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Modi won 2014 because Congress lost it. Now it needs to reinvent itself

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Pawan Khera
Pawan KheraDec 29, 2014 | 16:03

Modi won 2014 because Congress lost it. Now it needs to reinvent itself

The Congress flag was hoisted at 24, Akbar Road this morning to mark the 130th anniversary of the grand old party – the Indian National Congress. Among those present, some could relate to the flag, some to the leadership and others to the fog that enveloped the city. As the flag went up, several questions came to mind. What does a political party mean to its followers? How much do its leadership, ideology and electoral performance contribute to the chemistry between the party and its supporters?

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Instead of analysing all that has been spoken about the current state of the party, let us see the difference between the leaderships of the two national parties in India. A comparison must be made between one who leads for ambition and benefits of funders, associates and friends and the other who seeks to deserve to lead. The reference point for the first kind of leadership is victory. For the second kind, processes matter. In the 2014 elections, who wanted the job more, was the argument. The narrative got reduced to the ambition of winning the election. To deserve, one automatically means to resort to a longer and an arduous route. To want is to choose shortcuts. Ambition brought one to 7, Race Course Road. Do we know what he plans to do or undo yet?

Centrism is not an ideology. It is a rejection of extreme ideologies - both of the extreme Left and the extreme Right. Moderation is a natural state of being while an extremity is a temporary aberration or a secondary choice. The Congress, by virtue of being moderatist becomes the party of natural choice. There is a huge space which naturally belongs to the party – the pro-Hindu space and also the pro-minorities’ space; the pro-capitalist and also the pro-welfarist space. By its very nature, a centrist way of thought cannot pursue extreme reactions when faced with an extremist point of view.

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The strength of the Congress ideology lies in the fact that it is the antidote to cult leadership, to homogenising adventurism, to GDP -fundamentalism at all costs, to machismo which treats the world as a ramp and foreign policy as a ramp walk, to cowboyism at the border.

If Hinduism is a way of life, Congressism too is a way of being. Its values and principles come from the people. It truly represents the spirit of India – firm yet flexible.

We cannot strategise our future without knowing the reasons for our fall. Not for a moment can anyone believe that the Congress did not see it coming. There was a suicidal miscommunication between those who saw it coming and those who had the ability to stop it. Those who were bringing it about were hopefully doing so unknowingly. To believe that the country chose Narendra Modi is another suicidal understanding of the situation. The voter rejected the Congress. It was not the RSS cadres which made the BJP win this election. It was also not the PR machinery of Narendra Modi, as even the Congress could have hired the best. It was the aspirational class that belonged to the Congress, which this time around voted the Congress out. Our silence cost us dear. We miscomprehended the new formats of communication. The miscomprehension was seen as apathy. Narendra Modi won the 2014 Lok Sabha election because Congress lost it.

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Congress was never a cadre based party. From the various stages of the freedom struggle to nationalisation of banks to liberalisation of the economy, the party provided natural leadership by espousing causes and identifying itself with issues that were of the people, by the people and for the people. That alone was and will always be its greatest strength.

BJP’s tryst with power has always meant appeasement of its cadres by demolishing the mosque, riots, conversions, love jihad, hate speeches and much more that we have seen in the past and will see in near future.

An election purges both the winner and the loser. Just as 2002 has been relegated into remote recesses of our memory and the man responsible for it has not only been forgiven but crowned as the Prime Minister, the debacle of 2014 has also purged the Congress of all the real or perceived mistakes a party makes when in power, and especially when in a coalition. Yet the party must reconnect, communicate and usurp both the street and the headline.

Lazy and passive notions of secularism and welfarism need to be dumped – replaced by useable, downloadable apps - 21st century versions. This app does not differentiate between retaliatory hatred of either Hindu or Muslim. It looks at economic prosperity and aspiration as the new unifying identity. Only the Congress can use this identity to replace mutually radicalising religious and caste identities.

The best thing that could have happened to the BJP was the defeat it faced in 2004. The party and its leadership got ten years to go through a transition - a transition which made yesterday’s villains intotoday’s heroes.

For the Congress too, the defeat of 2014 couldn’t have come at a better time. The party may not have the good fortune though of getting 10 years to evolve and reinvent.

Last updated: December 29, 2014 | 16:03
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