Leadership Crisis?

136 years old congress, the party of India’s independence is now in a dire need of a new leader?

This party has given India the greatest leaders like W.C. bonnerjee, Dadabhai Naoroji, Motilal Nehru, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Subhash Chandra bose, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narsimha Rao, Sonia Gandhi, and Manmohan Singh. We still have many great leaders in this party as of today but why do we lack leadership. For decades the Gandhi-Nehru family has given great leaders to this party, but will it be significant to associate the party with the name of Gandhi behind him?

In 2014, the Indian general election Congress won 44 seats out of 543 which is even less than 10%. It was the worst defeat ever. And in the 2019 election polls, Congress won 52 seats. Don’t you think that these results at least deserve some introspection? Where did they go wrong?

Congress has been desperately trying to get Rahul Gandhi on board and make him the party president and the next Prime Minister. But they have failed twice, resulting in one of the most devastating defeats. Maybe now is the time to rethink if the faith the party is showing in the Gandhi family is enough to win elections. The answer is NO.

Many good leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia are now exiting the party and joining the opposition. There are many reasons for Congress’s failure but it all comes down to one thing: the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. Some of this is also the reason of media and social platforms manipulating his image but it also comes down to him mishandling the situations.

He resigned from the party’s president post, this was seen as a brave and impressive declaration but nothing happened. For some months Sonia was chosen as the Interim president but then the throne was again handed over to him. And after some more drama, he resigned again to take control of the party again. It felt like the Gandhi family is now playing catch with the party’s president seat. In August 2020, a group of 23 senior leaders from Congress addressed a letter to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi requesting immediate and active leadership, organizational rejig. But instead of seeing this letter as an awakening, the party claimed them as traitors.

It is saddening that whoever tries to raise a voice, his voice is suppressed and silenced. A century-old party is now in the hands of just one family, and they will use this party for as long as they wish and whichever way possible to remain in power.