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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Congress’ solo path for ‘ideological survival’

Mumbai: The Congress party’s decision to contest the forthcoming BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections independently is being viewed as an attempt to reclaim its ideological space among the public and restore credibility within its cadre, senior leaders indicated. The announcement - made by AICC General Secretary Ramesh Chennithala alongside state president Harshwardhan Sapkal and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad - did not trigger a backlash from the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi...

Congress’ solo path for ‘ideological survival’

Mumbai: The Congress party’s decision to contest the forthcoming BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections independently is being viewed as an attempt to reclaim its ideological space among the public and restore credibility within its cadre, senior leaders indicated. The announcement - made by AICC General Secretary Ramesh Chennithala alongside state president Harshwardhan Sapkal and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad - did not trigger a backlash from the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners, the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT). According to Congress insiders, the move is the outcome of more than a year of intense internal consultations following the party’ dismal performance in the 2024 Assembly elections, belying huge expectations. A broad consensus reportedly emerged that the party should chart a “lone-wolf” course to safeguard the core ideals of Congress, turning140-years-old, next month. State and Mumbai-level Congress leaders, speaking off the record, said that although the party gained momentum in the 2019 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was frequently constrained by alliance compulsions. Several MVA partners, they claimed, remained unyielding on larger ideological and political issues. “The Congress had to compromise repeatedly and soften its position, but endured it as part of ‘alliance dharma’. Others did not reciprocate in the same spirit. They made unilateral announcements and declared candidates or policies without consensus,” a senior state leader remarked. Avoid liabilities He added that some alliance-backed candidates later proved to be liabilities. Many either lost narrowly or, even after winning with the support of Congress workers, defected to Mahayuti constituents - the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, or the Nationalist Congress Party. “More than five dozen such desertions have taken place so far, which is unethical, backstabbing the voters and a waste of all our efforts,” he rued. A Mumbai office-bearer elaborated that in certain constituencies, Congress workers effectively propelled weak allied candidates through the campaign. “Our assessment is that post-split, some partners have alienated their grassroots base, especially in the mofussil regions. They increasingly rely on Congress workers. This is causing disillusionment among our cadre, who see deserving leaders being sidelined and organisational growth stagnating,” he said. Chennithala’s declaration on Saturday was unambiguous: “We will contest all 227 seats independently in the BMC polls. This is the demand of our leaders and workers - to go alone in the civic elections.” Gaikwad added that the Congress is a “cultured and respectable party” that cannot ally with just anyone—a subtle reference to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which had earlier targeted North Indians and other communities and is now bidding for an electoral arrangement with the SS(UBT). Both state and city leaders reiterated that barring the BMC elections - where the Congress will take the ‘ekla chalo’ route - the MVA alliance remains intact. This is despite the sharp criticism recently levelled at the Congress by senior SS(UBT) leader Ambadas Danve following the Bihar results. “We are confident that secular-minded voters will support the Congress' fight against the BJP-RSS in local body elections. We welcome backing from like-minded parties and hope to finalize understandings with some soon,” a state functionary hinted. Meanwhile, Chennithala’s firm stance has triggered speculation in political circles about whether the Congress’ informal ‘black-sheep' policy vis-a-vis certain parties will extend beyond the BMC polls.

India Insulted

When Rahul Gandhi travels abroad, one can be certain of two things: he will avoid wishing Indians on their festivals, and he will revel in trashing his own country. His most recent stop at a Colombian university followed the same tired script. He told students there that the RSS-BJP ideology was rooted in cowardice, and that India’s institutions were under siege. His audience clapped politely. Back home, 140 crore Indians saw a politician gleefully dragging his nation through the mud on foreign soil.


This bashing India abroad has become the Congress scion’s trademark political style. The playbook is to denigrate India overseas, flatter himself as a truth-teller and the shining upholder of ‘secularist’ values - which usually means denigrating Hinduism to appease the Congress’ minority votebank - and bask in applause from left-liberal echo chambers. In Bogotá, as earlier in London and Washington, he repeated the hackneyed story of how Indian democracy is collapsing and its minorities are under threat. It is an old trick to seek validation abroad when none is forthcoming at home.


The BJP’s branding of Gandhi as “Leader of Propaganda” hits the mark. What Gandhi supplies to hostile lobbies abroad is not constructive criticism, but soundbites designed to weaken India’s global standing. He could have greeted his countrymen on Vijayadashami, a day marking the triumph of good over evil. Instead, he chose to play the villain, presenting India as a broken state to foreign audiences who neither know nor care about the country’s democratic vibrancy.


The irony is breathtaking. The Gandhi dynasty presided over some of India’s darkest chapters. If democracy ever faced real danger, it was under Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, when citizens were jailed, the press silenced, and the Constitution shredded. If institutions were weakened, it was under decades of Congress patronage politics, cronyism and dynastic arrogance. Yet Rahul Gandhi, the heir of that legacy, now postures as the defender of democracy.


The truth is more banal. Rahul Gandhi cannot stomach India’s rise. While the world hails India as a $4-trillion economy and a rising power, he sulks. While Narendra Modi is courted in Washington, Paris and Tokyo, he lectures in Bogotá about India’s supposed decay.


Even foreign voices are losing patience. Raymond Vickery, a former US official, advised Indian politicians to speak in favour of their country’s values overseas. Gandhi does the opposite. He feeds a narrative useful to India’s adversaries - that the country is unstable, undemocratic, and divided. He has become not Leader of the Opposition, but Leader of Opposing Bharat.


In his sojourns abroad, Gandhi offers a caricature: India as dictatorship, Indians as dupes and himself as saviour.


Posterity will not remember Rahul Gandhi as a constructive leader who did his bit for strengthening Indian democracy. It will remember a platinum-spooned dynast who, every time India surged ahead, went abroad to sneer at his motherland and get a few claps from foreign audiences.

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