BJP from three big states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.  Infact the BJP which coined the slogan ‘Congress mukt bharat’ soon realised that it is not going to happen.

So, what really is going on now? Leaders, who formed the backbone of the party during the last two decades wrote a letter to the Congress president requesting her to initiate certain changes, which are well known. Meanwhile, why is Rahul Gandhi refusing to return as party president. Are they (the old guard) the reason for his hesitation? Is he waiting for a sign from them that they would own up to previous losses or at least do so in the future? Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi was perhaps more vocal about it when she said that Rahul was left fighting alone while campaigning for the 2019 elections.  If that is so, then why is the old guard not ready to accept this and make amends by supporting him now as he is taking on the BJP government on almost all fronts.

Also, a big change is sweeping across the rank and file of congress party workers. First, they seemed to have swelled considerably in recent times. Secondly, they have begun to come out on the streets - whether it was to help the returning migrants as seen during the start of the pandemic, or to protest the China border issue, unemployment, economic downturn or the farm bills. And they are flooding social media with their action videos. In 2014, Rahul when acknowledging that the BJP had made good use of social media for winning the Lok Sabha elections, had declared that the Congress will also learn to do it and become better than them. 

It is clear that these young workers owe allegiance to Rahul and Priyanka and not to the old guard.  The sooner the G-23, as they are being referred to by the media, wake up to this reality, the faster will be the return of Rahul Gandhi as Congress president. Of course, the party should find a balance to work together with the stalwarts who can be the guiding force both inside and outside parliament..

Otherwise, the letter they wrote will remain a distress message in a bottle for their political survival.