Congress governments: The political message from the three states

Political pundits had already written an obituary for the party and while the Indian National Congress struggled to function as an opposition, even its core supporters doubted its revival any time soon. But the Congress has surprised both. In less than five years of losing power at the Centre, the grand-old party has bounced back with governments in place in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. It is also in power in Punjab, is a major partner in the alliance in power in Karnataka and narrowly missed pipping the BJP on Prime Minister’s home turf in Gujarat. It appears battle ready for the 2019 general election and in much better shape than anyone had believed possible even a year ago.

It has been a remarkable feat for several reasons. The Congress Party from its inception in 1885 has never had to face ideological challenge of the kind the party is facing now from Modi- led BJP and RSS. India has been a centrist, middle-of-the-road nation since ancient times. It slipped into the modern era after independence again on the same track. It accepted the country’s partition but not religion as its foundation. It was not prepared to be a ‘Hindu’ Pakistan.

But there have been conscious and consistent efforts in the last four years to turn India into another Pakistan. The Indian Constitution and institutions have been attacked and compromised like never before. The Congress as the principal opposition party has also had to face the brunt of vicious attacks by the state and BJP leaders which is unparalleled in post-independent India. It has therefore been no mean a feat for the Congress to regain the faith of a large section of the people across the country.

After suffering the worst electoral defeat in the 2014 general election, the party felt the need for a generational change. The UPA chairperson and the then Congress President, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi wanted to pass on the baton to the younger lot. But there seemed to be reservations on this count within the party’s old guard which Sonia Gandhi ironed out deftly but which took three and a half years to overcome. Ultimately, Rahul Gandhi took charge of the grand-old party in December 2017.

Rahul Gandhi had to work on three fronts right from the day he stepped into his mother’s shoes. First, he had to warn countrymen of the ideological dangers if India moved too far to the right. His consistent attacks in his public rallies on the ideology of the RSS bears testimony to this focus in these trying times. He has been the only opposition leader to take a consistent stand against the RSS despite being attacked, ridiculed and trolled incessantly. Secondly, he had to ensure that the Congress remained united once he took over as Congress president because a divided and diminished Congress would have been a gift on a silver platter to the BJP. But he steered the party in these testing times with maturity and a degree of finesse that even his admirers did not expect from him.

While Congress watchers expected the party to stumble at the first sign of a crisis, Rahul Gandhi has proved them wrong by deftly deciding the leadership issues in the three states where the party won power this month. His handling of two generations of Congress loyalists would have reassured the party’s supporters of his faith in the old guard and the younger leaders, and also in his ability to demand and enforce teamwork. He brought warring factions together and took everyone along while making the crucial decisions.

The third task cut out for the Congress president was to pool anti-BJP votes before the next parliamentary elections in 2019. Rahul Gandhi has been quite active on this front in the last few months. His efforts have paid handsome dividends here too. Some rough edges are still there. But Rahul has ensured a broad anti-BJP front to take shape before the next round of electoral battle early in 2019.

In just about a year, the Congress Party is back in the game. It is the leader’s task to inspire leaders, workers and supporters alike. Those who wished for an India without Congress are naturally dismayed. But the historical reality of India in modern Indian times has been that both India and the Congress are cut out for each other. Whenever the Congress errs, countrymen punish it by sending the party out of power. And the party accepts the people’s verdict with humility, manages to do course corrections and bounces back.

A large section of Indians have time and again seen that the alternative to the Congress is much worse than what they expected. They come back to the Congress as they have done in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. But they also wait for a leader like Rahul Gandhi to reassure them that the Congress would stick to its commitment to the poor and the people on the margins, that it stands for plurality and an inclusive idea of India, that it believes in ruling through consensus and not through fear. Rahul Gandhi has miraculously managed to communicate all this in just about a year as Congress president. That in short is the political message of the three assembly elections in the three states, where Congress governments took over on December 17, 2018.