Reviving the Congress: Rahul Can Be BCCI Chief, But Not Captain

Inducting new talent and overseeing the party from a vantage point can help Rahul Gandhi revamp the Congress.

As keen cricket followers know, there are many ways to rattle rivals. Vivian Richards did it with his swaggering march to the crease, Javed Miandad with his jabber, and Glenn McGrath with an open, pre-series challenge to the opposition’s star batsman. Steve Waugh’s all-conquering Australian side, of course, took things to another level with its package of mental disintegration tactics.

Behind all these was a common realisation. That a combatant entering the battle arena projecting the right body language will not only beat, but scar weaker opponents, get the better of an evenly matched opponent, and may even trump a stronger one. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah understand this well; the Congress, at least in its current phase, doesn’t.

Also Read: Inside Story: Cong Cadres Dejected, but Pin Hopes on Rahul Gandhi

BJP’s Winning Strategy

Recent analyses of the Congress’ woes have tended to focus on Rahul Gandhi’s leadership and his party’s incoherent ideology, weak messaging and reluctance to empower leaders outside the party’s first family.

What these cumulatively translate to is something that has perhaps been less commented on: the party’s inability to signal winning intent, its inability to convey that it is not merely a participant but a credible challenger, not merely a pretender but a potential winner.

In contrast, the BJP joins the electoral fray with a winner’s strut, betraying no trace of self-doubt.

Cut to the run-up to the 2014 parliamentary elections. The BJP boldly announced Mission 272+ even as analysts projected around 200 seats for it.

Modi’s readiness for the top job was signaled via an energetic campaign and a chain of endorsements from the who’s who of India Inc and friendly sections of the media. Modi himself struck a winning posture in his rallies referring to excited crowds that stretched as far as the eye could see and seeking votes not for his already-guaranteed victory but a landslide endorsement.

Also Read: Race to Rashtrapati Bhavan: Can Congress Fight a Losing Battle?

Cong’s Suicidal Inertia

Every BJP gesture was designed to leave no doubt about which way the tide was turning, nay, had turned – and it worked. Cadres were electrified, swing voters found an anchor, and the rest is history.

Meanwhile, the Congress, hobbled by anti-incumbency and unnerved by the BJP campaign, found whatever wind remained in its sails sucked out by talk of how Rahul had half a mind to sit in the opposition till 2019 and use the time to build the party.

The mindset difference has been evident in almost every single election the two parties faced-off in sine. Even now, the BJP’s energetic pursuit of Mission 50+ in Himachal Pradesh and Mission 150+ in Gujarat stands in contrast to the Congress’ perfunctory noises about its not-altogether-bad prospects in the two states.

And while Amit Shah criss-crosses the country in preparation for 2019 and radiates confidence about bettering the 2014 showing, the Congress struggles against its suicidal inertia.

Taking a Cue from Cricket

Not surprisingly, the ‘where is the alternative?’ question commonly crops up in political discussion. Some ask the question to mock Modi Sarkar detractors; others ask it in frustration, seeing what the Modi Sarkar is getting away with. Either way, it reflects the (non-)seriousness with which the Congress challenge is popularly viewed.

What should the Congress do then? How the Indian cricket side managed to shake off its Pakistan bogey may offer a clue.

Miandad’s six off the last ball of the match on an April 1986 evening in Sharjah not only sealed a famous Pakistan victory, but haunted Indian sides for years.  In that phase, no Indian total, however impressive, appeared safe, even modest Pakistan totals proved enough, and every Pakistani seemed a matchwinner.

Only after India’s scarred core came to be replaced by a brasher generation did things change. Crucial to the turnaround was focus on one’s own strengths and a refusal to be affected by past record. Each match came to be treated as a discrete opportunity, not an extension of past run-ins that had gone the other way.

The Congress, then, could begin with two things.

1) Appreciate what isn’t a problem for it.
It must realise that, despite the TINA talk going around, it remains the only viable alternative to the BJP in the foreseeable future.

Perhaps the clearest acknowledgment of this comes from the BJP’s top two themselves.

In seeking a Congress-mukt Bharat, Modi and Shah acknowledge that:

(a) the Congress’ historical moorings, far from bare talent cupboard and sizeable (if diminishing) footprint, place it in the best position among opposition parties to counter their potent spin; and,

(b) despite recent BJP inroads into new territories, it would be their party’s performance in traditional strongholds where the Congress is its main, long-standing opponent that will be critical to recapturing power in 2019.

2) Field a hungrier team.

The BJP juggernaut will be halted not by veterans who have been repeatedly stymied in the past, but by new faces unfettered by past baggage, individuals inclined to treat future contests as new ones with their own dynamics, as occasions to further national and party interests, and carve their own niches.

Again, drawing lessons from the cricketing domain, these individuals will need to given time. Which essentially means the team must be chosen now if the 2019 bus is to be caught.

Dealing With the Old Guard

The blooding of fresh, hungrier faces has worked before in Indian politics. For Modi in 2014. After maneuvering himself into position as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate much before it was formally announced, Modi effectively sidelined the party’s old guard and most contemporaries from campaign strategising, and took to battle with a relatively unknown handpicked team.

The BJP would have been nowhere near where it found itself on counting day had the jaded party apparatus been entrusted the campaign.

Ushering out the old guard and promoting fresh leadership isn’t going to be easy for the Congress. In a party where careers have been founded based on proximity to the first family, there is bound to be dissonance.

One imagines the future role for Rahul will be a particularly thorny issue. Gandhi Jr, given his unflattering record of fronting campaigns against the BJP and Modi, must rule himself out from the prime ministership race in the near future.

However, his presence at the party helm is imperative. There are few outside the party first family who can hold it together, especially when bitter pills have to be administered. Essentially, Rahul could be the equivalent of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief, not the team captain.

Disappointments with the Modi Sarkar are mounting. More than halfway into its designated term, it is struggling to deliver promised jobs, address farm sector woes, contain internal security challenges and curb majoritarian impulses.

In normal times in any democratic set-up, these alone would be good reason to enthuse the opposition. The prospects of what a Congress more aware of its own strengths and playing with a hungrier nucleus could achieve in 2019 are tantalising.

Also Read: 10 Reasons Why BJP’s Dream of Congress-Mukt Bharat Won’t Come True

(Manish Dubey is a policy analyst and crime fiction writer and can be contacted @ManishDubey1972. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)