Rahul should learn from Modi: How to keep the Congress high command in order

The Gandhis are believed to be running the Congress. But who runs the Gandhis? The question becomes pertinent after Karti Chidambaram’s sharp criticism of the Congress high command.

Karti does not carry much weight as a politician, his only claim to fame being his father, former finance minister P Chidambaram. The murmur of rebellion in the Tamil Nadu unit of the Congress does not mean much either in the context of the overall decay of the Congress across the country. The party accounts for less than five percent of vote share in the state, has been out of power more than three decades and it has been barely surviving with little hope of growth. But the comparative low-key, rather inconsequential, existence of both, the party and the person, doesn’t take away in any way the import of his remark on Wednesday.

“We must rethink this high command-observer culture. We cannot wait for Delhi to show us the path every single way,” he said in Chennai, seeking more freedom for the state units to operate and take decisions. He could well be echoing the sentiment of several senior Congress leaders from different states. For the party’s leadership which is averse to hearing questions and critical remarks from down the rungs it might count as a crime though.

We need to clarify the concept of the high command here. The high command – the top decision-making authority and the think-tank - is not unique to the Congress; it exists in all political parties. For political entities to survive, thrive and ensure ideological coherence among its several units a degree of control and guidance from the top is essential. The BJP of the present is more high command centric – there are two, the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo and the RSS – than it ever was. But this is not a bad idea at all, particularly when those at the top and those down the order are in an agreeable, non-combative arrangement.

When the high command works in a malicious fashion, protecting its own interest by sacrificing that of others lower down in the value chain or by allowing formation of self-serving cliques to act as a barrier in free conversation across rungs, the idea implodes and takes the party down. This has been the case with the Congress and it explains the party’s downfall. That middle-rung leaders are leaving it in hordes, looking for greener pastures, highlights it even more.

Now, the moot question: who constitutes the high command in the Congress? The Gandhis, of course, sit on the top of the heap. They are irreplaceable in the party’s scheme of things and they won’t want the Congress, a family legacy, wither away. That brings in the role of the bunch of significant others – call it coterie or by any other name - who serve as their eyes and ears to the world beyond 10 Janpath, into question. These are the people – cunning and politically sharp - with a crucial role in the decision-making process be it for the states or the centre. They, if Congress sources are to be believed, control the access of party leaders to the top leadership, feed the latter crucial information. In short, these are the people who run the Gandhis, and by extension the Congress.

If the feedback channel worked fine and it showed in the results, there should not be a problem with this arrangement. But the results for the party continues going from the bad to dismal. Obviously, there’s something rotten happening somewhere. The high command system has gone crooked.

This conclusion may sound rude but given the way the Congress has been going over the last many years the Gandhis don’t seem to have real control over the party. Last heard, Rahul Gandhi is busy finalizing his revival plans with the same set of leaders which has been instrumental in the party’s defeat in the recent elections. If that irks people like Karti, he is justified in his reaction. Why cannot Rahul sit down with party leaders and workers in the states and work out solutions to organizational problems? Is he uncomfortable with the idea of functioning without the coterie?

He should learn from Modi. The latter’s high command culture is one of constructive convergence; that of the Congress is self-destructive.