Deadwoods in Congress spell its doom

The Congress refuses to learn lessons. It wants to shut its eyes. It refuses to accept that all is not well within the party.

The AICC president and her son who has chosen to allow the party to go haywire refuse to comment even when major developments like what we are seeing in Madhya Pradesh take place.

The veterans say that Scindia should have gone out long ago. They never bother to review as to why such developments are taking place.

All this is happening because of the failure of the leadership to understand the ground situation and work out strategies to stop the rift within the party and prevent further drift by taking quick decisions. In fact, it has become a party where the top leadership has shut its eyes.

While the veteran leaders need to take the blame for the present decay in the party, Rahul Gandhi too needs to hold himself responsible for the downward slide of the Congress since he has chosen to run away from the responsibilities instead of standing like a rock and guiding the team to bounce back with renewed energy.

His theatrics in Lok Sabha where he hugged the Prime Minister saying that they love all while the BJP spreads hatred did not help him win any extra votes.

He failed on all occasions to galvanise the party and see that it re-establishes itself as a major political force. It could not even bring all likeminded parties or parties that were against the BJP under one umbrella during 2019 elections.

The party chose to play second fiddle in Maharashtra and is in no position to assert itself on any issue because there is no one to guide the Congress leaders at the AICC level.

Even now Rahul says Scindia joined the BJP against his conviction. Soon he will realise his mistake.

But he does not bother to introspect as to why Scindia had to take such a decision and what the party did to stop him from crossing over sides and what the party should do to stop such further desertions.

During the campaign for Madhya Pradesh and other Assembly elections in November 2018, Rahul Gandhi said that if loan waiver did not happen in 10 days, he would change the Chief Minister.

But did nothing even when the promises remained unfulfilled and the performance of the Madhya Pradesh government was lacklustre.

This came as a weapon for people like Scindia to question their own government. After the elections, Rahul never held any of his party Chief Ministers' responsible for their omissions and commissions. He did not even take the initiative to hand over the responsibility of PCC presidentship to Scindia.

When there was some move from the Madhya Pradesh party leaders, veterans like Digvijay Singh strongly opposed all such moves resulting in the party facing the music just 16 months after coming to power.

A true leader would have taken certain tough measures and tried to revive the fortunes of the party but instead, Rahul Gandhi opted to relinquish his position as AICC chief following the worst debacle of the party in Lok Sabha elections and the responsibility once again fell on the frail shoulders of Sonia Gandhi.

This led to change of backroom managers and the veterans again started calling the shots. They refused to adapt themselves to the changing dynamics of politics.

Instead of making efforts to bridge the gap between the young and old, their so-called shrewd style of working let to huge divide in the party.

Rahul chose to keep himself aloof of party affairs. A step which no leader with any intelligence or vision would do. This is now driving the party towards end of its political journey.

With the Congress's clout being substantially reduced and young leaders not getting too many opportunities within the party, several of them, such as Milind Deora and Jitin Prasada, are restive about their political future.

It is unfortunate that the party is not even in a position to hold internal elections.

A day after the exit of Scindia, another young leader Sachin Pilot tweeted,"I am hopeful that the current crisis in MP ends soon and that leaders are able to resolve differences.

The state needs a stable government in order to fulfil the promises made to the electorate." Thereby he too clearly admitted that there are serious differences within the party.

Even at this stage, the so called 'shrewd' old time leaders refuse to think why such developments are taking place within the party. On the other hand, Digvijay Singh took a pot shot at Scindia.

He tweeted: "May God keep him safe in BJP. I pray to God to keep Scindia safe in BJP." Singh claimed that, "Gandhi family has always given respect to Madhavrao Scindia and Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Even Rahul Gandhi said that his doors were always open for Scindia." What Digvijay needs to know is it is not enough to keep the doors wide open. One should keep a tab on who is going out, why they are going out and ponder why no one was coming into the party.

The party should give up blaming others and try to reinvent itself. It should learn to be among the people, take up public cause and come out of paper tiger syndrome if it wants to exist on the political map of India. But nothing of that seems to be happening.

Even in regard to a serious health emergency like coronavirus, Rahul Gandhi only makes naïve comments that the government does not know how to handle.

If that is so, make it an issue, go to people and explain what should have been done and what has not been done. It is time the Congress stops kicking in the air. If still they refuse to perform, they are sure to perish.