Ghulam Nabi Azad’s decision to walk out of the Congress was not wholly unexpected. In fact back as in late January. That Azad was unhappy was evident when he joined other dissenting party colleagues two years ago in dashing off a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi demanding an organisational overhaul, a more effective leadership and internal elections in the party.
The Denial of Rajhya Sabha Seat further added to Azad’s frustration and it soon became clear that the veteran was looking at options outside the Congress.
When Azad finally did choose to call it quits on Friday, he made sure he did so with a bang. The furious leader penned a five-page letter to the Congress president in which he launched a scathing attack against Rahul Gandhi. Describing the Nehru-Gandhi scion as “childish and immature”, Azad charged that Rahul Gandhi had singlehandedly demolished “the consultative mechanism within the party”. He further lashed out at the former Congress president for publicly tearing a copy of an ordinance approved by the then Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, stating that “this one single action more than anything else contributed significantly to the defeat of the UPA government in 2014”. He also recalled how Rahul Gandhi had insulted senior party functionaries at an internal meeting when he stepped down in a huff three years ago.
Though Rahul Gandhi was the target of his attack, Azad also took a swipe at Sonia Gandhi, pointing out that she was serving as a nominal figurehead and that all decisions are being taken by Rahul Gandhi or “worse still his security guards and personal assistants”. Placing the blame on Sonia Gandhi for the current drift in the party, Azad said the Congress had lost elections in a humiliating manner under her stewardship and that the party has now reached a point of no return. Azad also hit out at the Congress leadership for not holding internal elections in the party and described the ongoing organisational polls as a “sham and giant fraud”.
Azad’s angry tirade has successfully put the spotlight once again on all that is ailing the Congress. Issues that were, so far, being discussed in hushed tones in private conversations among frustrated party leaders, are now out in the open. The fact that such a searing letter has been written by a senior leader, who was associated with the party for 50 years, held key positions both in the organisation and successive Congress governments and was considered a diehard loyalist, points to the deep rot in the party.
For there is no denying that there is an element of truth in what Azad has to say.
In critiquing Rahul Gandhi, Azad has expressed the sentiment of a large section in the Congress that is disillusioned with the Gandhi scion’s style of functioning and who are increasingly convinced he does not possess the necessary skillsets to lead the party.
Rahul Gandhi’s inaccessibility, frequent travels abroad, his perceived lack of urgency in streamlining the organisation, and, most importantly, his poor oratory and inability to win elections has added to the frustration in the party rank and file. Questions have also been raised about his inept handling of political crisises as proved recently in Punjab when his decision to sack Amarinder Singh and hand over the party’s reins in the state to Navjot Singh Sidhu proved disastrous for the party.
With little or no effort being made by the leadership to put its house in order, the Congress organisation today is in poor shape, the party’s state units are mired in factional battles while the rank and file has lost all connection with the common man. The uncertainty on the leadership front – with Rahul Gandhi unwilling to lead the party and Sonia Gandhi’s inability to continue as Congress chief due to health reasons – has only worsened matters.
The former Congress president’s disdain for senior leaders, who he believes are responsible for the party’s steady decline, has led him to surround himself with persons described in Congress circles as “non-political”. Instead of reaching out to the old guard and working on a smooth generational transition, Rahul Gandhi only succeeded in widening the gap between “Sonia loyalists” and his proteges. It’s a different matter that several young leaders, once dubbed as core members of Rahul Gandhi’s team, were among the first to leave the Congress.
Though Rahul Gandhi is presently in the line of fire, Sonia Gandhi is equally responsible for the current state of the Congress. Undoubtedly, she led the party to two successive electoral victories in 2004 and 2009 but it is also an inescapable fact that instead of building and strengthening the organisation during the ten years the Congress was in power, she neglected the party organisation. Her desire to hand over the Congress leadership to her son has cost the party dearly.
But for all the home truths which have been listed by Azad, they will not be taken with the seriousness they deserve. This stems from the senior leader’s own credibility. If Azad is today hitting out at the “darbari” culture in the Congress, he will be reminded that he was very much part of it over the 50 years he spent in the Congress, working with virtually all Prime Ministers, beginning with Indira Gandhi. He has served as Union minister in all their Cabinets, has been entrusted with key responsibilities in the Congress organisation and was appointed Jammu and Kashmir chief minister.
Consequently, Azad’s rant against sycophancy as well as the lack of internal democracy in the Congress, has a hollow ring to it. Azad has been a senior member of the coterie of every Congress leader when the party was in power. Moreover, he has been a beneficiary of the party’s convention of nominating leaders to the various organisational panels. It is also ironic that Azad woke up to the drift in the Congress eight years after the party has been out of power. And only when the party denied him another term in the Rajya Sabha.
But despite all this, the interests of the Congress leadership would be better served if instead of hitting out at Azad, it took note of the issues raised by him in his letter and initiated urgent steps to revive the party. But predictably, the party refuses to learn from its mistakes.
