Where is the Indian National Congress going ?

                                                                                                            John Samuel

At last the grand old party ,after its existence of 130 years, managed to discover the magic number of Zero , right under the nose of AICC, in Delhi. Is it the beginning of its end or end of its relevance? Or is it the beginning a new incarnation ? Will the zero performance make any difference or critical reflection among its top-heavy leaders and ever eroding grassroots workers ? Many younger leaders and grassroots workers began to question in public and private the reasons for the paralysis of the party that claim the legacy of the freedom struggle. Many seem to know the problem though not sure about the solutions .The perils of arrogance, elitism, root-less power cliques, cartels of groupism, interests and vanities of power are signs of a deeper crisis of ethics, value and the very purpose of a party that ruled India for most of the time ever since independence . Congress Party was supposed to strengthen the idea of democratic India; the idea of a diverse, peaceful, responsive and inclusive state, based on the letter and spirit of the Indian Constitution . Can congress reclaim its original ideals or revitalise or reinvent ?

Congress has to go back the original Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru, Azad, Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose and the core values of freedom struggle . Congress Party has to go back to the basic principles , values and struggle for freedom that ignited its life as a mass movement of 'aam admies/auraths' once upon a time in the distant past. Congress Party may send retirement notice to the palace politicians and chamchas in search of crumbs of governmental power and it's comforts. Congress party may send home the technocratic elites who believed country and governments are made for them to rule and enjoy. The Chidambarams, Allhuwalias, Nanden Nilakkanies, and other 'eminently' qualified elites ,more at home in the cocktail circuit of the rich and powerful ,are a huge liability than an assets. It is time for those root-less wonders and smooth talkers in the TV studios to home and enjoy their pension as Parliamentarians and ministers for several decades.

Congress party has to learn to serve people at the grassroots, listen to the voices poor and marginalised and get rid of the rootless self-serving careerists whose only purpose is to get power, paraphernalia and of course 'return on investment' through somehow getting a slice of governmental power; the leaders who are too used to the seduction and comforts of governmental power. A party can't be revitalised or rebuilt by the sedated leaders and their side-kicks and chamcha still in the hangover 'intoxicating ' power-trips and 'official' privileges that they are so used to.A party can't be built with politics of chamchagiri or charm or chances. Building or revitalising any institutions require a shared sense of purpose, passion, people, positive vision, politics and performance.

But can the party be able to get out of its present mode of being a network ,dominated in many states, by , of and for those who became 'leaders' through lineage, or patronage or 'favour' or through vested interests money or muscle ? The rise and fall of Jaythi Natarajan is indicative of the deeper crisis. Without winning any election, without working at the grassroots , she got in the parliament, ministerial chair via TV Studios and claiming the legitimacy of the family legacy. Will the congress be able to move beyond it's present predicament of decay within ? Does it have the collective leadership capacity , political imagination and humility to reinvent itself ? Can it stop being a party of everything to everyone and party of perpetual compromises and accommodating vested interests for the sake of winning elections at any 'cost'? Will it be able to restart from a clean slate of Zero seat or rise up from it ashes across different states of India ? Can it tolerate principled mass based grassroots leaders, beyond lineage, money, muscle or 'loyalty' ? Can it attract a million young people to go and work at the grassroots to serve the people, learn from them and make difference on the ground as volunteers ? Can it attracts fearless leaders with integrity, imagination and courage of conviction,commitment to the original ideals and above all emerging from the ground ? Can it declare a moratorium on 'parachuted' leaders? The future of congress depends on all these questions .

But the question is how many leaders will have the guts to stand up and challenge themselves and change themselves ? How many leaders have the courage of conviction to go beyond a politics careerism and chamchagiri? How many leaders are ready to get out of the consorts of capital cities and air conditioned life to the heat and sweat of real people at the grassroots? How many leaders are ready to retire and realise their own redundancies in the generational shift in the new politics? The questions still remain simply as questions. The longer it takes to ask questions, the quicker formations like AAP will fill in the political space.

 It is often interesting to see how many 'once up on a time' powerful political parties ended up as NGOs in many countries and how so many NGOs got politicised and filled the political vacuum for principled and civic leadership. Aravind Kejarival or AAP is not the cause of zero performance of the congress; they are the result of it. AAP has not taken away any vote from congress; Congress voters simply went after the AAP. Congress still have enough retainers to run its own NGO Rajiv Gandhi foundation in Delhi and Kejariwal no longer will have time to run Kabir or Parivarthan ( the NGOs he founded) as he will have to lead the government in Delhi and also lead a political party . So where is the Indian National Congress Going ?