Sonia talks tall

Two assertions will resonate from Congress President Sonia Gandhi8217;s opening address long after the Vichar Manthan Shivir in Shimla is o...

Two assertions will resonate from Congress President Sonia Gandhi8217;s opening address long after the Vichar Manthan Shivir in Shimla is over. The Congress, she declared, would 8216;8216;reclaim8217;8217; its 8216;8216;rightful place8217;8217; in the country8217;s polity. The second moment came along when Sonia waxed, uncharacteristically long and eloquent, on Sonia.

While she consults extensively before arriving at a decision, she confided, 8216;8216;ultimately, the decision is mine8217;8217;. As both the party and the leader seek to position themselves before crucial electoral contests in the states this year, and in time for the general elections next year, there are some crucial questions.

The problem with the Congress, many have pointed out, is that it doesn8217;t seem to realise that it doesn8217;t have a rightful place out there anymore, waiting to be reclaimed.

In a changed and still changing India, the party has failed to recognise that it has lost its old slot and a new one is yet to be made. It has been long years since the Congress was the catch-all platform that promised a foothold to all.

Today, it must compete, or negotiate, with newly assertive religious, caste and regional formations. And it must do so in an age of mass communication, 24-hour television news channels and popular clamour for a constantly communicative leadership.

By all accounts, Sonia8217;s Congress continues to be unequal to the task. It is no more the organisation of mass contact that could have given a real fight to the newer bolder outfits on the ground. Nor does it seem adequately aware of its weaknesses and willing to seek alliances from an acknowledgement of these weaknesses. Most of all, Sonia8217;s Congress is very obviously ill-equipped to cope with the demands and expectations of the communication age. A party which functions like a closed shop, and whose top leadership is not negotiable or accountable, cannot credibly play the role that is demanded of it in a new age: Of a modern political organisation that is open as well as accountable. One that stands for clearly articulated ideas and policies.

It is true other political parties fail to make that grade as well. But the lack of fit is particularly visible in a party where The Family continues to triumph over internal democracy and in which every 8216;leader8217; must be a creature of the high command. In the absence of structured transparency within the party, Sonia Gandhi8217;s claims that she consults others before she makes up her mind sound suspiciously like crumbs she doles out in the name of democracy. Congress chief ministers, it is true, have doubled and more since she took over the party in a bloodless coup in 1998.

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But she will need to organise something more than feel-good retreats at charming locales, some genuinely honest and participatory dialogue perhaps, for her party to come together as a political alternative at the Centre.