Mistrust seems to have been the defining sentiment at the meeting of the Congress Working Committee on August 24. At the fourth virtual meeting of its highest decision-making body in Covid times, the Congress switched from Zoom, the videoconferencing app which the CWC had used for the first three meetings, to Cisco Webex so as to make it more secure.
That, however, did not stop real time leaks of the proceedings to the media. An infuriated Ahmed Patel, Congress treasurer and a close confidant of the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi, paused the discussion and asked the participants to either keep away their phones or switch them off.
The mistrust was further evident as senior leader Kapil Sibal, not a CWC member, jumped the gun based on media leaks and posted a strongly-worded tweet reacting to remarks attributed to former party chief Rahul Gandhi. Reportedly, Rahul had said at the meeting that the 23 signatories of a letter sent to Sonia seeking sweeping changes in the party were acting in cahoots with the BJP. Sibal, who was among the signatories, withdrew the tweet when Rahul called him and categorically denied having said anything like that.
If Sibal created a flutter with his tweet, four signatories of the contentious letter who were present at the meeting—Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik and Jitin Prasada—were treated with suspicion by the vast majority of the participants. The intent behind the missive was questioned. It was interpreted as a challenge to the leadership of the Gandhis. And the ‘dissenters’ were attacked for leaking the letter to the media even before the party could take it up.
The letter stated that the party needed a full-time and visible leadership. It sought sweeping reforms in the organisation, including a system of collective leadership, elections at all levels and decentralisation of decision-making.
However, the letter, parts of which got leaked a day before the CWC meeting, read more like an indictment of the leadership of the Gandhis, especially for the party’s first family and its supporters. Some of them termed it an insult to Sonia. It was also felt that the letter betrayed an unease with the idea of Rahul making a comeback as party president.
“The letter is very disturbing,” said Manickam Tagore, Lok Sabha MP from Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu. “They say there should be a full-time president. Are they saying that Sonia Gandhi is not working full-time? They say there should be consultations. But we do have mechanisms for consultations. For example, we have regular strategy meetings in Parliament, of which many of the letter writers are members.”
The endeavour was crushed in a predictable manner. Sonia offered to resign ahead of the meeting, which was followed by pleas from chief ministers, state Congress presidents, MPs and MLAs and other leaders from across the country that they needed her leadership. Many of them also said for good measure that Rahul should take over the reins of the party if Sonia did not want to continue.
This overwhelming show of support for the Gandhis, which critics would call sycophancy and say is the party’s tragic flaw, set the stage for the meeting, where leader after leader reposed faith in the leadership of Sonia and voiced support for Rahul. The authors of the letter were cornered.
By the end of the day, the letter writers were at pains to prove that they had not questioned the authority of the Gandhis. They had to reiterate that they were life-long Congressmen with impeccable credentials and that the well-being of the party was at the heart of their effort.
“Many of us have served the party for more than two or three decades or even half a century. We have made sacrifices. We worked with Indiraji when she was going through a politically difficult time. All we want is that the drift in the party be arrested,” said a former Union minister, who was among the letter writers.
The CWC meeting showed that there can still be no challenge to the authority of the Gandhis, despite the unpopularity of dynastic politics and the family’s declining vote-catching ability. As if responding to the demand in the letter for a full-time and visible leadership, the CWC resolution said Sonia and Rahul had been at the forefront of taking on the Narendra Modi government.
“It is very easy to tell your leader what needs to be done. But the leader needs a team that will work on the ground,” said Sushmita Dev, president of the Mahila Congress and a special invitee to the CWC. “We have all been given some responsibility. We should concentrate on that and hit the ground. Also, we need to resist the temptation of going public just for the sake of getting publicity. That will only harm the party.”
Although the leaders who sent the letter were castigated, their concerns have been acknowledged by the leadership, which shows that there is a realisation that the issues raised by them have a certain resonance and cannot be brushed under the carpet. Also, the profile of these leaders, with a proven track record of service to the party and a rich experience in governance, has to be taken into account.
Speaking up: Kapil Sibal and (left) Ghulam Nabi Azad | PTI
The CWC resolution specified that the correspondence formed the basis of the meeting. While there was a strong rebuke for the authors in the form of a warning that no attempt to weaken the party or the leadership would be allowed, Rahul himself suggested that a committee be set up to assist Sonia in carrying out her duties as party chief. The resolution also authorised Sonia, who agreed to continue as interim chief till a new president was elected, to carry out organisational changes necessary to meet the current challenges. This could be read as a response to the call for sweeping reforms demanded in the letter.
“It is now acknowledged that we did not question the leadership. The idea behind the letter was to reorganise the party and make it battle-ready before the 2024 elections. We are hopeful that our concerns will be addressed,” said former Union minister M. Veerappa Moily, one of the signatories of the letter.
If the optics was of the Gandhi family loyalists overwhelmingly outnumbering the letter writers and making them look insignificant, the Gandhis have reached out to them nevertheless, displaying a certain willingness to address their concerns. In her closing remarks, Sonia said she bore no ill will towards them and that they were all one large family. Rahul, even as he condemned the timing of the letter and made the emotional pitch that it was sent to an ailing Sonia, was prompt in calling up Sibal to soothe ruffled feathers.
Also, if Rahul’s supporters saw in the letter clear signs of an unease with the former party chief making a comeback, the letter writers were effectively let off with a warning, despite some leaders at the CWC meeting calling for disciplinary action against them.
The flutter created by the letter may have had the unintended impact of hastening the comeback of Rahul, who has so far been reluctant to don the mantle. It is learnt that in the meeting, Rahul agreed on the need to call an All India Congress Committee session within six months to decide on the leadership issue. This, coupled with his silence, as opposed to a categorical ‘no’ in the past, in response to entreaties that he should now take charge of the party, is seen as a sign that he is now ready to come back. Also, the overwhelming support for the Gandhis has made it clear that a non-Gandhi option cannot be considered for president.
“No matter what we do, unless the AICC session happens and Rahul Gandhi comes back, this feeling that all is not well will linger on,” said a CWC member close to Rahul.
Congress leaders feel that the timing of the AICC session will depend not just on Rahul’s readiness for the top job, but also the coming round of assembly elections, with Bihar kicking off the poll season later this year, to be followed by elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu in April-May 2021.
If nothing else, the letter episode has come as a wake up call for the Congress leadership to get things going.