There is little reason, yet, to suspect that there is strong dissidence in the Congress party. What has come to be known as G23 is a set of Congress leaders who are at best trying to act as a corrective force within the organisational set-up. Democracy grants them as much freedom; and the Congress high command, meaning essentially the “family”, has been adopting a conciliatory approach to the way these senior leaders are meeting and confabulating. It happened again after the results of the five-state assembly polls were out. This defeat was something that the Congressmen themselves could not reconcile to. The BJP made mincemeat out of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh – a far cry from the Grand Old Party’s positioning there till the 1990s. The Congress lost power in Punjab and did badly in Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. Under the circumstances, the rank and file of the party is dis-spirited.
However, the problem for Congressmen as a whole, including the G23, is that they have no go other than remaining inside the party and flogging its central leadership into action mode. Ghulam Nabi Azad who met party chief Sonia Gandhi after the meeting has made this clear. There, he said, is no demand for a change of leader. It is well-accepted that Sonia Gandhi would remain as the interim chief, a resolution that the CWC has made at its post-poll meeting too. The CWC also stressed on having the organisational election and the selection or election of the new president. Everyone is convinced even today that there cannot be a Congress without the Nehru (Gandhi) family at its apex. The family enjoys a huge clout because of the stellar contributions it made before and after India’s Independence; the martyrdom of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi for the cause of the nation further cementing this family legacy.
Fact is also that there is no other credible leader, as of now, for Congressmen to rally around. The family is the glue that binds Congressmen into one cohesive whole. Scams and allegations of corruption at all levels during the UPA-periods have tainted the image of the Congress and the family too. Rahul Gandhi does not have the ‘macho’ image of Narendra Modi. But, his shaping up as a responsible politician is steady. The strength of the Nehru family and the Congress that they lead is also their all-encompassing and accommodative nature – a sentiment that’s so vital for a nation like India, a mosaic of different religions, races, regions, castes, communities and cultures.
