The grand old party is witnessing a major ideological churn within. Among the three competing beliefs within the present-day Congress are the old Nehruvian, socialist-secular thinking, 1991 ‘LPG' (Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation) and civil society's political philosophy of having a greater space for individuals to organise themselves freely, without state control, build capacities, moral beliefs, while still adhering to public principles of justice and public reason.
Interestingly, the third political ideology based on principles of civil society gained currency during the Sonia Gandhi-led UPA (National Advisory Council) year. Today, it is thriving and has almost taken over the party organisation under Rahul Gandhi. Civil society protagonists who call themselves the ‘Jai Jagat' group have several visible imprints. They enjoy proximity to Rahul (being the leader of opposition's eyes and ears) holding several key posts and positions, and now eyeing Rajya Sabha berths.
Plain Living
Lateral entry, plain living and lofty principles are hallmarks of the ‘Jai Jagat', group but party leaders who have risen from the ranks tell a different story about these worthies. According to ‘hard boiled' and ‘worldly wise' Congressmen, modest living, or minimalist lifestyle is just a smokescreen meant to impress Rahul Gandhi. In the Congress palace intrigue, stories of diet coke and bicycles and train yatras are doing the rounds. Apparently, an All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionary who uses the ‘karyakarta' tag to describe her status as in-charge of a Congress-ruled state feigned ignorance when a can of 'Diet Coke' was offered to her by Rahul Gandhi. As she fumbled with the can, apparently not knowing how to open it, Rahul looked on in sheer amusement. He then readily helped her, but not without admiring her frugal and spartan life having not opened a can! The same functionary is said to have a preference for travelling by train even if it means a journey time of 21 to 29 hours between Delhi and Hyderabad. Yet another party leader shares that way of life. That's not all, two of Rahul's most trusted aides holding responsible positions in the AICC secretariat apparently do not own cars. They bicycle their way to work.
The Jai Jagat group is reportedly now in control of several key posts and positions as in charge of some key states and important organisational posts. They are now eyeing the office of the AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation, aka ‘GSO', currently held by KC Venugopal.
The Rise Of Shashikant Senthil
On more substantive terms, Congress insiders point to the rise of Shashikant Senthil, a former IAS officer. Senthil was an IAS officer until 2019 who, like Kannan Gopinathan, had quit the service after the abrogation of Article 370 and the Narendra Modi government's promulgation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Following his resignation, Senthil briefly worked with some NGOs and then formally joined the Congress Party. Unassuming, kind-hearted and extremely patient, Senthil, in his resignation letter of 2019, had said, “It is unethical for me to continue as a civil servant in the government when the fundamental building blocks of our diverse democracy are being compromised in an unprecedented manner. I also feel strongly that the coming days will present extremely difficult challenges to the basic fabric of our nation and that I would be better off outside the IAS to continue with my work at making life better for all.”
In a series of interviews, Senthil had stated, “According to me, my resignation was an act of patriotism. Sitting quietly when fascism rears its head is an act of treason.”
Today, Senthil's political journey has been meteoric. He heads the AICC's central war room at 17, Gurudwara Rakabgunj Road (GRG), New Delhi, planning and strategising for most elections. In effect, Senthil and his team consist of Shashank, Saurabh Bajpai, Rajesh and a few others who hail from civil society. Senthil rose during the 2023 Karnataka state assembly polls when even Rahul Gandhi and DK Shivakumar used to drop in at his office to discuss poll strategies. Senthil then moved to Rajasthan during the 2023 state assembly polls. Once again, his office saw top party leadership making a beeline to meet him. Senthil supposedly had a role in the Congress success in Telangana assembly polls. At present, he is planning to set up ‘connect centres' or state war rooms, and sources say people are clamouring to get into ‘Team Senthil'. The preference for an ‘outsider' tag rather than considerations about the number of years of service in the party is something to consider.
Congress leaders say during UPA years (2004-2014), the GRG war room used to be a hub of Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, Ahmed Patel, Suresh Pachauri and other top party leaders, when access and entry to the war room was restricted to only proven and established party leaders. Now, most khadi-topi wallahs or full-time Congress persons have little or no idea of the goings-on in the GRG war room.
Ideological Crisis
Hendrik Hertzberg had once said, “A political ideology is a very handy thing to have. It's a real time-saver, because it tells you what you think about things you know nothing about.” Since 2014, a series of defeats in Lok Sabha and in most of the assembly polls have shaken the Congress's self-belief and faith in ideology.
Historically, the Congress's bid to mix religion and politics has remained problematic. There was a huge contradiction in the way Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India's first Prime Minister, and Mahatma Gandhi viewed religion and politics. For Mahatma Gandhi, religion was integral to secularism. Gandhi, who otherwise agreed with his disciple Nehru on a range of issues, felt that the Nehruvian secular prescription would not work for India. “Politics bereft of religion” is “absolute dirt”, Gandhi would often say.
But Nehru, as I have mentioned in my book 24, Akbar Road (Hachette), was firm in his definition of secularism, which meant separation of religion from the political, economic, social and cultural aspects of life. Religion, in Nehru's scheme of things, was a personal matter that the state should disassociate from at all costs. In a letter to his Home Minister Kailashnath Katju in 1953, Nehru had written, “The fate of India is largely tied up with the Hindu outlook. If the present Hindu outlook does not change radically, I am quite sure that India is doomed.”
In September 1951, Nehru got all the CWC members of Purushottam Das Tandon's team to resign, thus obliging Tandon, a right-wing Congress president, to quit. Nehru, who had become the Congress president after Tandon's resignation, pronounced the bottom line of the party's secular creed at a meeting at the Ram Lila grounds on Gandhi Jayanti in 1951. “If any man raises his hand against another in the name of religion, I shall fight him till the last breath of my life, whether from within the government or outside,” he had said.
Still Pro-Hindu
However, contrary to popular perception, the Congress still fancies itself as a pro-Hindu party. When Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1980, she tried to cultivate the majority community and had accepted an invitation to launch the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's `Ekatmata Yatra'. The VHP was then a nascent outfit and such mass-contact programmes had the potential to tap religious sentiments and mobilise favourable opinion.
According to bureaucrat and author S.S. Gill, Indira's final stint as Prime Minister revealed a lack of social solicitude towards Muslims. A hint of that had come from CM Stephen, an Indira loyalist. In his book, The Dynasty - A Political Biography of The Premier Ruling Family of Modern India (1996), Gill quotes Stephen, who had declared in 1983, “The wave-length of Hindu culture and the Congress culture is the same.”
A clear articulation of where the party stood on secularism came from VN Gadgil, the late Congress ideologue who served as AICC spokesperson during the regimes of Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri. Gadgil and Narasimha Rao had once prepared a theme for the Congress conclave raising the following questions:
- Why should we not have a uniform civil code?
- What justification was there for negating the Shah Bano judgment by an act of Parliament?
- What is the logic of persisting with Article 370?
- Why should Hindus adopt family planning when Muslims resist it?
- Why build a Haj Manzil in Bombay for Muslim pilgrims embarking for Jeddah when there is nothing similar for Hindu pilgrims proceeding to Nepal?
- Why should we raise such a hue and cry over secularism when no Muslim country practises it?
- Why do Muslims object to singing the national song ‘Vande Matram'?
- Why do Muslims seek a separate identity in India when they do not do so in countries like Indonesia?
- Why do foreign missionaries proselytise in India?
- Why should we permit Christian missionary activity?
Amidst these debates that have been raging more feverishly in the Narendra Modi era, the entry and consolidation of civil society ideology, that is, the ‘Jai Jagat' gang, is perhaps a convenient way for the Congress leadership to skirt key ideological questions. After all, the inclusion of voluntary, non-state organisations and associations that act as a bridge between citizens and the state, fostering political thinking by encouraging participation, promoting accountability, and facilitating dialogue is a more suitable platform than to take a firm position on questions about 'majoritarianism' and its own ideology.
(Rasheed Kidwai is an author, columnist and conversation curator)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
