Congress Foundation Day: The grand old party- Congress celebrated its 138th foundation day on Wednesday. All top leaders from party president Mallikarjun Kharge to Rahul Gandhi participated in an event held at the AICC headquarters, New Delhi.
Post-Independent, the grand old party had autonomy in Indian politics for several decades. However, it revolved around the Gandhi family which even today is an axis of the party that attracts criticism from the opponents. Congress today is reduced to 52 MPs in Lok Sabha but it was once the most dominant political force in India. In fact, the record of the maximum MPs (414 in the 1984-85 Lok Sabha election) is still held by Congress. Congress ruled India for around 6 decades which is a testimony of the fact how much love and trust of the people it enjoyed. However, it has never been free from ugly internal politics which several times brought embarrassment to the party. Here we pick 5 major turning points of the party:-
1. Indira factor: If Congress was nourished by Jawaharlal Nehru in its early years post-Independence, it was Indira Gandhi who developed it fully. She by winning the 1971 War against Pakistan added glory to the party. However, the ‘Emergency’ called by her drew sharp criticism from within the country and outside. Under her leadership, Congress lived a complete life. Post-Emergency, Congress was voted out. Embattled Indira again went to the people and regained the lost electoral ground in 1980. After Nehru, Indira revived the party and modernized it. She was ousted from the party for her forward and radical reforms. On 12 November 1969, then PM Indira Gandhi was expelled from her own party for violating the party discipline and splitting into two factions. Gandhi set up a rival organization Indian National Congress (Requisitionists), which came to be known as Congress (R) and today's INC.
2. Breakaways: Except Bharatiya Janta Party and a few other regional parties, all political forces were derived from Congress. From TMC’s Mamata Bannerjee to YSRCP’s Jagan Mohan Reddy- several politicians parted their ways with Congress and formed their own parties. It was started by Morarji Desai who deserted Congress and formed Janta Party. In the 1977 general election, Desai led the Janata Party to victory. Later, several parties ramified from Janta Party. Today’s Rashtriya Janta Dal, Janta Dal (United) and Janta Dal (Secular) are a few of them.
3. Sonia factor: Sonia Gandhi reluctantly joined Congress in the late 1990s after the assassination of her husband Rajiv Gandhi. It was a tough time when she got the reign of the party. Congress was in Opposition and suffering from groupism. She rose to the occasion and rebuilt the party. She successfully ran the campaign against the stalwarts such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. In 2004, Congress defeated Vajpayee-led BJP. There was an opportunity to become prime minister of India but she denied to be crowned and picked up Manmohan Singh- an economist and face of the minority. However, the party saw the worst ever defeat to BJP in 2014 reducing to 44 seats in Lok Sabha. She was also criticised for allegedly running a parallel government during the Manmohan government.
4. Rahul factor: Gandhi family supporters say Rahul Gandhi is the future of the party. Rahul Gandhi got an opportunity to run the party in 2017 but under his leadership, the party underperformed in 2019 and with marginal improvement in numbers, the party won just 52 seats. Owing to the responsibility for the debacle, he resigned from the party president post. Despite his reluctance, the entire party leadership has been backing him. Even today, the party has been carrying out a massive campaign in years to allegedly relaunch Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi has been a Centrepoint of the ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.
5. Political mistakes: Political analysts criticize Congress for the repetition of mistakes and not learning any lesson from one following another defeat. Post-2014, radical internal reform was required but the party did not introspect. Those who expected some changes after embarrassing debacles in two general elections and several assembly elections lost their patients and deserted the party. Leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Jitin Prasada are few names from the long list.
