Congress has really become defunct. But that is problematic for Indian polity.
First thing is that Congress is an important entity in national politics. Reality is that on national level, we have only two parties, BJP and Congress. Left has become a non-entity as political option, not only nationally, even internationally. (Even China is today not that "LEFT" politically, which our left parties vouch for.) All other parties are truly regional in their political content and spread.
For a dynamic and vibrant political state, two strong opposing parties are a must, it facilitates that necessary check and balance in the system. In present scenario and in coming decade (my conservative estimate), I don’t see any regional party changing and taking a makeover required for national party. The saddest part is that none of these strong local satraps are not even an iota of hold in the adjacent states. For example, imagine political hold of Trinamul Congress (who is on roller coaster in Bengal) in Orissa or Bihar or Assam.
Congress has two unique characteristics - one thing which none of the other one has - uniform spread of votes all over India. But they have another one, which stops them in their strides - myopic vision of searching leadership within Gandhi-Nehru family.
The first has a very strong survival strength and as a matter of fact, due to this only, this party is still surviving. Reason behind this is that we Indians are basically centrists.... leaning just a bit towards left. So, rightist parties make people a bit scared. BJP has understood this and have revamped their shape/ size / colour accordingly and getting benefitted.
But the myopic vision of looking leadership in Gandhi-Nehru family has damaged them beyond imagination. The problem started with Indira Gandhi. Many people don’t know that when Nehru had put Lalbahadur Sharti in charge of Govt, even then many were trying to convince him to take decision in favour of Indira Gandhi. But good sense prevailed on Nehru after debacle against China in 1962, and he decided in favour of Shastri jee. Indira, any how came in power (I don’t want to go into controversies of Shastri jee’s death). From very beginning Indira Gandhi started to sideline her competitors. This led to divisions in Congress. But Indira Gandhi being a strong leader, crushed all the opposition and thus, congress leaders realised that to keep them in main line, they had to follow Indira’s line. In long run, this has damaged the party irrevocably. Now, we see only “Yes Man” of Gandhi family in the top rung of Congress Party.
Even after today’s defeat or debacle in Assembly elections, congress leaders are pondering over induction of Priyanka Vadra. They don’t have either the vision to see beyond the family or the guts to speak it out. They will have to look beyond the family. It may result one more devision in party, but if good, honest,committed and hard working people get collected on one platform, with a banner of congress and work tirelessly for some time (it may be long haul, like BJP had to), the political stage of India has still ample space for them. But if they don’t, then they are doomed. Most of the Congress leaders are basically political parasites, they are clung to Congress Party aka Gandhi-Nehru family for enjoying the benefits of power. The day they realise that this is not juicy, they shift to some other one. Gandhis will also have to learn “how to hear and appreciate a “NO” without feeling insulted”. A difference of opinion should not be taken as revolt, rather it should be appreciate, evaluated and if deemed fit, accepted and implemented.
In the meanwhile, congress has drifted a little more to the left than required ideologically. And in their own quest, for proving their commitment to this ideology and competing to prove them better than CPI/ CPM, they converted the idea of secularism into minority appeasement. They further got drawn into this vicious cycle and practically denounced anything which is even remotely connected to Hinduism. This all helped BJP and other right wing parties, because somehow, the majority community started feeling threatened in many parts of the country and they drifted towards these parties. Congress will have to be truly secular, which means “India First”. Their problem is that BJP has already grabbed the agenda. Still congress will have to make some course correction in this matter, otherwise their centrist status will be difficult to regain.
In a democratic set-up, elections are a regular and repeated feature. Each electoral analysis creates a new scenario, but beauty is that there is always a chance for recovery for losers and a challenge (with hidden threat) to perform for winners. This election has, also, nothing new. Once Indira Gandhi had destroyed all the opposition and that led to autocratic governance and then emergency. Janta Party came up as a political option and replaced congress in 1977. Janta Party failed and got dismembered. One of those dismembered parts was BJP, which has now become the central party of Indian Polity. So, Congress-मुक्त भारत is basically dangerous for BJP. But yes, Congress also will have to take a new make-over. This congress has become defunct.
