Get real

When asked if it was a lack of leadership that undid the party,Gandhi smiled and said the problem was too many leaders. Even in jest,that remark was unwise. It was of a piece with the rest of her bland nothings about candidate selection and preparing better next time,and her refusal to own up to the partys fundamental failure in nurturing a democratic organisation. Long dominated by a single bloodline,the Congress has few leaders of consequence in the states. Instead of solid,rooted regional leaders,it has concentric circles of courtiers,or others that it manages to steal away from other parties,in anticipation of an election. Lacking a real organisation,it also lacks a feedback loop,and so its candidate selection is inevitably shoddy,its reading of the electorate remains superficial as Rahul Gandhi may have learnt this time. Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that when Rahul stepped out to speak on the verdict on Tuesday,there was no other Congress leader in the frame to either his right or left.

Sonias blaming price rise is an insincere cover were Manipur and Uttarakhand insulated from inflation?,not admitting that much of the UPAs dismal image is its own doing. What she needs to do is to push and help the government take hard decisions in the Budget,take key policy decisions out of the deep freeze. Without confronting its vulnerabilities,the party cannot begin to repair itself, it can only ask or answer empty questions. In November 2010,after the Bihar defeat,Sonia Gandhi had talked about starting from scratch and rebuilding the party. She can choose to replay this line later this year after Gujarat or move forward.

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