Once upon a time the Indian National Congress was the synonym of the concept of nation building in India. For a century, it virtually controlled the politics of India, produced great leaders, influenced the thoughts and actions of the people and was successful in bringing the much needed respite to the suffering masses. The only major challenge against the supremacy of the Congress was in the year 1977 and it subsided more or less as a flicker.
But gradually, it lost its strongholds one after another and now it has reached to a situation which compels us to believe that it is virtually into the process of its extinction. Within a short span of time the Congress has lost not only its mass base but also its attachment with the movers and shakers of India ie the press, the media, the intellectual class and the business class. The change is more about the evolution of a new India which itself has been the achievement of the successive Congress governments in the 20th century.
The new India is not governed by the old ideology and the old social structure. The Congress party has miserably failed to update either its organizational structure or its leadership to suit itself to the evolving new circumstances. The Congress has been seriously inflicted with the syndrome of rot and the Congress President is a symbol of this rot. However, it is highly incorrect to point the finger at the Congress President alone because the rot is conspequently present at every level of its organisational setup.
The rot is more about the lack of new ideas, the lack of initiative and the lack of inspiring leadership. It is seriously failing to understand the emerging new India which has new feelings, new thoughts and new aspirations. The rise of BJP should be considered as an unavoidable alternative in the politics of India. The lack of a proper opposition is the prime factor that favours the existence and emergence of BJP. But this India is highly restless and it is searching for a focal point to gather.
Obviously, survival is a matter of "Now or Never" for the Congress Party. In order to become an influential factor in the politics of India it has to undertake a major overhaul in its ideology as well as its organisational setup. The gathering of the new political momentum in India is discussed at length in "What after Modi Sarkar?" - the book. excerpts from the book follow.
"But the revived Congress was a caricature of itself that had exercised an overwhelming influence on the polity of India. States one after another slipped out of the hands of the Congress. The decline of Congress was in concomitance with the decline of an era of politics dominated by upper caste social sections. In order to remain in power, which it did not deserve, the Congress involved itself in unholy practices. It was compelled to opt for coalition politics. Congress was wrested and irrecoverably defeated time and again. But all things were done at the cost of the idea of India. The rising lower and middle sections refused to pursue ideology-driven politics. The idea of India was defeated again and again by caste, communal and regional claims. The restless upper caste social sections, who had found that the Congress party could no more safeguard their interest gathered around the BJP gradually. Hence, in the rise of BJP we can find a desperate attempt at changing the clothing by the upper caste social sections. The BJP is a mere replica of the Congress party which has become irrelevant due to the change of phase in the politics of India."
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