Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Dynasty politics will ruin Congress' that was published in Newsband

Dynasty politics will ruin Congress

The Congress party can be revived only by setting aside its obsession with dynasty politics and returning to its ideological roots. Otherwise, its days are numbered.

The reasons for this decline are the deep-rooted culture of sycophancy within the party and the lack of an ideological backbone. The sycophantic culture had become so deep-rooted within the Congress that it was impossible for its leaders to even consider appointing a person who did not belong to the Gandhi family as Prime Minister.

The fact that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi did not see the writing on the wall after the 2014 debacle and relinquish the leadership of the party was less a reflection of their political naiveté than their desire to control the party at all cost for their benefit.

Now that the 2019 election has ratified the 2014 verdict, with Rahul Gandhi losing his Amethi seat, it is time that all members of the Gandhi family resign from their party positions for the greater good of the party.

Indira Gandhi, unabashedly used the “Hindu card” to return to power in 1980. Rajiv Gandhi engaged in dual appeasement. The Congress learnt from the 2014 defeat that Hindutva sells and that it if you cannot beat the Hindu nationalists, you should join them. Rahul Gandhi attempted to project himself as a janeudhari Brahmin and visited umpteen temples in the countdown to State and national elections in the past two years. Terms such as ‘secularism’, ‘minorities’ and ‘lynching’ disappeared totally from the Congress rhetoric in the run-up to the 2019 elections.

The only way the Congress can try to rejuvenate itself is by discarding its sycophantic culture, ditching the ‘dynasty’ for good, re-instituting inner-party democracy. If it does not do this, it will find itself relegated to the dustbin of history.

Congress need to do lot of introspection. They must understand on what principles this party was formed. The Gandhi family themselves are their own sycophants. What's stopping Rahul and company from stepping out and staying clear for a few years? A rudderless ship? Scared that their grandfather's party will wither away? If so, so be it. Every other national party has done that.