Geriatric image to continue in Congress

Though Congress adopted changes minus any discomfort for Gandhis, one positive aspect of the three-day Chintan Shivir at Udaipur is that for the first time in the last eight years, it has accepted that it has been totally cut off from the people and has lost all contact with them. It is interesting to note that they have realised that Congressmen are too busy fighting amongst themselves and there is no unity. "Der Se aaye Durust aaye."

What is more interesting is that the party which lacks unity has now given a call for 'Bharat Jodo.' The party feels that under the present dispensation in the last eight years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been chanting the mantra of minimum government and maximum governance. Sonia Gandhi feels that this meant keeping the country in a permanent state of polarisation, "brutalising" minorities and "threatening" political opponents and, hence, there is a need for 'Bharat Jodo Yatra.'

This Shivir has helped Rahul Gandhi come to the conclusion that there is a need for proper balancing of seniors and juniors and he credited the former with showing the direction and there is a better clarity where the Congress has to go in terms of policy, thinking, and politics. One needs to appreciate that the Shivir has made an attempt to bring about certain changes such as 50 per cent of members of all committees will be below 50 years age, constitution of National Training Centre, conduct of Public Outreach Programmes – Padayatras, Janta Durbars etc – to connect with the masses.

One family–one ticket rule is another bold decision. To what extent it will be able to implement it is something one needs to wait and watch. If one recalls the developments within the party in the last eight years, those who enjoyed proximity to Rahul Gandhi had deserted the party. It is a decision which will be very difficult to implement.

What's more, the party also decided to have a fixed tenure for office-bearers. They will have to resign from their post after a term of five years. Good but this rule does not seem to be applicable to the Gandhi family. It did not speak about change in leadership. It only said organisational elections should be held once in five years. But what about the party president? No tenure has been fixed and no Congress leader would ever talk about it.

The decisions taken at Chintan Shivir, some analysts feel, are like "Musing on the borrowed plumes." They say these ideas were part of the presentation made by Prashant Kishor. While Kishor has been side-stepped in the run-up to the introspection session at Udaipur, his papers have been adopted. Not that he has any great thoughts but his talent to articulate those thoughts came handy for the Congress. More importantly, the sad part of the three-day Shiver is that the party refuses to end the family rule and cleanse itself of the geriatric image.