Opinion Exit of ‘gen-next’ leaders from Congress underlines that Rahul Gandhi’s plans need rethinking, renewal
🔴 Unless the Congress begins to provide opportunities to leaders to make their way up from the bottom — and the spaces for them to be heard within the party — its seemingly interminable slide is likely to go on.
Singh, Scindia and Prasada are not politicians who have come up through the ranks. Each belongs to a political family with roots in the Congress. 
Even if those leaving a sinking ship do not cover themselves in glory, for those at the ship’s helm, this should provide cold comfort — after all, the ship is still sinking. In the backdrop of the approaching Uttar Pradesh election, R P N Singh’s exit from the Congress may have limited impact: His sphere of influence is said to be confined to Padrauna and Kushi Nagar Lok Sabha constituency. Yet the former Congress MP, minister and AICC secretary’s decision sends out a larger signal — that Rahul Gandhi’s plans for the Grand Old Party’s transition from an organisation dominated by the old guard to one that has a younger and more vigorous face, may be coming to nought. Singh is the third prominent leader — after Jitin Prasada and Jyotiraditya Scindia — of Rahul Gandhi’s “chosen” team, the party’s so-called “gen-next” leadership, to cross over to the BJP.
Singh, Scindia and Prasada are not politicians who have come up through the ranks. Each belongs to a political family with roots in the Congress. Each was given responsibilities in both the party and in Congress-led governments. That these leaders, who presumably had the ear of the party high command, have chosen to leave the Congress can be taken as a sign that they see little hope in the foreseeable future for the party’s revival and the advancement of their own political careers through it. For the Congress as a whole and Rahul Gandhi in particular, their exits could mark the beginning of a further depletion of the party’s second-rung leadership — more exits and the consequent sense of despondence and demoralisation among its members and supporters. Or, if the Congress can summon the agility and the will, this could also be a moment to begin a course correction and to nurture young leaders who have a greater presence at the grassroots, and a deeper commitment to the party.
Rahul Gandhi, as far back as 2008, tried — with limited success — to democratise the Congress by picking up young leaders for the Youth Congress who did not belong to the entitled elite. But that initiative slowed and floundered, as all Congress plans and projects do, in the absence of the leadership taking full ownership of them, or doing a sustained follow-up. Unless the Congress begins to provide opportunities to leaders to make their way up from the bottom — and the spaces for them to be heard within the party — its seemingly interminable slide is likely to go on.
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on January 27, 2022 under the title ‘Exodus & opening’.
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