Region 
 

New Delhi

Falling Titan

Days of glory for the Indian National Congress party are now over.

By Salis Malik | January 2022


Once hailed as a political powerhouse, the Indian National Congress has now been reduced to a shadow of its former glory. The party that once trounced the opposition and transmuted the Indian political landscape, has now slowly been traversing on the cusp of extinction when it comes to popularity. Surely, even titans eventually fall and the Indian National Congress is no exception, The party was hurled down the “Tartarus” of unpopularity. Several factors contribute to the demise of this great political titan. These determinants are not an overnight cause but have trickled down throughout the decades, slowly eroding the Congress’s political might.

When analyzing the decline of the Congress, we need to address the elephant in the room first – the legitimacy of just the Gandhi clan to rule the party. This conjectured legitimacy proves to be the real nucleus of all the problems the party is facing. In a nutshell, it is very likely that the upper echelons of the party and the Indian electorate supportive of Congress, would not actually accept a non-Gandhi rule. With that in mind, we should realize how ineffective the Gandhi family has been as leaders of the party. With Rahul and Sonia Gandhi assuming and switching control due to the inability of both leaders for stopping the divide within their own ranks, the drift within the Congress seems to be painting a bleak picture for any future success.

When Rahul Gandhi took over the helm as the Congress President in 2017, succeeding Sonia Gandhi, party workers and political leaders of the Congress believed that Rahul Gandhi would help them get back on their feet after the perturbing loss in 2014. However, instead of bringing forth a renaissance within the party ranks, the Congress suffered a series of losses under Rahul’s stint and he eventually resigned after failing to topple the might of the BJP in 2019. While Rahul did try to oppose Modi’s Hindutva ideology with his party’s “big tent” mindset and civic nationalism but this opposition was only restricted to just social media and press conferences and not any actual initiative. The ineffectiveness of the Gandhi family can be seen from the fact that they couldn’t even capitalize over a string of BJP’ fiascos; their mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic, the long farmers’ agitation over farm laws, the Rafale aircraft deal scam, the staggering unemployment in the country and the perpetually increasing petrol, diesel and gas prices. The Congress couldn’t even effectively capitalize on a single issue.


The reason can be seen in the crevices within the party. The members are afflicted with an ideological confusion – different leaders of the party have different views for the same issue. For example, the scrapping of Article 370. A veteran leader of Congress and a Gandhi clan loyalist, Janardan Dwivedi, voiced support for the government’s action. This support was a complete departure from what other Congress leaders had in mind. The party leaders have a tendency to share different opinions in public. This lack of consistency and dynamism is the reason why the Congress feels like its desperately trying to become a Modi-free BJP. This is also the reason why neither the opposition nor the public takes Congress seriously or considers them as a viable alternative for future elections.

Another reason for the downfall of India’s oldest political body is the recent desertions in droves. It is rather ludicrous to see that how much the party has been battered by a number of desertions and this seems to be a never-ending affair. The most recent desertions took place in November when 12 of the 17 MLAs of Congress joined Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in the Meghalaya Assembly. This raises some serious questions over their leadership’s strategy. With Congress being at the receiving end of several blows of poaching from BJP during multiple state elections, the Trinamool Congress has also run amok over the Congress, poaching members from the Grand Old Party and breaching its rank and file in the Northeast. With a lack of strong leadership, Congress now seems to be facing an insurmountable uphill battle of staying in relevance in this region. After the loss from BJP when Congress lost a majority of its constituencies, the Grand Old Party was aiming to make a comeback in the Northeast. This dream, however, has been cut short by the Trinamool Congress.

With all of this happening, it is tough to say if Congress could keep its relevance in national politics. While it is quite clear that no other party can easily oust BJP, it has become difficult for Congress to even be the second-best party of India with Mamata Banerjee’s party creeping up behind Congress’ tail and broadening its influence outside West Bengal. If this keeps going on, the titans of Indian politics will surely fall deeper in the abyss.

Read More