I have been an admirer of living in denial as a therapeutic process. It has its effective uses from time to time when all else fails; especially when reality lets you down consistently. So to that extent I am amused by Congress Party vice president Rahul Gandhi’s observation that his party is “a little down” in Uttar Pradesh after the just concluded state assembly elections.
Gandhi’s party won seven seats in a 403-member state legislative assembly. If he wants to describe that as “a little down” in a deliberately humorous understatement, with his tongue firmly in his cheek, I am not going to stand in his way. However, the sense I get is that he is being perfectly serious when he says that. In his world seven out of 403 may have a different definition. In any case, politics by its very nature is a business of optimism. Politicians are of necessity an upbeat tribe. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a great example of that. It was mocked for a long time in the 1980s and 1990s for winning only a handful of seats. It is now the dominant political force in the country even though the numbers do not necessarily bear that out. It is dominant force within a fractured political reality where too many parties at the state and federal levels are competing for a piece of the electoral action.
Along with understating the Uttar Pradesh results, Gandhi also said something humorously self-unaware. “As far as the Congress party is concerned, we do need to make structural and organizational changes and that is a fact,” he said. He almost makes it sound as if he is an outsider looking in rather than the reality of being the ultimate Congress insider looking out. The way his comment about structural reorganization sounds is as if is someone else’s job. It is entirely his job which he could have/should have done any time in the past several years.
It is true that Congress has practically no counter to Modi’s often braggadocian self-belief and natural charisma. However, there are some promising figures other than the members of the Gandhi family who might be considered for leadership roles. I wrote about one on August 23, 2016. “Beyond the Congress Party’s dynastic impulses, which are real but not as consuming as widely believed with derision, I have not understood why it has not tried in recent years to groom a younger leader other than Rahul Gandhi to take over its reins. One obvious name that comes to mind instantly is that of Jyotiraditya Scindia. The 45-year-old has all the ingredients, including the rare oratorical flair for a Congress member both in chaste Hindi and English, to be able to do justice to that position.”
There is another name whose appeal extends well beyond the party and often spills over into constituencies which feel an affinity to some of Modi’s ideas. Shashi Tharoor, a Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, enjoys a considerably credible political and social media profile. At the very least Tharoor seems to have what it takes to be in a major leadership position.
I wrote a post about Tharoor’s prime ministerial prospects on January 24, 2017:
“It might be foolish to speculate whether international diplomat turned politician and an important author to boot Shashi Tharoor has any clear path to becoming India’s prime minister. However, it is certainly entertaining to do so with some measure of probability thrown into the mix. Remember you read it here first no matter how absurd it sounds.
That at this stage Tharoor has no recognizable path to the highest political office from within the Congress Party is obvious; so obvious that it needs no stating. However, if by some seismic twist a path does indeed open up, I think one of the defining factors that would propel him is his current favorite cause about how the heartless and predatory British colonial rule so thoroughly debased India for 200 years. His much-celebrated book ‘An Era of Darkness—The British Empire in India’ has won Tharoor strong political credentials beyond his Congress Party and well into the quasi nationalistic territory that is essential for any Indian politician now to make an impact.
The book has created a powerful aura around him as a politician whose nationalist heart is at once genuine and yet without cheap, fact-free jingoism.
Tharoor has been that rare Congress leader who has found some grudging acceptance and even respect even among those swore to the infallibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That is a political plus for him. The issue of the quintessential cruelty of the British empire still has deep emotional resonance in India across party and ideological lines. Anyone championing that cause with the scholastic soundness and yet popular appeal with which Tharoor appears to have done is bound to enjoy some political capital.”
In the aftermath of the Congress Party’s disastrous showing in Uttar Pradesh—although it won Punjab rather handsomely and almost did so in Goa and Manipur—there is an online petition for Tharoor as prime minister doing the rounds. The petition on change.org is a dicey proposition for Tharoor’s political future within the Congress Party which is not known to take kindly to those who might challenge the primacy of the Gandhi family over it. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some level Tharoor is both amused and worried about the petition started by a resident of his constituency. Such overt expressions of high ambition, even if not authorized by him, do not meet with a happy end in a party addicted to the Gandhi lineage.
On a separate matter, when Rahul Gandhi speaks of structural reorganization he is, of course, referring mainly to the party’s grassroots but I suspect he is conscious of his own obvious shortcomings. Some might say I am being charitable by saying that but let us say he is for the sake of argument. If there has to be a genuine structural reorganization, his own role should also come in for scrutiny that might lead to a sharper redefinition or strategic dilution. Many in the party might privately suggest the latter. Either way, he should be ready for it.