The return of Sonia Gandhi as All India Congress Committee president is a decision that has many layers. On casual examination, it smacks of sycophancy on the part of the Congress members who repeatedly fall back on the Gandhi family to head the party. That much is obvious and cannot be denied, as the baton had passed from Sonia to her son Rahul less than two years ago, and now returns to the mother. Whenever faced with a crisis, Congress members have made a beeline to 10 Janpath with hands folded seeking that the Gandhi family rescue the party and steer it out of the rough waters that have been buffeting it.
This, perhaps is the worst storm that the Congress has ridden into, and with their captain Rahul Gandhi abandoning ship after it hit the rocks in May last, the rest of the crew could only see a glimmer of hope in the leadership of the past. This was the same leadership that had lifted the party out of many a crisis in two decades and given the party a decade long run in government at the Centre, and so they sought out that one person who had scooped out the party from deep waters before. But then, does Sonia Gandhi today have the same level of energy that she had in the past and which is required to lead the party that is the main opposition in the country?
She has done it before – she was Congress president for two decades – but times have changed and so too has the politics of the country. Congress may have contained a rebellion within the party that could have erupted had some other person been chosen for the top post. But, this decision underlines just how dependent the party has come to be on the Gandhi family, and raises questions of whether it will ever be able to look beyond this family for leadership. Sonia Gandhi may succeed in unifying the party, but can she be the fulcrum that the opposition in the country needs to rally round? At this juncture she may not appeal to the rest of the opposition parties.
Sonia Gandhi’s ascension to the president’s post comes as an interim arrangement until the Congress can find a leader that it finds capable enough to lead the party. There are State elections coming up this November, including in Maharashtra and Haryana, so the interim president is likely to be in charge of the party until then. The future of this arrangement could depend on the Congress performance at these polls. But, considering that the party has been unable to arrive at a consensus on an alternative leadership until today, will it be able to do so in the coming months or will the dependence on the Gandhis continue?
The former Congress president had spoken of reposing the leadership of the party in younger hands. Yet, when it came the time to select the chief ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh after election victories in the States, Rahul had blinked quickly and opted for the old guard. Little surprise therefore that the party has now sought the leadership of a tested leader over the unknown strategies of a younger chief. Two Lok Sabha defeats later, one expected that Congress would begin to seriously look at beyond the Gandhi family, and at the possibility of giving the party reins in the hands of somebody who would whip it into shape with an eye on the future.
The Congress has let slip the opportunity of naming a non-Gandhi as party president. Even if this remains an interim arrangement, the next election for a party chief will be fraught with the same issues. The party cannot ignore the fact that it is facing a leadership crisis, which can only grow if steps are not taken immediately.
