Launching a blistering attack against former Congress President Rahul Gandhi in his five-page resignation letter, Ghulam Nabi Azad ended by remarking sarcastically that before embarking on a Bharat Jodo Yatra, the leadership should have undertaken a “Congress jodo” exercise across India.
Azad may have his personal reasons for this diatribe against the Gandhis, but it cannot be denied that there is some merit in his final piece of ‘advice’ to Sonia Gandhi. The fact is that there is a complete communication breakdown in the Congress. The leadership has not just lost connect with the ‘aam aadmi’, but is also disconnected from its own colleagues and cadre.
This is not a recent phenomenon, but one that has been building up over the past several years, particularly after Rahul Gandhi started exercising control over the party organisation, first in his capacity as party Vice-President and President and subsequently under the presidency of Sonia Gandhi who delegated all decision-making powers to him.
The constant refrain heard in the Congress, whether it is from senior leaders or the party’s foot soldiers, is that Rahul Gandhi is inaccessible, and that the Nehru-Gandhi scion’s team of advisers, derisively described by Azad as “his security guards and PAs”, has thrown a protective ring around him, making it impossible to meet him.
The fact that Rahul Gandhi is frequently abroad has made it doubly difficult for party members to meet with him. The result is that he gets virtually no feedback from party office bearers or from the cadre, and remains wholly dependent on the advice of his coterie or “non-political” advisers as they are often called.
It is no secret that the Congress was a discredited force when Rahul Gandhi took over. But at a time when the party’s footprint was continuously shrinking, its organisation was virtually non-existent, and when the party was battling a formidable opponent like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it was imperative for the leadership to keep its flock together and motivated. But, instead of building bridges with leaders having organisational skills and a mass connect, Rahul Gandhi chose to sequester himself with his group of advisers. Even when Rahul Gandhi did make himself available to party members, they complained he was not sufficiently focused, and that the interactions were brief and perfunctory.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, formerly with the Congress, has narrated several times about how Rahul Gandhi was busy playing with his dogs when he met him for redress of his grievances after weeks of waiting. With no effort made to placate him, Sarma subsequently joined the BJP and went on to uproot the Congress in the entire Northeast.
Unlike Sarma, Azad is essentially a Delhi durbari. But he has been Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and does wield a degree of influence in his home state. Azad may not have the capacity to win an election but he does have the potential to damage the party in Jammu and Kashmir as testified by the string of resignations which followed his exit from the party.
Then there’s the case of Jyotiraditya Scindia. He too was viewed as a political lightweight who lacked the necessary clout in Madhya Pradesh to harm the party. But Rahul Gandhi obviously underestimated Scindia who may not have a mass following across his home state, but obviously had sufficient influence to pull down the Kamal Nath government.
As in the case of Sarma and Azad, the Congress leadership could have saved the situation had it bothered to make time to give Scindia a hearing. When the Madhya Pradesh leader snapped ties with the Congress, Rahul Gandhi had gone on record to say that Scindia was among those who could walk into his house any time. However, the reality is that Scindia, who had a string of complaints about senior leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh, made repeated attempts over several months to meet Rahul Gandhi, but was forestalled by his trusted lieutenants. Eventually when he did manage to have a telephonic word with Rahul Gandhi, Scindia was advised to meet Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi’s personal prejudices against senior leaders, overdependence on his coterie, and the lack of wider consultations has led him to make wrong choices more than once. His poor political judgement was evident from the humiliating manner in which Amarinder Singh was sacked as Punjab Chief Minister on election-eve, and Navjot Singh Sidhu appointed state party chief, which proved disastrous for the Congress. Similarly, the appointment of a Dalit (Charanjit Singh Channi) as Chief Minister, which Rahul Gandhi believed was a masterstroke, only reflected a lack of feedback and a poor understanding of the political situation in Punjab.
Having failed spectacularly in keeping its flock intact, the Congress leadership faces its next big test in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where its respective Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel are locked in a running feud with their colleagues Sachin Pilot and TS Singh Deo. If the leadership fails to bring about a compromise between the warring parties, it could end up losing Pilot and Deo who do boast of a degree of influence in their home states.