Congress needs renewal. Not a cult leader
In her weekly column for 'Indian Express', Tavleen Singh writes ---
"I find Modi and Yogi’s endless promotion of themselves on news channels embarrassing" -- but she says something known to many in the Congress party.
"I have no ‘hatred’ for the Dynasty, but believe that by putting the interests of her children above the interests of Congress, Sonia Gandhi has ruined the only political party that can take on the BJP juggernaut. As for being a Modi ‘bhakt’, I have not been one for years," writes Tavleen.
"An analytical critique of the Congress Party's contemporary electoral strategy. Moving beyond toxic social media ecosystem dynamics, the assessment explores the vital need for structural, grassroots organizational rebuilding over political image-burnishing ahead of the crucial upcoming assembly and general elections," she says.
On the eve of Rahul Gandhi’s birthday last week, I incurred the rage of his social media fan club. And for the oddest reason.
She says, "It impressed me that the Leader of the Opposition made the effort to go to Kota and address a huge rally of students about the needless difficulties they have faced with paper leaks and an education system so lousy that coaching centres have replaced colleges. So, when a clip of him standing before a vast cheering crowd popped up, I paid attention and was surprised that his speech was in English."
She wanted such a speech in Hindi and it made sense because the Congress needs 'national revival' and that actually means rebooting the Congress approach to politics in the cow belt.
She maintains a critical stance against Modi and Yogi Adityanath and notes:
"Their habit of singing their own praise is reminiscent of the north Korea model of governance."
"It is my sincere hope that the Congress Party finds ways to strengthen its roots enough to put up a real fight in Uttar Pradesh next year and in the general election in 2029.
For this to happen, Rahul Gandhi needs to stop imitating the worst traits of the BJP and copy the best ones.
The worst traits include deploying venomous, vicious trolls on social media and creating a cult around the ‘dear Leader.’
Judging from two things I noticed on Rahul’s birthday, it is evident that emulation of BJP worst practices has already happened.
"Rahul was depicted as Parshuram in a Bollywood style poster on his birthday, and sent a greeting card of nauseating sycophancy by the Karnataka Congress Party."
Tavleen argues:
"If the Congress Party has lost election after election after election in the past twelve years, it is because too much time has been spent burnishing the image of the ‘dear leader’ and not enough spent on building the party.
There are millions of Indian voters who are tired of the Modi cult and would happily vote for the Congress Party if it revived.
Revival must begin at the grassroots, and that is the hard work that has not been done. this is work that the BJP does on a constant basis, and this is why it is such a formidable electoral machine".
"The most important lesson that Rahul can learn from Modi is his ability to rectify his mistakes and then erase them as if they never happened.
This happened with demonetisation and the disastrous early handling of the COVID epidemic.
"The Congress Party has made many mistakes too, which BJP spokesmen bring up daily on prime time chat shows. Congress spokespersons have learned to fight back on TV and on social media, but what has not happened at all is a serious attempt to rebuild the party’s broken organisational frame brick by brick and with urgency."
ends
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