Editorial: Desert Storm

At a time when the opposition unity is the need of the hour, the Congress has scored another self-goal as a fresh bout of political crisis hits the party in Rajasthan with dreary predictability. The open rebellion by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, considered a die-hard loyalist of the Gandhi family, could not have come at […]

At a time when the opposition unity is the need of the hour, the Congress has scored another self-goal as a fresh bout of political crisis hits the party in Rajasthan with dreary predictability. The open rebellion by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, considered a die-hard loyalist of the Gandhi family, could not have come at a more inopportune time for the besieged party which is pinning its hopes on the positive impact of the ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo’ yatra by Rahul Gandhi, the most significant mass contact programme the grand old party has undertaken in recent years. The high command’s idea to make Gehlot party president and appoint his arch-rival Sachin Pilot as his successor has boomeranged badly. It set off a storm in the party, reminiscent of the trouble witnessed in 2020 when Pilot, seen as the key architect of the party’s victory in the 2018 Assembly polls, made a vain bid to grab CM’s post but the high command chose Gehlot, a representative of the old guard and a dyed-in-the-wool family loyalist. Similar infighting drama and fatal factionalism were played out in Punjab, Assam and Karnataka in the past and in all cases the central leadership repeated the blunders, evoking a sense of déjà vu. The crisis in Rajasthan, being only the second State after Chhattisgarh where the Congress is in power on its own, is causing acute embarrassment to the leadership. Nearly 90 legislators loyal to Gehlot have openly defied party president Sonia Gandhi, threatened mass resignation and made it clear that they would not accept Pilot as their leader.

The latest predicament has only accentuated the turbulent build-up to the October 17 Congress president polls. For the first time in over two decades, a leader outside the Gandhi family is slated to take over the reins of the party. With Gehlot, the original favourite, almost being ruled out now, the leadership is scouting for another loyalist to occupy the president’s post. This whole exercise makes a mockery of the democratic process to elect the party president and also exposes the hollowness of the high command’s neutrality claim. The grand old party has been consistently refusing to learn from past mistakes. For a party that presided over the destiny of the country for most part of its post-independence journey, it is baffling that even fundamental issues like decentralisation of power, empowerment of State units and organisational elections at every level remain unaddressed. Despite its ideological commitment to secular, liberal and inclusive values, the leadership’s intolerance to internal dissent, insistence on loyalty to the first family and reluctance to organisational overhaul have all contributed to devaluing the party’s liberal framework. This feudal streak of status quoism is singularly responsible for its decline. The absence of decisive leadership and effective crisis managers has already led to the exodus from the party.

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