NEW DELHI: The Congress Working Committee is meeting in Ahmedabad to chalk out party’s roadmap for upcoming assembly polls and decide on slew of measures for the much-needed organisational reforms. The grand old party, which themed its Ahmedabad session as “Nyaypath: Sankalp, Samarpan aur Sangharsh”, on Tuesday asserted it’s claim to Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel’s legacy with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accusing the BJP and RSS of trying to usurp it under a “well-planned conspiracy” against the national heroes.
But will that be enough to counter the BJP?
The Congress has seen a steady decline in its political fortunes since 2014. After a decade of disappointments, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections offered a glimmer of hope as the party nearly doubled its tally in the Lower House. However, the cheer was short-lived as the Congress put up a dismal show in several assembly elections in a row – Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi
So, what does the Congress need to do to change its political fortunes and prevent this slide. Former party leader Sanjay Jha, who writes “Congressi by DNA” in his X bio, has a prescription for the revival of the grand old party. In an exclusive interaction with TOI.com, Sanjay Jha shares a 5-point action plan to rejuvenate the Congress.
Five recommendations for the Congress to reform itself:
1. Announce a shadow cabinet
The Congress must announce a shadow cabinet – just like the leader of the opposition is supposed to be a shadow Prime Minister. The shadow cabinet should name people for at least key portfolios like home, defence, foreign policy, agriculture, industry, finance, HRD etc. If that is done, it will give a massive advantage because people will be able to compare the incumbent govt with what could be the potential cabinet of the opposition govt.
More importantly, they can always take on the media and the public can ask questions to the shadow cabinet on policy issues like tariffs and foreign policy. These are the things Congress needs to seize the initiative.
2. Decentralise Congress
Congress is too strongly focused on Delhi-centric president model. This is a big country. It is not easy to run with one president supported by general secretaries of each and every state or a few states. Instead, there should be five vice-presidents for different regions – North, East, West, South and a separate one for North East because it is a very complex area and needs separate attention.
These VPs will report directly to the president and the general secretaries within these of diferent states can report to the vice president. This is how Congress will become a lot more focused, it will have a lot more empowerment within the leaders running the party across the country and will open opportunities for people like Sachin Pilot, DK Shivkumar, Shashi Tharoor, Randeep Sujrewala and Manish Tewari who are just not leveraged at all at present.
3. Create a model state of development and governance
The Congress party needs to create a model state of governance and development – perhaps any one where they are in govt at present like Karnataka, Telangana or Himachal. The party can create a model to tell the people that this is how we run a state.
Create a parameter on investment, law and order, job creation, no corruption – basically how it is very citizen friendly and how it has been able to make the youth more successful with startups, ability to extract funds, law order, development and transparency.
They create a model state that they can take it across the country to say ‘give us a chance and we can make the entire country similar to this.’ This is what BJP did with Gujarat, even though it was a fake model, it impressed people and that brought them to power in 2014.
4. Make Seva Dal strong
The Congress has neglected this very, very crucial organisation that it has. The party should actually put crude talent, make a young man the head of it and make sure that the Seva Dal becomes what the RSS is to the BJP.
Its ability to work in crisis situations, pan out across communities in India, reach farmers, do household campaigning and actually do social work and not just political, work in areas that require more support. Become a bridge like a political NGO that works between the common people of India, the communities and the political parties that represent them in the parliament.
5. Make the CWC relevant
The Congress Working Committee has got too many people in it, it has too many invited members especially guests. It has really become a place where you give people reason to feel promoted or happy and basically used to distribute goodies here and there.
The CWC has to be a criticial-thinking organisation that should take all the big calls about alliances, big policy issues and should not be left to a handful of people to make big calls. That is the only way to stop a caucus or coterie to emerge.
All the big decisions of the Congress should be left with the CWC where it should be a body of not more than 22 or 24 people. Meeting should not be held for over 25 people.
Reduce the bureaucracy, don’t make it too unwieldy to manage. These 24-25 people should be having decision-making ability to even tell the president that they don’t agree with you. And if the majority of CWC does not agree with the decision, the president should not enforce it.
This is how transparency will be built. CWC needs overall restructure – it needs new faces and needs a completely dynamic team of people – some elected, some bright and intellectual and some not even elected but having a core ideology but more importantly, CWC should become the crucial body to run the entire party.
