After being decimated in the Delhi polls the top leadership of the Congress Party skipped a press conference scheduled for Wednesday in the national capital. Perhaps the Party in its wisdom felt it better to remain off the media glare than tie itself up in knots. There is nothing much for the Congress to say anyway. The foolhardy Ajay Maken who fought the Delhi elections despite the obvious disenchantment of the electorate against the Party, has already resigned. Sheila Dikshit therefore has no business to snipe at Maken at this juncture – an act that has riled Party President Sonia Gandhi. Success indeed has many fathers and failure is an orphan. Even before the Delhi elections many have jumped the Congress ship. The attrition rate will now only go up if past experience is anything to go by.
Sonia Gandhi has lost the charisma she used to ride on after the 2004 polls when she stepped aside and allowed Manmohan Singh to become prime minister. It is also ironic that after the defeat of May 2014 the Congress has not found time to introspect on its failures and to allow heads to roll, beginning from the top. The Party is in denial mode. At the moment its talking point is that the BJP too has nearly been routed from Delhi so what’s the big deal? This is not what a grand old party which has ruled this country for decades should be indulging in now. It should have the resilience to put the mirror to itself and bring in the necessary pruning which is painful but necessary. Meanwhile the knives are out in the Congress camp and the blame game begins. It took no less than the Party President to tell her party men and women to stop squabbling in public.
Coming closer home, in Meghalaya, the Congress has been able to hold the reins of governance no matter how badly it has governed and how deeply embedded in scams the Party it. But will people continue to give it the long rope they have done for so long? The Aam Aadmi Party juggernaut is now set to change things beyond Delhi. Meghalaya’s janta too must facilitate political change where the citizen sets the agenda for development and not otherwise. People must vote those who represent their interests.
