Indian National Congress: what’s plaguing the grand old party?

Leadership:
An army needs an able general to fight the battle. INC current leadership crisis is not only
hampering decision making and functioning of party, but also creating a confusion among cadres
about who’s in charge and whom should they follow. The different power centers in a party give
raise to factions and lobby which trickles down to ground level which hampers a party during
elections. The recent Punjab crisis is an example of this where different leaders were speaking in
apposite of each other creating a sense of confusion among voters about who will lead them and
what should they expect. This leadership crisis has its effects on organizational structure also where
you will find there are no congress organization at block level or town level. This crisis assumes
more significance in the light of current scenario where we have a very strong leader in Mr.
Narendra Modi about whom there is no confusion among workers and voters alike. The need is for
a full time, visible leadership who can instill confidence among workers and give an idea to party’s
second rung leaders who is in charge.

Ideology: The driving force

It seems today, even congressmen are not sure what INC stands for. A party which is not able to
stand its ground and present its vision can be a no match to BJP which is very vocal and firm about
what it stands for. The recent shift in ideology to practice “Soft Hindutva” in counter to BJP’s
“Hardcore Hindutva” shows that even INC itself lacks conviction in its own fundamental values of
secularism. This leads to a situation of chaos where nobody today can be sure what congress stands
for. Although, I agree that historically, INC has always been an umbrella organization where
different ideologies can co-exist but to bind such a huge and diverse organization, a party needs to
have a core ideology around which workers and voters can rally around. Its high time Congress
finds it ideological compass and stands for it. It needs to present an alternate vision of what it
stands for and what vision of India it wants to create.

Communication: Failure to capitalize on issues

Congress and its leadership have failed in establishing a connect with the voters and it is leading to
its inability to capitalize on issues like inflation, unemployment, rising communal conflicts etc.
When you see speeches and press briefings of congress leaders, you will observe a disconnect with
the ground realities and inability to connect to the young Indian voters which is aspiring and
ambitious. I have observed a lack of seriousness and commitment in the communication by top
leadership which doesn’t inspire voters. The reason is that most of the leaders in the top decision-
making bodies of congress are either not popularly elected nor go into public. This has resulted in a
serious gap which needs to be fulfilled by promoting ground-up leaders and creating a channel of
leadership which has its’s ear on ground.

Apart from these, there are other major problems like lack of a robust organization, lack of strong
regional leaders but I am of the opinion all other problems can be sorted out if the above-
mentioned problems are taken care of. I still believe there is a brand recall for INC in minds of
public and a sense of legacy, but it needs able leadership and communication to be able to convert
these into votes.