Editorial: Chintan Shivir gets Congress going

Three years after it suffered a major jolt in the Parliament election and many State Assembly poll debacles thereafter, the Congress finally managed to organise a brainstorming session - Chintan Shivir -to reinvigorate the party, in Udaipur recently. This shows that the party has acknowledged that a reset is necessary to regain the lost glory and arrest its eroding mass appeal.

The three-day conclave gave an opportunity for leaders from all parts of the country, including the dissenters - popularly known as Group of 23, to sit together and deliberate on critical issues that affect the party.

Like any other Congress event, the Shivir too received widespread criticism from political pundits because they felt the Grand Old Party once again failed to address the most crucial issue of leadership change and the reins will remain in the hands of the Gandhi family. But it appears to be just a matter of time as the party has made it clear that the question of leadership will be decided after the organisational elections.

By focussing all their attention on the one-point agenda of leadership change, the critics apparently missed other important deliberations at the event, one among them being the issue of social justice. It is pertinent to note that the party did a reality check on the condition of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes and the importance of a caste census. Congress has supported the caste census, which apparently is a touchy issue for its main political rival, Bharatiya Janata Party.

But the actual game-changer will be the recommendations given by the party’s Social Justice Committee to reserve more positions for SC/ ST/ OBC/minority community members that can strengthen its social base and bring in social engineering. This, in the long run, will attract underrepresented communities, majority of whom are currently closer to the BJP

The party appears to have accepted the importance of strengthening the organisation and the decision to create ‘mandal committees’ at booth-level and blocklevel and appoint 50% of district and block presidents below 45 appear to be steps in the right direction. Besides, the ‘one family one ticket formula’ can attract more people from non-affluent families to take up party positions.

All said and done, what is important is how the Congress will implement the proposals. Reports that the leadership has already started looking into them and national teams have already been formed to oversee the implementation of these reforms in State units give clear indications that the Congress is seriously gearing up for a change.

Combined with this, the party hopes to energise its cadre with the Bharath Jodo Yahra, which will kick off from Kanyakumari on October 2, and the Jan Jagaran Abhiyan, a campaign that focusses on livelihood issues.

Congress must realise that the fight is not just against BJP, but the divisive majoritarian culture that the saffron party has successfully instilled in the public sphere. It is a huge task, but the party leadership must be congratulated for taking up the challenge.