Should Congress Resolve Internal Conflicts Before Launching Opposition Unity Project?

Interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi will hold a virtual meeting with senior leaders of nearly a dozen Opposition parties Friday to carry forward discussions on firming up a united fight against the ruling BJP. NCP chief Sharad Pawar, chief ministers Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), MK Stalin (DMK), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena) and Hemant Soren (JMM) will be attending the virtual meet, as will RJD바카라�s Tejashwi Yadav.

As interim chief of the electorally diminishing, crisis-ridden party, Sonia바카라�s effort to hold on to the stature she and her party have historically enjoyed in India바카라�s non-right political landscape is expected. The breakfast her son and former party president Rahul Gandhi hosted for nearly 100 Opposition MPs during the recently concluded Parliament session or the dinner that Sonia is herself expected to host sometime soon for Opposition bigwigs are both a continuation of the Opposition unity project that has been gaining ground for some months now and Sonia바카라�s own effort to ensure that the Congress party and her family remain central figures in this plan. 

Sonia바카라�s outreach is commendable, particularly in light of numerous calls by critics of the ruling dispensation for the Grand Old Party to get its act together. There is also no doubt that Rahul Gandhi has been showing greater personal interest in reaching out to Opposition parties 바카라� MPs of various Opposition parties confirmed to Outlook that during the recent Parliament session, Rahul showed uncharacteristic initiative in reaching out to them with a request to 바카라�work together바카라�. 

What is ironical though is that while the Congress high command is willing to go the extra mile to strengthen their party바카라�s existing bonds with some Opposition parties and build anew their rapport with others, their colleagues within the Congress continue to complain of a lack of dialogue with the Gandhis on crucial issues. Stemming attrition from the Congress to the BJP or other parties, including allies with whom the Gandhis want to build Opposition unity, has been among the Congress바카라�s biggest challenges in recent years.

In just the past month, while the Congress was trying hard to woo Mamata Banerjee 바카라� the Bengal chief minister also reciprocated by calling on Sonia during her recent visit to Delhi 바카라� it lost two former MPs, the late former President Pranab Mukherjee바카라�s son Abhijit Mukherjee and All India Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev, to the Trinamool. Though Mukherjee and Dev have refrained from attacking the Congress or the Gandhis since their switch, their departure is indication enough of the discomfiture they certainly had with a party that not only they but their late fathers 바카라� Dev바카라�s father Santosh Mohan Dev was a former Union minister, seven-term Congress MP and among the party바카라�s tallest leaders in the northeastern states 바카라� had served with distinction. 

Sushmita Dev바카라�s departure should come as a big blow to the Gandhis also because she was among the young leaders of the party whose political careers witnessed a mercurial rise largely owing to their proximity to the Congress바카라�s first family, Rahul Gandhi in particular. Like Pradyot Debbarma, Ashok Tanwar, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada, other young leaders who once enjoyed Rahul Gandhi바카라�s patronage but then parted ways with the Congress, Sushmita Dev too had easy access to the party high command. It is, thus, a mystery why the Gandhis failed to see Dev바카라�s growing frustration within the Congress or, if they knew about it, why they couldn바카라�t convince the former Silchar MP that her concerns will be addressed.  Could the Gandhis not call Dev over for a meal or coffee to discuss her problems the same way they are now busy drawing breakfast, lunch or dinner plans with Opposition leaders who have been playing hardball?

A cursory glance of the long list of prominent faces that the Congress has lost in recent years is also instructive of another irony. Young or middle rung leaders of the party who were awarded plum party positions 바카라� PCC presidents, AICC general secretaries, CWC members, et al 바카라� ostensibly due to their proximity to Rahul Gandhi showed no hesitation in junking the Congress when its chips were down and showed no sign of an uptick. On the other hand, the old loyalists, often dismissed as deadwood and those who have reportedly been sulking over being sidelined and supposedly embarrassing the Gandhis by their calls for inner-party reform, continue to assert their 바카라�Congress identity바카라� instead of moving on to better political pastures.

When the so-called G-23 (now G-22 after Jitin Prasada바카라�s switch to the BJP) wrote that famous letter to Sonia demanding urgent organisational correctives and a visible, full-time leadership, even those Congress leaders who stridently criticised these 바카라�rebels바카라� publicly, admitted in private that the demands had great merit. The Congress high command made some half-hearted attempts to win over the dissidents in the early days of their rebellion 바카라� Sonia called a bunch of them for tea at her 10, Janpath residence last December and assured them of more such dialogues to resolve differences 바카라� but the communication lines seemed to have broken down altogether in recent months.

 When Kapil Sibal, the party바카라�s most vocal and visible in-house critic in recent months, invited a host of Opposition stalwarts for his 73^rd birthday dinner recently, all hell broke loose because some of the invitees 바카라�attacked바카라� the Congress and the Gandhis for being listless and inept in taking on the BJP. Sibal publicly conceded that he had no 바카라�personal rapport바카라� with Sonia and hadn바카라�t met the Gandhis in nearly two years. Several other G-23 members told Outlook, on condition of anonymity, that there had been no effort by the high command to listen to their concerns and that while a 바카라�handful of us were cherry-picked바카라� for important party work these exceptions appeared more 바카라�a way to buy our silence바카라�.

If the Gandhis spent a few hours daily at the Congress office 바카라� or any other venue of their choosing 바카라� actually speaking to a broad spectrum of their colleagues instead of the 바카라�inner coterie바카라� associated with each member of the family (Sonia, Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra), they바카라�d realise the deep sense of frustration within the rank and file against their party바카라�s organisational morass. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea parties and virtual jamborees with leaders Opposition parties is, no doubt, a necessity if the Congress wants to bring a host of 바카라�like-minded바카라� parties to a common anti-BJP federal front but these would have no impact if the party they head continues to implode due to the high command바카라�s neglect. The Gandhis would perhaps do themselves and their party greater service if they decided to break bread with their colleagues, particularly the naysayers, for a start.