July
03, 2019 | Courtesy: Rediff News
Whether Rahul likes it or not, he will be judged by what he
does to put the party back on its feet, says Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
Is Rahul
Gandhi president of the Congress party or not?
He seems to continue to be the Congress chief
though he does not seem to think so.
Rahul Gandhi's anomalous status as Congress
president fits in with Saiva Siddhanta philosophy's comparison of the ideal
state of our existence to worldly happenings to that of a tamarind fruit.
While the fruit continues to be inside the
shell, it remains unaffected as it is not attached to it.
Rahul Gandhi became party president in 2017
after a great deal of reluctance and four-year experience as vice-president, a
position established for him.
Apparently, his tenure as party vice-president
did not endear him to ageing regional satraps because Rahul's sporadic
tinkering with the Congress 'formula' of working excluded them.
But they had the last laugh because his
successive failures reinforced their relevance to the party, much like the
preference for an old shoe when a new shoe chafes the foot.
After the Lok Sabha election debacle, at the Congress
Working Committee meeting on May 25, Rahul offered to step down from his post,
taking moral responsibility for the party's abysmal performance in the Lok
Sabha election.
It is important to note he did not
resign. He had also lamented that senior leaders Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot
had preferred to keep the interests of their sons over those of the party.
Of course, as it was an offer to resign and not a
resignation, it was convenient for the CWC to reject the proposal.
However, Rahul has continued to be adamant on quitting the
leadership of the party. He said he took the decision to ensure accountability
for the party's Lok Sabha poll debacle.
'I have resigned after taking full responsibility and
ensuring accountability for the party's defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. I
cannot ask others to resign too. It is up to them if they want to take
responsibility,' he said.
Though Rahul's threat to quit created a
domino effect with several leaders tendering their resignations, the old guard
must have the last laugh. They have seen it all every time when a Gandhi scion
was involved in such a situation.
Now two regional satraps -- Ashok
Gehlot in Rajasthan and Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh back in power as chief
minister -- stand as proof their time tested Congress ‘formula’ had worked
better, at least at the state level, than Rahul’s new-fangled (a the
gerontocracy in the Congress leadership view it) penchant for an AI-based
approach to elections.
In spite of this, the two senior leaders have
persisted with the demand to persuade Rahul to continue as Congress president.
They would rather have a Gandhi scion as president, regardless of his desire,
rather than see one among them getting on the Congress gaddi.
To the Congress 'family' -- the diminishing
number of adulatory followers who follow the Shinto traditions of family
worship -- any Gandhi was better than any one of their own leaders.
However, the Lok Sabha drubbing has shown the
old guard's time tested 'formula' talk of secularism and equity for all has
been all but submerged by predatory corruption and cronyism. Rahul's new
formula based on data has also not worked.
The party must recognise the Congress collapse was only
hastened by Narendra Damodardas Modi's offer of a new narrative the masses
could relate to.
Rahul reminds one of 'the Reluctant Peer' Anthony Wedgewood
Benn, member of the House of Lords. Averse to his hereditary title of Lord
Stansgate, Tony Benn hurriedly filed his disclaimer to the hereditary title the
moment the peerage bill received royal assent on July 31, 1963.
Apparently, Rahul is neither Tony Benn and nor has the
Congress royalty given its assent for him to quit. So Rahul continues to be the
Reluctant President of the Grand Old Party.
Immediately after the election results
were announced, Rahul put up a brave face and went on a victory parade in
Wayanad. He did not waste time to ponder over his defeat in Amethi, his pocket
borough, by Smriti Irani. Had he done so, he would have done some honest soul
searching to understand the nature of the Congress party's pathetic
performance.
Rahul is likely to defer to the wishes of the delegation of
Congress chief ministers converging in New Delhi to persuade him to continue,
which should bring the 'reluctant president' episode to a close.
The sad truth is the Grand Old Party,
shorn of its last vestiges of grandeur, looks fit to be admitted in a hospice.
Whether Rahul likes it or not, whether he has a working
president or any other alternate arrangement or not, he will be judged by what
he does to put the party back on its feet.
Running down Prime Minister Modi is definitely not the way
to do it because the Congress has not only to offer a new narrative, but market
it to a new audience.
Elections are no more what they were in grandma Indira's
days. The party suffers on two counts: Self-inflicted injuries by well
entrenched vested interests masquerading as leaders; and losing touch with the
dynamics of change among voters.
As many Opposition leaders have acknowledged, the Congress
failed because it could not sell the idea that the voter would get a better
deal by voting the party to power.
So Rahul the leader, reluctant or otherwise, has to
strategise marketing the repackaged Congress to the next gen, which decides
losers and winners.
They may live in rural or urban areas, but are all mobile
savvy to size up politicians and parties and by and large make up their own mind.
Of course, the power of money, muscle and caste do help win
elections; but Modi's success has shown that they alone can't achieve it.
Though Rahul had tried to paint an
unflattering picture of big business, he can benefit from their marketing
wisdom.
For a start, the leadership can read up marketing messiah
Philip Kotler's fourth iteration -- Marketing 4.0 -- on new marketing
strategies. It is based on observation and analysis of the paradoxes in view of
the digital technology boom.
While marketing political parties to the voter in the
digital age, neither data analysis alone nor old formulas by itself would work.
Leaders will have to understand how online meets offline,
why style must be complemented with substance, and why Machine to Machine is
incomplete without Human to Human.
The key words are technology and substance as much as human
to human.
Colonel R Hariharan (retd) served
as executive director of the Madras Management Association. He has been a
corporate trainer for more than a decade.
No comments:
Post a Comment