Can Congress put aside Ram mandir and reclaim its floor by reorganising, reuniting, and refocussing?
Rahul Gandhi with supporters in the course of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Mokokchung district, Nagaland, on January 18.
| Photograph Credit score: PTI
Probably the most vital difficulty for the Congress just isn’t debating whether or not it ought to have attended the Ram mandir ceremony at Ayodhya however whether or not it could actually inspire its staff and tie up with its alliance companions. The occasion, subsequently, must ignore the commentariat that has been saying that it has missed an awesome Hindu Renaissance second. There was a rare quantity of conjecture and criticism—spilling past the TV information channels morphing into devotional channels—that implies that the Congress made a mistake. Center-of-the-road opinion writers have acknowledged emphatically that the occasion has been suicidal, silly, and out of contact with the nationwide temper and that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge mustn’t have declined the invitation to attend the January 22 ceremony.
It’s arduous to grasp what the Congress might have gained from attending an occasion choreographed round Prime Minister Narendra Modi that eclipses even the opposite figures in his personal occasion. And it’s delusional to think about that the Congress might have been something however an additional within the triumphal BJP/RSS/VHP movie. Furthermore, when the occasion has been drummed up because the symbolic inauguration of a de facto Hindu Rashtra, can the Congress, which led the liberty motion and gave the nation the beliefs enshrined within the Indian Structure, be a part of a course of that subverts these very beliefs and values?
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When it comes to optics, the Ram temple ceremony does seem to current India as a theocratic nation whose chief has been engaged in an elaborate non secular purification ceremony within the days previous January 22 at the same time as the general public has been fed breathless particulars about rituals and idols and prayers and excessive monks. Might the descendants of Jawaharlal Nehru have been mute onlookers to a spectacle that glorifies the merging of faith with politics and undermines the foundational values of unbiased India?
Problem for the opposition
There isn’t any denying that the Ayodhya 2024 programme has been constructed up like a blockbuster: incessant media protection of the temple city mixed with the amplification of the Prime Minister as a dharma guru. This has merged with an enormous outreach programme by RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal cadres, who’ve gone door to door in lots of States, issuing invitations and organising particular pujas. There’s a heightened religiosity within the air, and one can surmise that the Ram mandir has the potential to assist the BJP cement its place in areas it already dominates. Allow us to not neglect, nonetheless, that the BJP vote share in 2019, at 37.38 per cent, was seen as having peaked, so there’s nonetheless logic and room for a strong fightback.
The problem for the opposition now could be to shift the discourse to bread-and-butter points. It should battle on points the place it’s on agency floor quite than on mythology and religion. It additionally must recalibrate the language across the caste census; leaders might give attention to asking why the Modi regime doesn’t need a depend and but keep away from presenting the INDIA bloc as being OBC-centric. The Congress not too long ago misplaced a bit of tribal votes, a piece it might give attention to. Equally, though the dominant castes are seen as supporting the BJP, many amongst them are actively searching for choices.
In latest weeks, the Congress has been attempting to speed up the method of placing its home so as. To take action it has to first, metaphorically, construct the home, and in the direction of that finish there’s an unprecedented outreach to outdated Congress cadres, many forgotten for many years and never activated. The thought is to current this as an election of the odd employee.
Lengthy-forgotten staff have gotten calls from the Congress conflict room in New Delhi asking if they’re nicely and able to decide up the reins once more. They’re then given three duties: getting the voter lists in a village or mandal, organising an occasion with ladies voters, and observing native festivals and delivery anniversaries of nationwide icons.
Highlights
- Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is a step in the proper course, as hitting the bottom is commonly the one reply to an unequal enjoying area.
- Financial points akin to unemployment and inflation loom on the horizon past the temple, so the problem now could be for the opposition to appear to be it could actually current a reputable selection.
- The Congress has recognized 96 seats the place it faces direct contests with the BJP and hopes to make a battle of it.
Use of expertise
The considering is that throughout the nation, even in locations the place the Congress has confronted electoral defeats, the occasion does have a vote share in addition to staff or households dedicated to the occasion’s inclusive ideology. However since organisational buildings of the occasion have collapsed, the present effort makes use of expertise to bypass State committees in locations the place they’re run as particular person fiefdoms and never as wholesome occasion models.
Direct hyperlinks to the nationwide conflict room through WhatsApp teams and video calls are getting used to create this parallel construction. The outreach is to teams known as mandals, every of which has 10 to fifteen voting cubicles underneath it. As soon as the thread is picked up, the suggestions and actions are monitored.
The query now could be whether or not this belated try and create a celebration construction will work. The duty has been undertaken by former IAS officer Sashikanth Senthil, now the chairman of the central conflict room. A 2009 Karnataka cadre officer, he give up the service and joined the Congress in 2020. He seems to be ideologically pushed, versus election strategists who work for a payment.
“In spite of everything, it is among the guidelines of electoral politics that voters don’t wish to waste their vote, so if the opposition is offered as defeated earlier than the battle has even begun, it helps the incumbent.”
Such efforts can solely work if the as soon as defunct cadres are additionally galvanised by the narrative. Concurrently, subsequently, pitches are being heard from skilled companies, and the Congress marketing campaign is prone to be finalised and rolled out in early February. Very a lot a part of this course of is Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. It’s a step (or many) in the proper course, as hitting the bottom is commonly the one reply to an unequal enjoying area. Such an uneven area is true right now when it comes to how state companies are put in pursuit of opposition figures, the BJP’s domination of political finance, the general institutional decline, and the puppet media.
If leaders of different opposition events be a part of the journey, it could actually create a momentum and chemistry. The Congress had delayed seat-sharing talks as a result of Meeting elections final yr after which confronted stunning defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. The occasion is now speedily addressing that difficulty by particular panels: some alliances have already been birthed whereas others are prone to occur quickly.
On a regular basis psych-ops
It’s late however not over. Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to be strolling the victory lap day by day. So, the query is whether or not the BJP has peaked early or if that is a part of psych-ops: beating the drums of victory every single day. In spite of everything, it is among the guidelines of electoral politics that voters don’t wish to waste their vote, so if the opposition is offered as defeated earlier than the battle has even begun, it helps the incumbent.
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But, financial points akin to unemployment and inflation loom on the horizon past the temple, so the problem now could be for the opposition to appear to be it could actually current a reputable selection. The Congress has certainly recognized 96 seats the place it faces direct contests with the BJP and hopes to make a battle of it. The seat-sharing arithmetic in States the place regional gamers are robust is essential to the eventual contest.
In the meantime, there’s additionally a realisation within the opposition camp that bringing the BJP’s numbers right down to a determine that necessitates a coalition authorities would even be a aid of types. They’re, in spite of everything, dwelling in an age when the present authorities can pressure the mass expulsion of 146 opposition MPs in Parliament. However it’s within the face of nice tyrannies that mighty battles are waged.
Saba Naqvi is Delhi-based journalist and writer of 4 books, who writes on politics and identification points.
