Shams Ahsan's Just Shamming

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In India, this is a time for eulogizing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But a rhapsody for the  BJP doesn’t mean a requiem for Congress. So I am going to script a different narrative here. I am going to write a prologue for Congress at a time when everyone has written its final chapter.

Yes, it’s a prologue, because Congress has to turn the page and start a new chapter. Gone are the days of parties with cadres at grassroots levels. Indian elections are no longer party-based. Now they are more on the pattern of a US presidential poll which is personality-centric.

Take Narendra Modi out of the BJP, and the party loses its face. The problem with Congress was that it fought against the BJP’s cult figure Modi in an old-fashioned way. It was like racing against a Ferrari with a chariot. Ironically, the chariot used to be the symbol of the BJP. Today, they have jettisoned it to adopt a modern and advanced vehicle called a ballyhoo running on the gasoline of marketing, PR and social media.

The party ignored the displeasure of its old guard and selected a face which was new and fresh on a national level. The party’s think-tank knew that this was the face that would launch a thousand ships and burn the proverbial tower of Delhi. What was required was to project this face as larger than life as happens in movies. The party successfully utilized all the modern tools of technology to chisel out a figure which towered above everything else, even the party to which it belonged. Thus was created a persona called Narendra Modi. People willingly suspended disbelief and saw in Modi, a redeemer.

If Congress is to rise like a phoenix from the ashes, then it should find a personality which can dwarf that of Modi. The process should start now. The party will be wasting its time if it listens to its old guard and again adopts the old ways of developing its grassroots cadre. Unlike the BJP, Congress already has a grassroots presence all over India. But the popularity and hype around one person enabled the BJP to get a foothold in  the northeast and in the south where it never had any presence. Does this mean that the BJP developed a cadre across India in just five years or that Congress lost its cadre base? No. It means the pyramid of election politics has been turned upside down.

The process of revamping Congress should begin with Sonia Gandhi making way for a non-Gandhi president of the party. Manmohan Singh could be a good choice. The second phase would be to push Priyanka Gandhi into active politics after, of course, wiping the stain of the Vadra scam from her sari’s hem. The third stage: Project her as a reincarnation of Indira Gandhi. Fourth stage: Engage with urban youth through the modern means of communication, create a media hype, project her as larger than life.

India is a country which loves cult figures. If Congress ruled the country for most of its post-independence years, it was because it had towering personalities like Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi. The era of unstable governments based on cobbled together coalitions began once Nehru and Indira were gone from the scene. But a reminder of the personality-centric nature of Indian voters occurred in 1999 when the BJP’s legend Atal Behari Vajpayee led his party and its coalition partners to a thumping victory.

Modi’s resounding election triumph has reiterated the fact that Indian voters are enamored of personalities.