The Congress is at its worst - looking down the barrel right now ..
Lets look at some nos.
For a party which won 364 seats in the first ever elections in 1952 , 371 seats in the second elections in 1957, 361 seats in the 3rd elections in 1962, 283 in the fourth elections in 1967, 352 seats in 1971, 154 seats in 1977, 353 seats in 1980, 404 seats in 1984, 197 seats in 1989, 232 seats in 1991, 140 seats in 1996,141 seats in 1998, 114 seats in 1999, 145 seats in 2004, 206 seats in 2009, 44 seats in 2014, 52 seats in 2019. One can clearly see the downhill post the emergency era barring '80 and '84 . Congress steadily have ceased to be the ultimate choice of common Indian in the last 33 years.
Whom to blame ? partly the draconian theory of the party to identify itself with the Gandhi's ... Clearly Sonia Gandhi albeit her controversial overseas linkage and Rahul Gandhi are never going to be any challengers' for the shrewd and sharp BJP that came to power riding the ultra Hindutva wave and the corruption charges that marred UPA - 2during 2009-2014. It was evident that the oldest nationalist party which brought freedom to India needed much more than what it was offering. It is sometimes debatable but not proven that BJP wants the GANDHI family in power always so that they can rule in India without any fear or opposition. It is a known fact in Indian Politics that BJP's way of functioning is to let investigative agencies go after politicians and parties' whom they think as threats in their road to FASCISM , ( TMC in Bengal being the biggest example ), it is surprising and to a greater extent a huge dismay that never ever ED /CBI or any such agency has been deployed against Sonia or Rahul .. Robert Vadra sometimes being an exception ... But since this is a conjecture only and so far not corroborated by proofs, we will not tread that path.
As I have started in this piece , and statistically its been evident for quite some time that Congress once the ONLY party to reckon and be of any force in India , has now been relegated to a regional party status with its dismal show of 44 seats in 2014 and 52 seats in 2019. In any democratic set up , a party has to have its logical successors . This somehow hasn't suited the Congress at all. They have either deliberately or inadvertently followed a path of FAMILY owned politics with the Gandhis' at the helm. What suited Indian Politics till Indira was alive has been their major downfall post the 1984 elections after the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi. Whether deliberately or not, the control of the Gandhi family has only dented Congress' chance of being a major opposition to BJP in India now. That Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kapil Sibbal and recently the talismanic Gulam Nabi Azad left the party citing irreconcilable difference with the leadership of the party ( Read Rahul & Sonia Gandhi) augurs very poorly for a party that was synonymous with Indian Independence. Somehow the Party leadership has failed miserably to change with time and set up a democratic process to enable smooth transition of power from the Gandhis to a Non Gandhi leader. This very shortcoming of the party has led to hara-kiri and massacre in the last 33 years - the decay has been slow, steady and irreparable.
So what can augur best for a party which once boasted close to 400 seats in the Lok Sabha down to 52 seats in 2019? Clearly the party has nothing much to lose . Exit of major old guards and one new one has shaken the party badly but the core has remained stupid enough not to read the signals .. Or have they deliberately avoided it to pave way for opposition less rule for the autocratic and fascist BJP which certainly the latter envisage and plan in India ? We will never know. But one thing is for sure. Congress party has reached its lowest ebb - it cant go lower than this .
It is in this context the Presidential Polls of the oldest party in India assumes paramount significance. A party which is reeling under the inevitable pressure to remain in relevance all the time specially in the last 8 years after BJP has come to power. And this very conjecture of existence on one hand and the ruling out of the family run party on another, that Shashi Tharoor's fight assumes great significance . For one, if he does fight the elections, it will be one of the biggest challenges to the Gandhi family who run the Congress party till now. Shashi is not an old school Congressman whose forefathers gave their lives for the country and were heroes of the Congress Party , weaving steady tales of dream . Rather Tharoor made a lateral entry into the party after a failed attempt to become the UN Secretary General , an org. where he spent 3 decades of his professional life. This very qualification at the UN sets Shashi on a different rolling ball than any other person in the party.
Shashi Tharoor may have qualities which make him a man to hate but his credentials as an intellectual and a nationalist ( a point which even the Ultra Hindutva poachers of BJP fund difficult to deny) are par excellence. His " The Great Indian Novel" is a retelling of the Mahabharata in Modern India and it holds enough clues to his attitude to Nehru - Gandhi family & the politics. If Tharoor has some sympathy for Nehru , he has none for Indira Gandhi. Her character Priya Duryodhani is portrayed as someone who "acted only according to the dictates of her own conscienceless mind" and who " emasculated her party by appointing state leaders rather than allowing them to be elected."
In his biography of Nehru , Tharoor wrote that Indira's proximity to her father gave her " a taste for power and its acquisition , with little sense of the larger good for which it could be used...she seized the mantle of Nehruvianism but never understood it ."
Tharoor has been historically the most published critic of the policies of Nehru - Gandhi within the Congress, a party he chose to join as he was ideologically comfortable with it . It would be easy to dismiss Tharoor as a caricature of the Lutyens Liberal who prides himself on being a walking Thesaurus, an English Language - snob a lover of ELITE comforts (pls do remember that he landed himself in grave trouble by referring economy class seats in Airlines as " Cattle Class.") Yet unlike the Gandhis , whose attempts to flirt with temple hopping found few takers, Tharoor has publicly called himself a Hindu, and written two books on it. His position on the Sabarimala temple- entry issue was carefully constructed to avoid being branded anti - Hindu. In an article written around that time , Tharoor backed those who opposed allowing women into the Sabarimala Temple , writing that " when you disturb the beliefs of worshippers , you violate a space beyond reasoning ." Looking back one now feels that it was done deliberately so as to not play in hands of the Ultra Hindu BJP who may later coin him as anti Hindu .
Despite his overt Anglophilia , Tharoor has been majorly successful in projecting himself as a vocal anti colonialist. His Oxford Union speech on " Britain owes its reparations to her former colonies" was very famous and went viral on YOUTUBE and his subsequent book on the RAJ , An Era of Darkness is a best seller. This is a critical and crucial positioning for which even the religiously fanatic BJP finds it difficult to attack Tharoor as a deracinated anti national. One cannot call someone a Macaulayputra , however faux- British their accent might be , if they have made an impassioned critique of British Colonialism. It is extremely important to remember that despite his lack of political pedigree , Tharoor withstood the " Modi Wave " to be re elected to Parliament both in 2014 and 2019.
Tharoor therefore appeals to that section of India's elite which doesn't like the BJP's political Hindutva , but also dislikes Rahul Gandhis' anti capitalist rhetoric and his idealistic adherence to liberalism and his brand of secularism. Unlike Rahul Gandhi , who has closed most doors to India INC, Tharoor would be welcome here. He is very clearly a supporter of the private sector and opposed to big govt. In fact he has even backed the idea of cross - pollinating the bureaucracy by allowing lateral entries from the private sector, and temporarily posting govt employees in multinational agencies and private companies.
Tharoor is also very active in social networking - he has approx. 8.3 million followers on twitter compared to Sachin Pilot's 4.1 million, and P. Chidambaram's 1.7 million. This gives him significant reach amongst politically conscious youth. To add to it he is very good looking and impeccably turned out. He is the perfect poster boy that the almost dilapidated Congress needs.
Yet Tharoor is unlikely to succeed against any Gandhi family loyalist be it as reported Ashok Gehlot or any other. The Gandhis may have been forced to realize very late that by reigning the party and being family centric and autocratic they have brought down the party from 400+ odd seats to a mere 50+ seats . It is this decay and hara-kiri that has allowed BJP to claw its root so firmly in India with their ultra Hindutva political game which has destroyed the country. But still the party is structured in such a way that it cannot do anything without the Gandhis at the top. If anything this could be a dress rehearsal for Tharoor at the top - a mere shot in the sling to check what kind of support he gets from the different ranks and cadre of the party. It could well be a pre- cursor for him to launch a new congress , which would be more conservative, pro-market but also appeal to the old Lutyens' elite. In Tharoor's own words, " a pro- free enterprise , pro-western, conservative party , never acquired enough support to mount a serious challenge to Nehruvian dominance."
To Survive the party desperately needs some one like Tharoor who inspite of being overtly Anglophilic yet is a Hindu as he proclaims . His appeal to the mass of people who have deserted Congress and to those who he can win from other religious aficionados is immense. A party like Congress which stood for all that is secular and was THE PARTY in India that everyone wanted to see in power is in ventilation now. Its only someone like Tharoor who appeals to both the soft intellectuals as well as the brass masses , who can pull Congress and deliver a miracle. The Gandhis' at the top must realize that for a healthy democracy to sustain , we must have a strong opposition and Congress can provide that only if the Gandhis step aside. Already a lot of damage has happened with Kapil Sibbal, Gulam Navi Azad and Scindia Junior leaving the party. A Party like the Congress cannot fade into oblivion with a family ruling it like dictators and thereby strengthening BJP's hand in India. Today much of anarchy in this country is only due to lack of opposition which the BJP is using to its maximum. Shashi Tharoor could be the perfect reply to all those inside the INC and outside who can replace the Gandhis and become a serious threat to the fanaticism of BJP that's ruling India now!!
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