The Indian titanic of the 21st century

Disclaimer- This article is not endorsing any political party. All the views are personal and it is just for the sake of analysis. All this is just a bit of common sense, and a brief know-how of the Indian politics is enough to make it out.

The Indian National Congress has lost many states and now its even losing its flock.

During the early nineteenth century, the world was rocked by what one thought as the greatest ship ever created. The titanic. It was considered so great that it even got some sobriquets like The millionaire ship, The wonder ship. Perhaps, the most striking one which is a household name all over the world- "The unsinkable ship". This teaches us a lesson- nothing's impossible. But in this article, I am mentioning the oldest political party of India- The Indian National Congress also known as INC or simply known as Congress in India. Avid followers of Indian politics know that the Congress is in a deep crisis. It has been in a crisis since a decade but it refused to acknowledge that fact. The result is now clearly visible- it lost its young leaders and cadre, and also its stronghold turfs and still it refuses to acknowledge it. 

There were days, when, like the titanic, the Congress had reputation of fame and glory. The Indian National Congress was formed by an englishman named as A.O Hume for establishing a bridge between the British authorities and Indian political leaders. Within a year or two of its founding, it was filled by the Indians. The stalwarts of the Indian independence, most of them have been a part of Congress. Motilal Nehru, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Dadabhai Naroji, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Abdul Kalam Azad, the well known trio of 'Lal, Bal, Pal'(Lal Bahadur Shastri, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai), Annie Beasant, Sarojini Naidu, Subhas Chandra Bose (Yes, before forming the forward bloc, he served in congress and even became its president from 1938-39), not forgetting the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

Well, Congress has a long history of breakaways. Starting from the Swaraj Party to Congress O. Congress O breakaway was the first major obstacle, challenging the existence of Congress. Many of the prominent party leaders such as K.Kamaraj, Moraji Desai, S.Nijalingappa, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, etc joined the Congress O. Some other political parties which broke away from Congress are functional even now and have even formed government in a state. However, the most prominent ones are the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC in West Bengal), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP in Maharashtra, part of an alliance with Shiv Sena and ironically with the Congress), Y.S.R Congress Party (in Andhra Pradesh) But never had this threat been so serious. Not even when the entire Congress party itself broke into two parts- Congress I (Indira) and Congress O (Organisation). The threat to the Congress is increasing every day.

Why is this happening?

Some of the reasons why this old political warhorse is dysfunctional are -

The first one is as ironic as it seems. A truly democratic party has regular internal elections among the party. Congress, though it claims it as a secular and democratic party, is suffering from dynastic succession. It means that only members of a family is ruling the party. This is the Gandhi family. Starting from Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, it has now passed to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The presidency of Congress keeps rotating among the two. It has not held internal elections from about 20 years. Many young the leaders are not given enough chance and good posts.

Take the recent example of breakaway of Jyotiraoaditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh, a Congress loyalist and veteran to BJP or Sachin Pilot (though it is an internal revolt) in Rajasthan. The few remaining leaders in the party are parting their ways with the grand old party. Hence, the first thing the Congress must do now is to make on organisational restructuring and conduct an elections within their party. They must elect a strong leader at the centre. However, the most important thing is that the person elected at the centre must have the supreme command, not under the control of the Gandhis.

                           

The second reason is the quality of its members. The Congress now has very less leaders remaining in it's cadre. Comparing the membership of different parties, BJP has the highest membership of about a staggering 18 crores, which is not only highest in India, but in the whole world. The second place is the far behind Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of about just 9 crores. Congress is just a pale shadow with a membership of just a mere 2 crores. Congress needs to conduct fresh recruiting regularly.

This will release fresh a fresh breathe into the party. The youngsters will be more active, take more initiative and would prevent the grand old party from sinking. They may even challenge BJP and its power in the centre. Though this must not be compromised on they must not be compromised on Congress loyalist, but I believe that there is enough space in the Congress for all. 

The third reason the Congress can revive itself is that it must listen to all the members of its party. The recent suspension of Congressman Sanjay Jha when he tried to bring out the flaws of the party openly in the Times Of India a few months back, show us that the party leaders at the centre is unwilling to change. Change is the new normal and everything has to change and so must the Congress.

Another one is that the Congress must now make a shift from minority to a bit of Hindutva agenda. This has done wonders for BJP and it may revive the Congress to challenge the Modi government at the centre.

Well, though the titanic has sunk at the end, a new construction of the titanic is underway and if everything goes right, we may be having a new titanic (titanic II) by 2022. Similarly, it is never too late and if the Congress make reforms and grows in the right way, it may regain its former days of glory. However, if the Congress sinks, it will not only damage itself, but even democracy as in a true democracy, even the opposition must have a fair chance of winning. 

For further reading-

1. Indian National Congress

2. Largest political parties by membership

3. 10 point programme for Congress by Chetan Bhagat

4. Titanic II

All the above Images are taken from google.