Congress should consider getting Mamata on board to challenge BJP

The political party of Indian Independence has never been so vulnerable as in the aftermath of the results of the 2019 elections. The prospects of its revival (or eventual extinction) constitute a million dollar question in national politics today. Survival, on the basis of status quo, no longer appears a viable option for the Congress.

As the poll verdict has demonstrated, the grand old party is not only a lumbering elephant, it is also a slow learner. On the other hand, the BJP is led by men whose single-minded focus is on electoral success. For Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, the commitment to politics is 24x7.

The BJP’s booth-level management, as also the unrelenting projection and publicity of the air strikes in Pakistan, yielded rich dividends just months after the reverses faced in the polls in three Hindi-speaking States.

The defeat of Jyotiraditya Scindia in Guna (in the Gwalior region) by over 1,25,000 votes would have counted among the ‘rudest shocks’ for the Congress. Priyanka Gandhi—on whom her party members had pinned so many hopes—would, by now, have realized that one cannot work for a few weeks and still expect miracles to happen. Nonetheless, if she had—gathering initiative and grit—fought against the Prime Minister in Varanasi, a wider impact favouring the Congress may have emerged.

Her withdrawing from the fray in Varanasi was a grave error of political judgment. Conceding this parliamentary seat without so much as a trial of strength is certain to have dampened the enthusiasm of Congress workers — such as it is—in other areas.

The towel was thrown in rather early in the day. It has been argued that victory was conceded to the NDA-II at that stage itself. To lose honourably to a serving prime minister would have been a small cost to incur in a ‘no-holds-barred’ national election. The opportunity of a lifetime was missed, something that is unlikely to repeat at a later date.

The Modi wave has been so strong that it is likely to sustain till such time as most of the Opposition parties come together and stitch pre-poll alliances. A definite move in this direction, sooner rather than later, would be good for the country; democratic politics needs a coherent Opposition to apply the brakes and restrain the ruling dispensation from going out of control.

It is clear that the Congress (and the leadership of non-BJP parties) will have to shed unrealistic ambitions. If they are indeed ready to take on the challenge, a herculean task awaits them. Although convincingly trounced, the Congress, as the biggest Opposition party in Parliament, could yet be a key facilitator in the 2024 contest.

Communal polarisation—a virtually irreversible phenomenon after the 2019 elections—has taken India some distance toward a Hindu Rashtra. The growing religious divide is being sustained on the ground by the narrative of the ruling party’s campaigners, its organisational and financial muscle and the absence of an alternative to the formation of which the Congress should have been able to contribute much more substantially.

The RSS supremo and the top BJP leadership seem well aware that Modi’s second term would be considerably more difficult on many counts. The prime minister would need exceptionally capable advisers, more in the senior bureaucracy and the academic and scientific community (a handful might still be around) than from among political associates and long-superannuated civil servants.

Even so, direct loyalty to Modi can be expected to remain the ultimate test, as much as it was in the era of Indira Gandhi and her son.

A revamping of the administrative structure—accompanied by an overall tightening up—is long overdue. Nothing much happened in the NDA-II and the next five years might also just roll by. The processes involved are time-consuming and, if initiated now, could still take two or three years to begin to fructify.

The immediate remedy lies in drastically enforcing the accountability and performance-parameters of the higher echelons, especially in the IAS and the IPS. It could deliver striking results.

Little will be achieved by vesting officials with greater powers or adopting threatening postures towards the public. The most effective instrument of transformative change is empowering the people and placing faith in their wisdom and hard work.

As Congress president, Sonia Gandhi did provide stability at the top for some years and a modicum of electoral renewal, especially in 2009 when her party gained from a flawed BJP strategy. It is possible that without a member of the Gandhi family at the helm, the party may fall further.

Having long been in decline, the Congress is now left with a last chance to try and reinforce the democratic foundations with, or without, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka, failing which it could gradually disintegrate into splintered outfits in areas where remnants of provincial leadership and a party cadre are still in sight.

In order to carry on as an all-India entity, the Congress will have to re-invent itself, introduce radical changes to become a robust organization and infuse ‘new blood’ at different levels.

It would need to make the best of the Nehru legacy, without downplaying the contributions of outstanding leaders like Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel, Abul Kalam Azad, Rajaji, Subhas Bose, Acharya Narendra Deva and Jayaprakash Narayan. All this is easier said than done.

A leaf may be taken by all political parties from Indira Gandhi’s leadership during the Bangladesh war. Her speech in the Lok Sabha in December, 1971,  after the surrender of the Pakistan Army at Dacca (Dhaka) was shorn of rhetoric. It lasted barely a minute. “All the world,” she said, “admires a deed well done. And I think, with all modesty, we can say that we have done this action well”.  She added: “But let us not forget that the road ahead is still long and very steep and we have many peaks to scale. Let us hope that we can do this with the same spirit in which we have faced this challenge. And that we will go ahead from peak to peak raising our nation to new heights of quality and of excellence.....”.

In my Book, India: Shedding the Past, Embracing the Future, 1906 – 2017 (Konark Publishers, 2018), I opined that “if the Congress is further decimated (or improves its tally just marginally) in 2019, the stage would have been reached to contemplate the last rites. One option could be to hand over the Party to a regional leader who is irrevocably opposed to the BJP. The West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee—if she undertakes to effect a merger of the TMC—would be an obvious candidate.......”.

Sonia Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee are known to share a cordial personal equation. Politics makes strange bedfellows; what may be virtually impossible to envision at present can emerge as a practical possibility. Should the two agree to join forces, in mutual interest, an organisationally strengthened Congress (with Sonia as president and Mamata as working president) could, in due course, spearhead a credible opposition challenge, alongside non-BJP parties, to the ruling alliance.

Which is not to suggest that Prime Minister Modi might cease being the leader post 2024. He has begun the second innings extremely well by reaching out to the Opposition parties on the first day of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha on 17 June, 2019 and inviting their ideas and proposals in the task of nation-building, an endeavour that is still in progress.

Arun Bhatnagar joined the IAS in 1966 and retired as Secretary, Govt. of India.