Following Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s lead, former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has also expressed concerns over the party’s present fate. Aiyar was quoted by ANI as saying:
Congressmen should look at reality. We have only 44 MPs and have faced serious setbacks.
Aiyar also said, indirectly echoing Ramesh’s thoughts:
...Congress needs new ideas, new thoughts, new methods of working, new ways.
‘Congress Is Facing an Existential Crisis’
Earlier, Ramesh had managed to upset Congress’s circle of senior leaders by saying that the party was in the midst of an “existential crisis.” Ramesh was quoted by PTI as saying:
I would say that the Congress is facing an existential crisis. It is not an electoral crisis. The party really is in deep crisis.
Senior party leader Jairam Ramesh pitched for “a collective effort” by party leaders to overcome the challenges it faced from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
Ramesh also said that business-as-usual approach will not work against Modi and Shah, and advocated for a flexibility in approach to make the Congress relevant.
He said it was wrong for the Congress to think that anti-incumbency will work automatically against the Modi-led government in the states during elections. Ramesh said to that effect:
We have to understand we are up against Modi and Shah; they think differently, they act differently and if we are not flexible in our approach, we will become irrelevant, frankly.
Ramesh added that the Congress must recognise that India has changed:
Old slogans don’t work, old formulas don’t work, old mantras don’t work. India has changed, the Congress party has to change.
‘Uncertainty Over Rahul Becoming Congress President Should End’
The former Union minister hoped that party Vice President Rahul Gandhi would end the uncertainty over his taking over as the Congress president to make the party ready for crucial electoral battles in key states in 2018 and the Lok Sabha polls scheduled a year later.
I think in all probability, Rahul Gandhi will take charge (as Congress president) before the end of 2017Jairam Ramesh
The senior leader lamented that he had been proved wrong in the past about his prediction regarding Rahul assuming the charge of the top party job. Ramesh said:
I thought it will happen in 2015, it didn’t happen. I thought it will happen in 2016, it didn’t happen. So I am the wrong person to ask this question. I feel that it may happen before the end of 2017.
‘Aghast by Nitish Kumar’s Decision to Ally With NDA’
Asked if there is anyone in the Congress party to throw a strong challenge to Modi in 2019 elections, Ramesh said:
I have always maintained that it is the collective strength of the Congress that will overcome Modi, not some individual magic wand... It has to be a collective effort.
Ramesh also took potshots at party leaders who behave as if the party is still in power.
The sultanate has gone, but we behave as if we are sultans still. We have to completely redo the way of thinking, the way of acting, the way of projecting, the way of communicating...
He said Nitish Kumar's return to the NDA fold was a big setback for the anti-BJP coalition in the country, describing it as a “complete betrayal of the mandate” given to the Mahagathbandhan by the people of Bihar.
(With inputs from PTI)
(This article has been edited for length.)
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