Congress President Election: Urban Elite not Comfortable with Kharge
Asia News Agency
The choice for the post of Congress president has been narrowed down to Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor. Indian intellectuals, both liberal and non-liberal, have largely taken their position in favour of Shashi Tharoor. Congress traditionalists are with Kharge.
Sagarika Ghose, writing for NDTV argues that the Presidency under Kharge will not work as ‘he is aged, hardly exudes charm or energy…will not bring in any incremental votes and will be a dynasty puppet with no new vision to offer other than the same old tired slogans.’ On the other hand, Ghose uses superlatives to claim that “Tharoor is the right choice.”
Similarly, Chetan Bhagat writing for the Hindu newspaper Dainik Bhaskar doesn’t find anything good to say about Kharge but is eloquent about Tharoor. 'Shashi Tharoor is well educated, an experienced former diplomat and also won three consecutive Lok Sabha elections. He speaks good English but at the same time has the ability to listen and have their feet on the ground in India,’ Bhagat writes.
Both Sagarika Ghose and Chetan Bhagat argue that if Kharge wins, the atmosphere of despair will continue in the Congress as he will be ‘remote controlled’ and that will be a continuity of what they call ‘dynasty politics’. For them, Tharoor can herald the change as he is a ‘self-made leader’ and has the ability to attract the youth and middle-class urban voters and thus his losing the election will be a great loss for the Congress.
Both these commentators are wrong, argues Dilip Mandal (former managing editor of India Today Hindi Magazine).
Wishful thinking on change
“First, the Congress is not a revolutionary party and to suggest that it needs disruption to revitalise itself is a wrong diagnosis of the mess it is in…..To expect Congress members to install at the helm someone who will disrupt and overhaul the existing party structure is wishful thinking.”
Therefore, “even if Tharoor wins the election, the party will not change its DNA. The structure of the party organisation has remained the same over the years and if that changes, then it will not be the Congress we all know.”
Congress’ party structure will not change: Their second argument that the Congress needs an elite leader as party president is also wrong, writes Mandal. “The party still has a power centre concentrated around the Nehru-Gandhi family. This structure is not going to change just because they are holding organisational elections. Arguably, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is one of the most elite families in the country. It hardly needs a Shashi Tharoor to garner urban elite votes. The Congress is not losing urban elite support because it doesn’t have elite leaders……. the Congress leadership is always more elite than the BJP’s.
Similarly, “installing a Dalit or OBC leader (Kharge) as president will not bring Dalit or OBC voters to it….”
It seems, concludes Mandal “that the urban elite is not comfortable with the idea that the Congress can be led by a person from a rural, Dalit, and underprivileged background…”
The ‘loyalists’ factor
Looking at another aspect of the Congress, political observer Anand K. Sahay dismisses the argument “that the new president can only be a rubber stamp of the Gandhis. Whatever the party’s many failings, it is hard to see the Congress as a straitjacketed Stalinist outfit in which free speech is frowned upon. In fact, the opposite seems the case, historically -- unlike, say, the RSS-Jan Sangh-BJP, or parties of the Marxist persuasion. Debates of all hues have flourished in the Congress, similar to our socialist parties.
“The ‘loyalist’ approach attributes to the Gandhis strange magical powers -- bordering on magical realism -- that inhibit the independent working of the Congress. The unstated corollary is that the Congress election is therefore a pointless thing. Oddly enough, the ‘loyalist’ factor is not explored for other parties, not even the BJP where the cult of personality is now in the fullest bloom.”
In the present contest, Kharge is seen to be the super. loyalist. But it is interesting to note what Tharoor said recently. “Our party’s DNA is inextricably tied to the Gandhi family, their contributions, their sacrifices, their charisma and authority over the party. No party president will lose sight of it, and in fact, to achieve the goals of the party, we need the Gandhi family…”
