Futile Hope of Unity

I t does not take much to conclude that the Congress party in Rajasthan is on a suicidal path. Rajasthan is just the second state (after Chhattisgarh) where the grand old party is in the saddle of power on its own. It is evident from the latest fusillade shot by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot against Mr. Sachin Pilot, once his deputy, that there is no holds barred tussle between the two, although Mr. Pilot has desisted from crossing the limits of civility.

The utterances from Mr. Gehlot underscore deep fissures within the organization in a state where it trounced the chief adversary the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) convincingly in 2018. Even the fact that the party is in election mode in Gujarat and party’s iconic leader Rahul Gandhi is on ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, did not deter the senior Congressman from describing his bête noire in choicest terms.

While he repeated ‘gaddar’ (traitor) four times, in 2020, he had dubbed him ‘nakara’ (incompetent). These are certainly no terms a senior leader is expected to utter against his rival within the party. The slugfest serves as an index of the depths the party has plumbed in the terminal year of rule in the State. In sharp contrast, Mr. Pilot’s reply to Gehlot’s allegations drips with decency and respect that ought to be shown to a senior leader.

The latest turn of events have only ripped open the past wounds inflicted in the wake of rebellion staged by Mr. Pilot in 2020 when he took out over a dozen MLAs to a resort near Delhi in a show of open dissidence against Mr. Gehlot’s leadership of the state. Though there is nothing to show by evidence that he acted at the behest of the BJP, Gehlot has never hesitated in reiterating the charges ad nauseum.

Perhaps, on similar lines, Pilot too has little evidence to offer as proof that Gehlot was put into the saddle on the pledge that the five-year tenure of the party in Rajasthan will be equally divided between the two claimants of the top seat. The infighting in the party is a reflection of deep deterioration of the discipline within the ranks and file of the Congress which has suffered defeats after defeat in states besides the inability to recapture the seat in Delhi in 2014 and 2019.

Glue of power having departed long ago, the discipline and ideology should have ideally replaced it. It seems the spirit of Chintan Shivir (introspective session) held recently has failed to percolate down the ranks. Despite a new President at the helms, the party shows no unity of purpose. Given this backdrop, no wonder why the party is acting merely as an ‘also ran’ in Gujarat. It is for the bigwigs in the Congress party to disprove that hopes reposed in the new leadership are not futile.