Is Congress on the road to self destruction?

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, the famous one-liner from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, can be slightly twisted to describe the current situation of the 135-year old Congress party : “Almost everything is rotten in the Indian National Congress”.

The upheaval caused by a letter written by 23 top party leaders in the run up to the Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday and the high drama caused by an alleged statement by Rahul Gandhi may have blown over by the withdrawal of a damning tweet by Kapil Sibal, but the developments reflect the existential crisis being faced by the party.

The turn of events exposed the pent up anger and frustration with Rahul Gandhi’s leadership since the party lost two consecutive Lok Sabha elections over the last six years. The Gandhi scion has been active in political life for over 15 years but has revealed so signs of growing into a mature and capable political leader.

His reactions on Monday, while the CWC meeting was going on, reflected the immature way in which he handled the issue of the letter written by 23 party stalwarts.

Instead of dealing with the issues at hand, he deliberately leaked out his sentiments which were amplified by some of those close to him, like Kumari Selja, who made public statements that the signatories to the letter were in cahoots with the BJP.

Evidently that led to the angry tweet by Kapil Sibal who wrote :

“Rahul Gandhi says ‘we are colluding with BJP’… (we) succeeded in Rajasthan High Court defending the Congress party, defending party in Manipur to bring down BJP Government. Last 30 years have not made any statement in favour of BJP on any issue (and) yet we are ‘colluding with the BJP’….”.

Another Congress stalwart and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad too threatened to resign from all party posts if the charge of colluding with BJP was proved.

Rahul Gandhi let the debate go on for quite some time. He appears to have asked the party spokesman and confidant Randeep Surjewala to say that Rahul Gandhi does not use such language.

What prevented Rahul Gandhi to immediately deny the charge or take to Twitter to say that the statements attributed to him were false. Instead, Kapil Sibal said Rahul Gandhi called him to say that he had not made any statement on the issue. Kapil Sibal then said he would like to withdraw his tweet bringing the issue to a tame end.

Questions, however, remain and what was articulated by these party leaders is in fact the general view among a vast majority of party leaders and supporters.

Though there had been party leaders in the past who had been individually expressing such sentiments but many of them did so after deciding to quit the party. These include half a dozen former chief ministers, dozens of former ministers and former state party chiefs in the past few years.

This group of 23 leaders cut across states and generations. These included young upcoming leaders as well as those belonging to the old generation. All of them with a proven track record as Congress loyalists.

Their letter was however opposed by the Gandhi family loyalists like Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his counterparts in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh for their own interests. Yet the thoughts expressed in the letter were welcomed privately even by the fence sitters.

What the spin masters in the coterie of the Gandhi family have done is to twist the issues raised in the letter to an “attack” on the Gandhi family. The letter had in fact mentioned that the Gandhi family was an integral part of the party while mentioning there was need for a collective leadership but this was seen as the dilution of the unchallenged supremacy of the Gandhi family.

For over a year now, since Rahul Gandhi stepped down as party president, the party has been leaderless and rudderless. Sonia Gandhi who took over as interim chief, had taken a back seat partly due to her health issues. Rahul Gandhi de facto remained in command.

Why no sincere efforts were made to have a full time working president and why even state and district level committees, not to talk of the All India Congress Committee, were formed? The party has been in a state of coma after its defeat in 2014.

During this period it lost one of the finest young leaders, Jyotiraditya Scindia and was about to lose another bright prospect, Sachin Pilot who mis-timed his political moves.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be grateful to his stars for having a dwarf of political opponent as Rahul Gandhi. He would be praying for his long life and continued leadership of the Congress.