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Journalism of Courage
Congress President Sonia Gandhi was quick to swat the instinctive burst of sycophancy from Ajit Jogi. With news just filtering in that she had retained Rae Bareli by a record margin, on Thursday Jogi mobilised a signature campaign among party MPs to plead with her to become prime minister. Her response was correct, but it was not stern enough. There is a tendency in Sonia’s Congress for party men and women to assert their relevance through competitive obsequiousness. And in the absence of substantial reprimand, a disturbing impression is reinforced that this is the authorised mode of exchange between party president and workers. This is not a healthy way for a democratic party to be, to allow — or be seen to be allowing — flattery to be a means of career advancement. It also weakens Sonia Gandhi’s standing as the leader of the Congress Party.
The Nehru-Gandhis hold a special place in Congress affairs. But now, with Sonia Gandhi having led it for eight years, with the party two years into its term at the Centre and with Rahul Gandhi seen to be ready for greater organisational responsibility, the Congress needs to shed its shyness about confronting the terms of that relationship. If that shyness is partly due to memories of the erosion suffered during the Narasimha Rao and, more corrosively, Sitaram Kesri years, it is understandable. Sonia Gandhi’s induction as party chief in 1998 reversed that fragmentation. But the rituals of sycophancy by the rank and file stop her from fully asserting her democratic right to lead the party — a right that draws from her demonstrated ability to command the confidence of Congress members. And given the blithe manner in which her name is allowed to be invoked by them, it associates her with self-seeking initiatives in which she really is not a participant.
The Congress, in any case, has to confront this question. Rahul Gandhi’s appointment to higher responsibility is due. The challenge before the party is to put his induction through the paces of organisational democracy. A look at the Bush family in the United States could be instructive. Asked about brother Jeb Bush’s presidential ambitions this week, George W. Bush refused to take even part ownership of his possible run for the Republican nomination. The Congress too needs to play Rahul’s Gandhi association right: by not letting it curb his initiative, yet endorsing his elevation with procedural legitimacy.
