Congress as usual: All theatrics, no action at CWC meet

New Delhi: It was supposed to be a stock taking exercise where issues that led to the party’s worst-ever performance were to be discussed threadbare. But what happened at the Congress Working Committee meeting was just what was expected. It was all theatrics and no action. [caption id=“attachment_1533283” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress President Sonia Gandhi and VP Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] The meeting of the Congress’s highest decision making body started with party President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi reading out their resignation letters. No sooner had they done that that all hell broke loose, senior party leaders were quick to jump to their defence. It was former prime minister Manmohan Singh who stood tall, taking moral responsibility of the party’s debacle. He went on to say: “Resignation is no solution to the problems faced by the Congress.” He did make a valid point: Will the resignations help the party in any way to introspect why they got a drubbing at the polls? But then there was no intention or mood for introspection at the meeting. What followed was according to the familiar script. All members of the CWC rejected the resignations outright. “A unanimous resolution expressing full faith in the leadership of Sonia and Rahul has been passed. It has authorised Sonia to take whatever steps she deems necessary to revamp the party,” said Janardan Dwivedi, one of the senior most leaders of the party at a press conference later. But there were some members who wanted to make their point to the leadership, they wanted to alert the first family of some of the mistakes made in the run up to the 2014 elections. The organisational elections held in the frontal organisations of the party (Indian Youth Congress and National Students Union of India) themselves came into question. Ever since Rahul Gandhi’s induction into the party as general secretary in 2007, he had focused on internal democracy by holding elections in these organisations. Despite the herculean efforts to democratise the process, problems remain the same. Connect with the youth seems to have become even less as young India chose to ride the Modi wave. But these voices drowned amid the passionate speeches by 29 leaders who spoke at the meeting. The offer to resign triggered an emotional wave where heart mattered more than the mind. “Rahulji is our leader and we will continue to fight under his leadership,” thundered Raj Babbar to media persons. It was left to senior leader Anil Shastri to make a few caustic remarks. Shastri has been an open critic of the prime minister during the UPA rule and is said to have spoken his mind about disconnect between party leaders and workers. Even though Sonia has often spoken about the same, the problem persists with no solution in sight. Shastri spoke of evolving a mechanism to keep the communication open both ways. The resolution read: “It is obvious that there were shortcomings. It is also clear that we failed to read the profound changes that had taken place in the country during 10 years since the UPA was voted to form the government-changes that were, in large measure, due to the policies, programmes and legislation that had ushered in an era of rapid growth, empowerment of the people, and high expectations. And we should introspect, as to why we were unable to connect with the electorate.” Going by tradition, Sonia is likely to form various committees to look into the different aspects of the party’s failure to live up to the expectations of the people. But that has to be done in a manner where there is a mix of the young and old guard. Many seniors are baying for blood, and some members of Rahul’s team could get the axe after the disappointing results. But the new guard feels the seniors do not give enough space to Rahul to be able to run the party with a free hand. No one realises the problem better than the Congress president herself, and at a juncture where the party could do with as many hands as possible. It’s likely that Sonia will opt for a cautious approach rather than suggest sweeping changes that could lead to more churning within the grand old party.