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A 5-point blueprint for the revival of the Congress – Part 1

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 04:30:15 +0000

Let me bite the bullet: the May 23, 2019 general election results in India have led to an incalculable level of mental torture for the supporters of the Indian National Congress which could manage only 52 Lok Sabha seats out of 543. Most Congress supporters I meet still appear to be in a daze, as if hit by Roger Federer’s forehand on the head with a cricket ball.

The despondency is understandable, the electoral rout is indeed an unmitigated disaster for the Grand Old Party in the 134th year of its storied political journey. Rahul Gandhi’s decision to resign as Congress president has only further rocked the boat that is navigating turbulent waters infested with sharks.

The brazen anaconda-like swallowing of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) Karnataka government by the unconscionable, opportunistic Bharatiya Janata Party is a perfect example of how the latter intends to fulfill its cherished aspiration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s highfalutin call of Congress-mukt Bharat (India without Congress).

In the BJP playbook, the ends justify the means, whether it is cash offers, political intimidation, institutional threats of criminal proceedings or a promise of ministerial positions that would augment self-aggrandizement. In its crude bottomline approach of power-at-any-cost, the BJP is creating new touchstones of political malfeasance.

However, given the massive mandate of 303 seats they received (despite their terrible performance), their hubris is human.

I think the BJP actually believes that the ‘MLA stock exchange’ that they created in Bengaluru where elected legislators were traded as purchasable commodities has public backing. They cared a damn. For them ‘Operation Kamal’, as the sleazy buyout of MLAs was christened, was a way of saying QED; we can do as we please.

But this piece is not about the BJP. It is about the Congress party and what it can and must do to reboot itself and reclaim the fast dissipating, disintegrating ideals that our Constitution’s founders once envisaged.

India is close to a dangerous precipice and this is not just vacuous fear-mongering.

If you don’t believe me go and ask the family of Tabrez Ansari, callously slaughtered by a bloodthirsty mob. And he is not the only one. India’s hate-mongers are being mainstreamed; not long ago they were also being garlanded by Harvard-educated, McKinsey-experienced lawmakers of the BJP.

The Congress party must stem the rot: after all, at stake is the future of a complex, democratic society that houses 16% of the world’s inhabitants. But to do that first it will have to reinvent itself.

The cliché goes that extraordinary times demand extraordinary solutions: frankly, it appears customized for a Congress renewal in its worst days. However, instead of cosmetic tinkering, one needs to do a major surgery, almost akin to a complete personality makeover.

The elephant in the room is the moribund AICC (All India Congress Committee) which appears largely comatose on account of its disorganisation. A new architecture is needed.

Here are five suggestions that will help bring about a structural change; strategy, tactics, game-plans, Plan B, alliances, et cetera will be a natural by-product or collateral of this exercise:

Appoint 5 regional vice-presidents

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) structure right now suffers from bureaucratic cholesterol; it needs to be junked. We live in the age of Artificial Intelligence, drones, 1,000 million mobile phones, Big Data and facial recognition technology — adhering to an old, non-performing, labyrinth-like organisational body is counterproductive.

Currently, the Congress president is over-stretched with practically every key decision being concentrated in that position. It is practically impossible to have the daily bandwidth to absorb the diverse, complex and people issues that regularly crop up in a loose, fragmented volunteer-driven political party with several competing factions.

Sanjay Jha is National Spokesperson, Indian National Congress party

First published on https://in.news.yahoo.com/, republished with authors persmisssion

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Gandhi accepted his faults, so should we

Tue, 02 Oct 2018 07:43:43 +0000

Be aware of demagogues and don’t let national icons become a political tool. There’s nothing wrong in seeing Gandhi as a human who achieved great feats and yet had many flaws.

Picture Courtesy: thelawofattraction.com

Today is Gandhi Jayanti. His 149^th birth anniversary. Official celebrations are of course being carried out. Narendra Modi is on an overdrive to ‘prove’ that he ‘inherited’ the legacy of Gandhi. His ‘swachch bharat’ campaign is nothing but an attempt to deviate from the real issues of the nation.

Gandhi has both devotees and detractors. Many people love his ‘spiritualism’ but in the Congress party, in those days many did not agree with his ‘spiritualism’ yet remained with him because of his political battle. The fact is that even if we disagree with many of his views, even me, Gandhi remains the person who influenced our political destiny in the 20th century. He was the person around whom India’s political struggle revolved during the British Raj.

The crisis in India is making the icons gods and putting them on a pedestal so that nobody can criticise them. It is not merely with Gandhi but others too. India today is a country of ‘camp’ followers who can be ‘rational’ about ‘others’ but mindlessly follow their ‘own’. We do not question our own because we feel that they are completely perfect. All the political leaders or human beings have negative sides too and they must be critiqued where they fail. The attempt to make a superhero is a dangerous thing which disallows people to learn from the mistake.

Gandhi was the ‘first’ brand that the capitalist world created. In a democratic society you don’t need this branding but when we inherit imported democracies, these brand are used to promote the political interest of the power elite. Branding is done carefully and the biggest casualty of branding is historical facts. Once a person becomes a brand, you cannot discuss his failures or darker sides. That happened with Gandhi. The state promoted him at the cost of others as if the freedom movement remained confined to him. Historians became his devotees who were not writing history but ‘puranas’ and ‘mythologies’ and the result is that our children still feel ‘de di hame aazadi bina khadag bina dhaal, sabarmati ke sant tune kar diya kamaal’. These are simple generalisations and over-glorification of the person who was definitely the leader of our political movement.

Gandhi gave us political tools to fight against the might. One must learn from his skills of mobilisation. You may differ with him but he had the capacity to bring together the huge number of political leaders from diverse cultural backgrounds. Congress became a movement where he said that it is not merely a political battle but focus on village level issues including untouchability and problems of the peasants. Before him, the Congress party was a Hindu upper caste party but to Gandhi’s credit, he ensured the representation of Muslims in it.

Gandhi knew the impact of symbolism. He knew that Indian masses would love an image of a saint or a sanyasi. He used the religious symbols. It was dangerous and damaged us more than helping us, but then for the short term gains of popularising mass movements he used everything. More than him, his devotees too made him a ‘miracle’ man. People used to do miracles in the name of Gandhi. The huge number of people that used to throng Gandhi’s meetings were not necessarily politically enlightened people but came to see him as a miracle person as well as a messiah of Hindustan. A person in the saffron robe even today is respected in our villages so you can imagine those years when literacy was virtually below 50 per cent and poverty was rampant.

Gandhi emphasised his mission with two points. One, communal harmony and the other eradication of untouchability but he failed on both as he was looking for simpler solutions for these issues. The issues emerge from our prejudices and cannot be resolved through politically one-upmanship, patronising approach or a photo-op. For untouchability, he said that it was the ‘biggest’ sin of Hinduism but didn’t offer solutions for its removal. Will it go simply by calling it a son or will it go by other means. He felt that Hinduism was great. Untouchability is a sin but the caste system is wonderful. How is it possible that if the caste system, which is the root of untouchability could be considered as wonderful. Unlike Dr. Ambedkar, who wanted to challenge to the power of religious text and their sanctity, Gandhi silenced Ambedkar by saying that those who do not believe in the sanctity of Shastras can leave Hinduism and he would have no issue with their conversion to other religion.

Frankly speaking, Gandhi was a conservative do-gooder. He grew up in Gujarat and saw the surroundings. He was definitely not a ‘philosopher’ who could challenge primitive cultural values. He was a political leader who used different methods to engage people. These methods were oversimplified by his bhakts but nevertheless, I would say, Gandhi was honest in many things. He did not hide things unlike our politicians and intellectuals today. He never hid his religiosity as he believed in it.

One of the worst decisions of Gandhi was his behaviour towards Ambedkar during the round table conference. Gandhi was arrogantly humble when he denied Ambedkar the right to claim leadership of the untouchables. Gandhi wanted to claim all the rights for himself in terms of representation. We do understand that he wanted untouchables to remain a part of Hinduism and was doing his duty as a humble Hindu. Nothing wrong in that, but to deny a great intellectual belonging to the community, who suffered the pain of it, a right to speak for the vast untouchable community, was Gandhi’s biggest blunder.

His second blunder was the inability to accept his defeat at the Round Table Conference that gave untouchables rights for a separate settlement under the Communal Award in 1932. Gandhi fasted against it in Pune and compelled Ambedkar for a compromise which was the reason for a political reservation.

Gandhi today is not alive today because of what he wrote or did. He is alive because he created a mass movement all over the country. As I said, there were a number of Gandhians and others who associated with him. He guided them in doing vocational work, engagement with the community and more. Perhaps, that was his biggest power. His second biggest power was the creation of a responsible and accountable leadership. The Congress leaders might have their own religious and caste prejudices but they were broadly honest.

Gandhi’s historical hour was in Noakhali during the beginning of our freedom struggle when the nation saw a huge communal carnage and people killing each other. When the political class was engaged and sitting in Delhi, he walked in the streets of Noakhali and called for peace and togetherness.

Gandhi was killed by hatemongers who are enjoying power in his name. Remember, despite hatred, it was not Dalits, OBCs, Adivasis, Muslims who killed him, but a brahmin Nathuram Godse. It is these hatemongers who celebrate Gandhi’s killing because he talked of peace and harmony which was the biggest threat to those who harvest the crop of hatred.

Remember Gandhi for his power in bringing people together. His strength in speaking the truth. His strength is not hiding his religiosity and yet talking about equal rights for all. His strength in mass mobilisation and creating institutions. Mass movement as a big political movement is Gandhi’s power. And yet, don’t make him a god or a superhero. Learn from his failures too. Learning from failures provide us power and strength. Gandhi’s failure of not being able to challenge religious orthodoxy is costing the nation today.

The two issues he devoted his life to are threatening us even today. Caste system is alive and thriving and growing strength to strength. He believed that the Savarnas should take care of the untouchables but the savarnas have shown that they won’t change. They will continue to nurture their hatred and contempt against the Dalits. So, Gandhi definitely failed. He was trying to find a solution for untouchability from a religion which created it. Without challenging the brahmanical institutions you cannot bring any changes in India’s social system. Gandhi was a great man, an apostle of peace but he remained meek to brahmanical domination which is costing India heavily, even today.

The communal hatred against which he fought lifelong is now spread all over like a virus. We failed to handle it because on both the side, Gandhi promoted religious leadership and wanted them to sit together. Secularism became Hindu Muslim Sikh Isaai sitting together. All men who never wanted to challenge the authority of their ‘religions’. All men who were happy with their ‘personal laws’. All men who were not keen on independent voices of women. All men who were not keen on caste questions inside their religions. And the result is that this sarv-dharma secularism has become the biggest threat in our attempt to create a united India.

India is at the crossroads. It cannot be a one man’s idea. It has to be a collective consciousness. It must learn from all. It needs a constitutional morality today. This is the only way out. Let religion be just a personal affair. Let us not learn our moralities from religion. Gandhi actually addressed that constituency of people who take guidance from religious leaders, which is huge in India. Even today, Deras, Babas, Gurus are guiding our political parties. Will we challenge them? I am sure Gandhi would not have done so but his inability to challenge religious wrongs is costing us today.

Gandhi will live in India. Both for his great work as well as his dark sides. Let us remember that he accepted his faults too. He might not have been great or a giant but he died as a martyr and was killed by those, who paradoxically claim to hail the brahmanical values which Gandhi could not challenge all his life.

Gandhi was essentially a man of the masses. He got his strength by working and engaging with people. A man of great humour, Gandhi remained active until his assassination. But after his death, the work that people should have been doing was done by the government. Shoving Gandhism in our throat without ever questioning, made Gandhi a figure of hatred among many. Remember, as long as an icon is in the hands of people, he will be great and revered but when government and power try to appropriate him for their political purposes, there will be objections.

It is important for all of us to keep our icons out of the government control if we really wish to gain from their work and unite people against the forces of obscurantism and hatred. Always feel that these leaders were amidst political movement and taking decisions according to need and time, so remembering their differences and focussing on their basic values, we can move ahead. Whether Gandhi or any other icons, the biggest dangers to their values are the ‘bhakts’ who make them superheroes and any dissent of their values is considered as ‘anti-national’ or anti-people. Beware of bhakts.

Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a human rights defender and has recently published a book ‘Rise and Role of the marginalised in India’s freedom movement.’

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The AAP Dharna: Congress Party’s Silence Is Disturbing

Mon, 18 Jun 2018 08:20:11 +0000

I have never liked the rhetorical politics of Arvind Kejriwal. In fact the seed that they sow in 2011 resulted in the fascist take over of this country. Kejriwal wanted the country to become a gram panchayat at the Ramleela maidan and decisions were taken on the voice vote. All the power elite of the upper caste suddenly turned revolutionary. The patrakars, babus, professional activists, academics, lawyers, suddenly found that there is a ‘space’ for them to grab in the political parties. Anna Hazare wanted to be a ‘Gandhi’ while Kejriwal carefully was moving to fulfil his nurtured ambition. Though for a shorter period, media was even looking for him as Prime Minister of India, a new ‘revolutionary’ leader but we all know the damage was done. Modi was not Manmohan Singh and that is the thing. It is RSS that planted Aap but it went out of their hand because they had tested the popularity. There is not a big difference between the AAP cader and that of the BJP RSS. AAP became a party on a platform that was called India Against Corruption funded by the corrupt elite of this country whose sympathy were first towards the Sangh Parivar.

AAP was mandated to run the Delhi government and it was huge, perhaps one of the biggest one. But it is also a fact that Narendra Modi government did not want it to function independently. It was humiliated and files were not being cleared. The Delhi chief minister along with his other ministers were sitting on Dharna at the Lt Governor’s house but he refuse to meet them.

While we may disagree the politics of AAP but we have to acknowledge several factors. AAP has put tremendous pressure on political leaders to make their polity pro people but it also helped to create a golden halo around Narenda Modi, who is not bothered about people. He preach, pontificate and refuse to speak to common people but that is how Hindutvavadis would like him. They will criticise everyone else but Modi is their demigod. For Modi, it is easier to fight against Congress as Rahul Gandhi will be accused of 60 years rule, dynasty and so many things which he may not be responsible, but Modi cant really face Arvind Kejriwal who is perhaps more vociferous than Modi and can trash him on any given day. Those who want Modi Rahul debate live on TV should ask for Modi-Kejriwal debate or Modi-Lalu, Modi Mamta, Modi-Tejasvi or Modi-Akhilesh Yadav debate. Rahul Gandhi came to politics from a elite back ground and it has a plus point and a negative as he might not be too familiar with Sadak kee politics which these are expert in. Another plus is that Modi cant accuse Kejri of dynasty or even a bad administrator. I think two modules of Delhi government need to be appreciated in the past few years. They are, the attempt to improve the schooling and make it accessible to students from poor background and second the Mohalla clinic which is definitely appreciable.

Aam Aadmi Party has a solid network of dedicated activists and that is why it is still able to hold Delhi at any point of time. Congress unfortunately neither have these kind of activists who can stall Delhi for a day. The silence on part of Congress Party to the whole issue of the governance of Delhi is damaging. Rahul Gandhi should have issued a statement related to the issue of democratic right of a government to function. He may not agree and should not agree with AAP but he should clearly stand for democracy. Congress can not be selective in its approach. We all agree that Arvind Kejriwal has not done many things to be liked by all and the biggest damage is the current regime which is highly undemocratic but in politics we learn from the mistakes also and on certain issues speak on the issue and not individuals. If Congress had supported the Kejriwal Dharna against the undemocratic way of handling by the central government, it would have helped them gain some respect. They have isolated themselves.

It is true that Modi government has demolished all the institutions. It is strange to see that Congress treating it Kejriwal’s equations with the IAS lobby. I cant believe that a chief minister will beat up the chief secretary. This is utterly farcical. The Modi government has muzzled the bureaucracy and make it surrendered, changing its ideological positions but we have not heard a single press conference or a statement against unwanted and undue interferences by the government. We had all wanted that bureaucracy and other related services like IFS and IPS must remain under political control but without interfering in their working pattern or trying to instill communal ideology. That makes India in sharp contrast with America where even the intelligence agencies are independent and investigating the Russian link of President Trump.

Congress should not have ignored the plight of its chief minister V Narayanswamy in Pondicherry who is being humiliated by the Lt governor Kiran Bedi who could not win a single election and have still a grudge for not being able to become chief minister of Delhi. Kiran Bedi has not allowed an elected government to function independently. It is surprising that Congress remain quiet on the Puducherry issue which is almost same as that of Delhi as both the state are Union territories.

The crisis in Delhi is bigger in nature and about the issue federal structure of our country. Will an elected government be allowed to work independently or not ? Should a chief minister function under the stooge of Central government or work independently ? Long ago many political parties wanted the post of governors should be abrogated as it is a useless position wasting millions of rupees in their ‘shan-shaukat’. Just abolish them and ask them to live in smaller houses. Our democracy can not be an instrument to strengthen the feudal system but it is happening to ‘revive’ the fortunes of ‘dedicated’ cadres who can’t be taken as ministers but can be placed to disturb the elected governments from working independently.

The center must initiate the process and allow the government to function. Arvind Kejriwal is good with his cader. His popularity was shrinking but this incident has provided him an opportunity to revive his clout or jadu as his bhakt say. Modi has not brought any positive values to him with this episode. In fact, Delhi’s protest in 2012 and 2013 became the reason of the downfall of the Man Mohan Singh government. We blamed Arvind Kejriwal for bringing Modi. Will he paying his debt now by becoming instrumental in downfall of the Modi government in 2019 ? It looks possible given the nature political parties reacting to his Dharna. Congress should show magnanimity as well as statesmanship that the issue here in Delhi is not personal but autonomy of the institution. Do they support the autonomy of the institution of the Chief Minister or not ? Arvind Kejriwal may have misbehaved with Chief Secretary or the viceversa and an investigation can be done for that but people of Delhi can not be allowed to suffer due to this.

Let Congress rise above the narrow partisan interests and strengthen the forces opposing BJP and its vicious communal agenda to defeat them in 2019. Delhi will rise up again and ignite the people’s movement against onslaught on our autonomous institutions including the federal structure of the country. Some time, a small defeat help you win the bigger cause. Congress must learn that as it has bigger responsibility to unite all the opposition parties and defeat the BJP. Will it be able to rise up from its narrow partisan interest ?

This article was first published on Countercurrents.org.

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