More articles by

Meenakshi Lekhi
Meenakshi Lekhi

GUEST COLUMN

Election or coronation?

Democracy and dynastocracy are not always antithetical, especially when you talk in the context of the Grand Old Party of India—the Congress. The party has demonstrated this unique ability to manage many such contradictions in the past—the contradictions of having leaders without followers, of politics without ethics, of accountability without power and of elections without victories. And, now the party is all set to cap the caper by rewarding the biggest failure of its history, Rahul Gandhi, with the highest position in its hierarchy—the party president.

With the Congress Working Committee (CWC) announcing on November 20, the much-awaited election schedule for selection of its next president, the stage is set for elevation of Rahul Gandhi to the position of the Congress president on December 4, 2017. As per the unwritten charter of the party, no one is supposed to stand opposite a Nehru-Gandhi dynast in internal elections, hence all the subsequent electoral processes, such as withdrawal of nominations, polling of votes and counting of ballots, etc, scheduled for succeeding dates, as announced by the CWC, become redundant. Hence, December 4 would just be the enactment of an inevitable. However, since Rahul is so much in the habit of losing elections, people wonder whether he would indeed win even despite being a lone contestant! Jokes apart, the Congress must explain to the founders of our democratic nation the difference between election and coronation.

Who becomes the president is purely an internal affair of a political party, so ideally, I should not react on it. But, when the news pertains to the elevation of Rahul Gandhi to the position of the Congress president, it really bemuses me. When asked to comment on it, my first reaction is no comments. But, being nudged and provoked, as a double take, I am tempted to make some quick observations.

A man who has immense capacity for steering the party from its worst defeat in Lok Sabha would henceforth be sitting in the driver’s seat. I believe it is going to be the live demo of political hara-kiri, which would help people understand what hara-kiri really means.

Second, many analysts believe, nothing has helped the cause of the BJP more than Rahul Gandhi and his speeches. Hence, to have a BJP asset as the president of the largest opposition party of the nation would be a bonus. Private limited companies are very much a legal entity, which explains how parties like Gandhi family’s, or if I may put it correctly, Nehru family’s Congress or Yadav family’s SP exist.

Third, so long Rahul is around, the Congress is happy and indeed the BJP, too, is happy. After the 2007 UP elections debacle, he was promoted as the general secretary of the Congress, after a similar performance in the 2012 UP elections, he was elevated to become its vice president. Now, after fantastic performances in strings of elections since then, including the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and UP elections in 2017, making him the president of the party would be nothing but the logical culmination of the process. Maybe, the new party president should carry the tagline: ‘losing and winning is but a state of mind!’

Fourth, the Congress comes up as a party, may be the only on the planet, which teaches humanity what faith truly means. With each successive escapes in elections, the faith of the Congressmen becomes deeper in Rahul and his abilities, and his position gets stronger. Faith is ethereal; it is subtle and delicate, something incapable of being broken by some temporal affair of victories and losses. That is the message of the Congress party to a world beset by treachery and treason. The Congressmen prove that hope is still alive in humanity.

Fifth, Rahul’s elevation also reveals the virtue of altruism being in great abundance in his party. Many veterans in the party, having more years of experience in politics than Rahul’s age, and arguably much more capable, keep bowing in subservience, lamenting how painful it is for them to see the bare head of a dynast without the crown! Rahul’s elevation raises altruism in the Congress to a new level.

Sixth, Rahul comes across as the epitome of the virtues of Bhagavad Gita and also its perfect embodiment. He is a rare example of an equanimous soul, unaffected by the distress of failures or jubilations of success. Such a virtuous being must reach the top.

Seventh, Rahul’s elevation to the top job seals the ‘Divine Right To Rule’ argument in favour of the Nehru-Gandhi family. No matter what the universe may believe, only someone from the family can reach at the top in the Congress, unless he or she is not fit and available. Merit, no bar. Performance, no bar.

However, polemics apart, the unflinching faith of the Congressmen in the family has made sycophancy a coveted virtue, which has been institutionalised in the rank and file of the organisation through the material and emotional rewards it ensures to each of its members. In the Congress, sycophancy is equated with the virtue of loyalty; the dividing line between the two does not exist for the party. I am sure sycophancy exists in some measure in every other political establishment as well, but, the same seems to have been perfected as an art form in the Congress.

36-Election-or-coronation Illustation: Bhaskaran

Honestly, I believe, in a true democracy, there is nothing more important for the leadership than honesty in intentions and the ability to deliver on ground. Obviously, Rahul Gandhi has provided the much needed escape velocity to the Congress and its party men on these counts. Hence, riding on the twin wheels of sycophancy and entitlement, how far the rickety juggernaut of the Congress would go under Rahul remains to be yet seen. However, the era of elitism is on its way out. The election of Justice Dalveer Bhandari in the International Court of Justice, too, symbolises the defeat of the elitism of the UN Security Council and also strengthening of the democratic process reflected in the victory of the aspirations of members in the general assembly. But, the Congress still revels in the prospects of elitism by investing itself heavily in the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. This augurs well neither for the democracy nor for the Grand Old Party.

The contours of the 2019 elections are emerging and taking shape now. Rahul’s elevation to the Congress presidency would make it more a Modi versus Rahul duel, which translates into performance versus entitlement. Now, it is for the clever electorate of the nation to judge.

Lekhi is member of Parliament.

This browser settings will not support to add bookmarks programmatically. Please press Ctrl+D or change settings to bookmark this page.

Related Reading