I have often asked my uncle ,a veteran congressman,during his hay days ,as to why the congress is so dependant on the Gandhis.His answer was that ,'without the Gandhis,the party would fall into pieces because there would be so much infighting .The Gandhis keep the party together.'
Indian politics and geopolitical scene has undergone a mammoth change in the last decade or so.Grass-root politics has become the essence of the day.Are the Gandhis,a problem as the dissidents make it out to be?I guess not.They are doing their bit ..but the aspiration of the congressman that sheer Gandhi charisma and nil work at the grassroot level should win them elections is a myth.
I have lived in UP for almost a better part of two years and have seen a vague caricature of what goes on.The truth is,there is no congress presence there. Nearer this election we heard a few Samajwadi noises ,to be precise exactly one brahmin farmer who had just come back from the farmer's agitation in Delhi.I was so taken aback that I started chuckling away and he gave me a cold look.
Having seen the plight of the people in UP during the Covid times,their wretchedness ,their stoic behavior ,the way they were being cheated of breath by their own compatriots,their hopelessness in the face of apathy,I wondered how things would play out.The apple did not fall too far away from the tree.
Where was the local face in the party?All we saw in the congress advertisements were Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi doing their campaigning and reaching out to the public.Are there no local leaders worth their salt in the entire state?Is Priyanka Gandhi willing to go the Mamta Banerjee way in UP or is she going to withdraw to her Luyton crowd and appear again when the elections come?If they are not comitted to the region least of which constitutes living in the region and trying to understand the heart-beat of the area,congress should concentrate on grooming other younger local leaders with clear intent and build them.Even Indira Gandhi ,after having had the illustrious Nehru as a father had to fight for her place in the sun..she was just a 'Gungi gudia' who was later said to be the only 'man 'in her cabinet.The complexity of the layers in UP society keeps me flummoxed.There are no easy answers.
The grand old party is still hijacked by the elite circles of Delhi.There is no dearth of polish,intellect and aureate advocates,but are they willing to put their lot behind grooming youngsters and leaving a legacy beyond rhetorics? Congress needs meticulous grassroot organisation , even the congress men at the grassroots do not take their party seriously.I always remember what a poor old Hindu man from Saharanpur told me during the elections after the Muzzaffarpur riots,'we do not have a choice...we have to do it for our survival'. I am not sure whether it was the propoganda which worked as many in left stream media would like us to believe,but for that poor man who was innocent ,poor and sincere that seemed to be the truth as he saw it.In democracy ,his understanding of the truth matters ,most importantly he has to live it everyday.
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