Congress will hold a ‘Chintan Shivir’ in Udaipur, Rajasthan, to assess its current situation and to escape the maze it has created

*Paromita Das
The Congress will hold a ‘Chintan Shivir’ (introspection conclave) between May 13 and 15 in Udaipur, Rajasthan, to assess its current situation and the path forward to escape the maze it has created.

In short, the Chintan Shivir will discuss the party’s overall strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The larger question is whether this conclave will be a show of loyalty to the first family or an honest examination of the factors that have thrown the party into a bottomless pit. If the conscience keepers of the party are truly interested in saving the house, the Udaipur session should revisit the resolutions of two previous sessions, Pachmarhi (1998) and Shimla (2003), and find a solution to the ills that plague the party today.

In his famous treatise Leviathan, political scientist Thomas Hobbes writes, “The greatest difficulty about the right of succession is in monarchy: and the difficulty ariseth from this, that at first sight, it is not manifest who is to appoint the successor.” The greatest challenge confronting Congress today is the issue of succession. It stems from the fact that the heir apparent are defeated generals who are incapable of engaging the mighty opponents in even a decent duel. The second question is whether the family will allow someone else to take the wheel.

A similar session was held in 1998, shortly after Sonia Gandhi was appointed as party president, between September 4 and 6, in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh. The spirit of the Pachmarhi session was encapsulated in Sonia Gandhi’s inaugural address, which stated, “Electoral reverses are unavoidable and, in and of themselves, are not cause for concern. What is disturbing, however, is the loss of our social base, the social coalition that supports and looks up to us. Worryingly, intra-party strife appears to consume so much of our time and energy when it should be directed toward working together to regain popular support and public credibility.”

On Monday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi presided over a meeting of the Congress Working Committee. @INCIndia on Twitter

The party is experiencing déjà vu in 2022, facing the same challenges it did in 1998. The problems persist because Congress decided to abandon the Pachmarhi resolutions five years later in Shimla. According to Dr SC Vats, the convenor of the session’s organizing committee and the then-secretary of the AICC, “Pachmarhi was clear that the party cannot survive for long on the charisma of its leaders alone and that it needed to strengthen the organisation at every level.”

Pachmarhi was adamant that the party stand on its own and not cede territory to partner parties for short-term political gain. “This was abandoned in Shimla in 2003, and from there the party’s fall began,” Vats adds. Shimla Sankalp (Shimla Pledge), read out on 9 July 2003, spelled out in clear terms the party’s desire to walk the path of coalition for the sake of gaining power, though sugarcoating it as the party’s willingness to lead a coalition of “progressive thinking men and women, institutions and political movements who share our understanding of India’s past, concerns about India’s present, and vision for India’s future to join us in this historic endeavour.”

The path change in Shimla was done solely to bring Congress to power at the Center as soon as possible. Pachmarhi was fired despite having helped the party strengthen its organization in states where the Congress won several Assembly elections.

The Shimla strategy did result in the defeat of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2004, which was replaced by a Sonia Gandhi-led United Progressive Alliance government led by Manmohan Singh. In the absence of a political prime minister, this arrangement worked until 2014, weakening Congress at the grassroots. The party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections highlighted the fact that its organization has been harmed by a moth-eaten leadership.
Despite the ‘hard work’ of siblings Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Congress’ stocks have simply refused to rise on the political index. The party decided to resurrect its organization in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Tamil Nadu at Pachmarhi. A quarter-century later, the Congress has weakened even further in these states, becoming insignificant not only in these states but also in West Bengal and Delhi.

Pachmarhi also advocated for free and fair elections at all levels of the party as a panacea for revitalising the organization. An idea that was pronounced loudly but then renounced quietly.
Another significant shortcoming identified at Pachmarhi was a lack of understanding of the party’s ideology and ambiguity in terms of political, social, and economic policies. The political resolution at Pachmarhi stated unequivocally that, in addition to charismatic leadership and strong organization, the party required an ideology that would attract the country’s youth and instil trust in the party.

Paradoxically, the Bharatiya Janata Party of today possesses all of the characteristics prescribed for the Congress by the Pachmarhi session—a charismatic leader in Narendra Modi, a very strong party organization, and clarity about its ideological commitments.
The upcoming Udaipur session could learn a thing or two from the BJP about how it regained control after being deposed in 2004 and losing a slew of state elections. The BJP has also formed alliances, but unlike the Congress, it has gained strength in states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and, of course, Maharashtra. It did so by keeping the organization in good shape and being clear about its goals and objectives.

The Congress in Udaipur is unlikely to look beyond short-term electoral gains. Profits in business only come from investments, so it’s unlikely that Congress would invest in rebuilding the organization. In that case, electoral profits would be a mirage.