"Multiple Chanakyas are advising the prince. The trouble is, there is only one prince. A problem that Machiavelli and Kautilya never faced. Plus, their respective Princes were able," says a senior Congress leader about the meltdown set off by Digvijaya Singh, 78, the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. Singh, a master politician, recently threw a gauntlet at Rahul Gandhi through a social media post, in which he praised the organisational strength of the RSS and even tagged everyone from Rahul, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Singh then attended the last Congress Working Committee meeting and made the same point in person. There, he was heard in utter silence, with his intervention espousing no comments from the audience.
I spoke to a cross-section of Congress leaders before writing this column - both the rebels who want change in the party and the coterie to Rahul Gandhi who want status quo. The biggest takeaway is that Rahul cannot avoid a change if he continues to be unavailable and elusive. The last five days of the winter session, Rahul, despite being the leader of opposition, chose to be in Germany to address the diaspora instead of taking up pressing issues such as the air pollution in Delhi, a state the Congress once ruled and where it has now been reduced to zero. The decentralisation and the lack of organisation that Singh underlined in his CWC address is unexceptionable. It is a point that any objective observer would agree with.
A Warning For Venugopal?
This also points to KC Venugopal, the General Secretary in charge of organisation, who has reduced the Congress party organisation to a hollow shell with state units almost out of business. Many say that is because Venugopal doesn't allow state leaders to make decisions while endlessly dithering on decisions himself. In fact, the chorus for his ouster is only growing. Venugopal survives on Gandhi's patronage as his chief palace courtier. But he's no Ahmed Patel, who performed a similar role for Sonia Gandhi and was indispensable for the party.
The question now is what lies in store for Venugopal. Will he get his dream job as the Congress face in the upcoming Kerala elections, or will he be kicked upstairs to some meaningless office? It may not be a stretch to say that Singh, in fact, was basically targeting Venugopal through his social media post, and by tagging Priyanka Gandhi Vadra publicly, he was seeking her intervention in the party's sorry state of affairs.
Sources close to Singh say that speculation, especially from within the Congress, that Singh is leaning towards the BJP-RSS is laughable. Sure he has been provocative, but his praise, they say, was nuanced and limited to the organisational discipline of the RSS. "They have created the largest political party in the world. The most formidable election winning machine and the biggest war chest. Only a blind person would not seek to emulate it in politics," said a source. This is a valid point. In contrast to such a robust organisation, Gandhi comes across as a leader who has romanticised electoral defeat with his constant pitch of "vote chori".
Sources close to Singh also scoff at suggestions that the provocation for the tweet was the fact that he wants a new term in the Rajya Sabha. "Singh was a mass leader. He literally poisoned his own roots to come to Delhi and became Gandhi's counsellor. Yet, Gandhi, for reasons unknown, discarded him and fell for the comfort of his palace courtiers. Singh proved with his Narmada Yatra that he still has it in him to do mass politics, touching every district in Madhya Pradesh. He wants a say in the state and a bright future for his son Jaivardhan Singh. Is that a crime? It can only happen when the Congress does well."
Take Responsibility
From the row between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar in Karnataka, to the sidelining of leaders like Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari, to replacing the leadership in Rajasthan, Gandhi can no longer continue evading responsibility. Against this background, the public praise for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra can be seen as a cry for help from the party.
Party leaders want Rahul to go back to bread and butter issues to take on the BJP. Instead, the issues he has taken up so far, such as "vote chori", "surrender Modi", have failed to get any traction. "The Trinamool Congress protested the removal of MGNREGA, the Congress' flagship scheme, much more than the Congress in Parliament. They held an all-night dharna. What did we do?" a Congress leader said.
For now, all eyes are on the Rajya Sabha picks to see whether Rahul Gandhi has paid any heed to the discontent brewing within his party. If the usual palace guard makes the cut and there is no organisational overhaul, expect a mega meltdown. Evasion of responsibility isn't an option for the Congress top brass anymore.
(The author is a senior journalist)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
