Will Congress’ change of address herald a new beginning?

“We are now fighting the BJP, the RSS and the Indian State itself,” the former Congress president said, imploring his party colleagues to be prepared for the political battle that lies ahead of them and the many pressures that come with it.

'Rahul's belligerent remark'

Rahul’s belligerent attack, invoking familiar motifs of “institutional capture” by the RSS and the “ideological battle” between a 'rabidly Hindu-right Sangh Parivar' and a 'secular Congress', was prefaced with his unqualified call for RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s arrest on charges of treason. Slamming Bhagwat’s statement of a day earlier that India’s “true independence” was achieved only last year with the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Rahul said the RSS chief “has the audacity to inform the nation every two to three days what he thinks about the independence movement, the Constitution... what he said yesterday is treason because it is stating that the Constitution is invalid, fight against the British was invalid... in any other country, he would be arrested and tried... it's about time we stop listening to this nonsense that these people think they can just keep parroting out”.

Also read: ‘Treason’: Rahul, Kharge blast RSS chief for remark on India’s Independence

The BJP, expectedly, has latched on to Rahul’s assertion that the Congress is fighting the “Indian State itself” while maintaining a studied silence on Bhagwat’s likening of the consecration of the Ram Mandir with India’s “true Independence”. Sundry BJP leaders, including party chief JP Nadda, have been quick to reiterate their “anti-national” jibe at the Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition, alleging that Rahul had “declared war” against the country.

Congress slams Nadda

Rebutting the BJP’s charge, Congress media wing chief Pawan Khera told The Federal that Nadda’s charge was, predictably, a “gross misrepresentation” of Rahul’s speech, which had clearly “de-lineated the country from its deeply politicised and evidently partisan institutional apparatus or the Indian State”.

The political storm that Rahul has triggered with his ‘fighting the Indian State’ comment, of course, was to be expected. The BJP has, over the past few years, invested immense political capital in seeking to paint the Congress leader and his party as “anti-national” and inimical to the country’s sovereign, social and economic interests. The winter session of Parliament, during which the entire BJP brass repeatedly invoked allegations of Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi’s “relationship” with controversial philanthropist George Soros, was a precursor to the scathing attacks that came Wednesday from the saffron ranks.

However, the speeches Rahul and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge made at the inauguration of their party’s new headquarters go well beyond the restricted political focus that Rahul’s comments have drawn.

‘Ideological fight to be focus'

Kharge and Rahul stressed the need for their party’s organisational rejuvenation and reinvigorating the Congress’s ideological fight against the Sangh Parivar. Ordinarily, these could be dismissed as platitudes often heard at any crucial meeting of the Congress party but rarely heeded. The inauguration of the new party headquarters, however, is perhaps an occasion for the Congress to reflect more deeply on these repeated assertions and, more importantly, affect the necessary course correction.

Also read: Sonia Gandhi inaugurates new Congress headquarters in Delhi

The Wednesday event at 9A Kotla Road had in attendance practically the entire senior leadership of the Congress – from CWC members and chief ministers to several state Congress and legislature party chiefs. Among these, the ‘old timers’ who had also witnessed the Congress’s historic shift to the 24 Akbar Road address in 1978, recalled the “similarities in the party’s poor electoral fortunes” between that moment in history 47 years ago and the present. Younger leaders, now associated with ‘Rahul’s Team’, saw merit in the symbolism Rahul invoked by saying the new headquarters had “emerged from the soil of our country and as a result of the hard work and sacrifice of millions of people” and juxtaposing this imagery with Bhagwat’s statement.

What a senior-most leader says

A senior Congress leader who had made his electoral debut as a lawmaker back in 1977 and continues to be a party MP today told The Federal that the “circumstances” of the change in party headquarters from 24 Akbar Road to 9A Kotla Road bore an “uncanny similarity” and, moving forward, should portend the “same rejuvenation of the Congress now as the last change in headquarters had brought”.

This leader was, of course, drawing parallels between the current electoral and organisational challenges facing the party and the electoral decimation of the Congress in the post-Emergency election of 1977, which had preceded the move of the then Congress headquarters from Jantar Mantar Road to 24 Akbar Road.

Also read: Delhi polls: 'It's a Catch-22 situation for Congress'

Taking a cue from Indira Gandhi?

“Back then, Indira Gandhi took spirited steps to rebuild the party, which had not just suffered a crippling electoral loss, with Indira herself losing from Rae Bareli, but also a split. Within two years, we were back in power not simply because the Janata government collapsed but because Indira, despite all the attacks from the government and challenges within the party, rebuilt the Congress with extensive public outreach campaigns. Today, we face a far more challenging time because in many states we have no organisation left and as Rahul said we are facing not just a political rival in the BJP but the might of the Indian State itself and so, this shift to a new headquarters should also be an occasion for a complete overhaul of the way the party has been functioning in recent decades,” the leader quoted above added.

At its 139th Session held in Belgaum last month, the Congress Working Committee had resolved to dedicate the current year to rebuilding the party organisation. A young Congress MP, now in his second term in the Lok Sabha, told The Federal, “The resolution for organisational revamp cannot be allowed to stay only on paper... the high command has to crack the whip, weed out non-performers and those who lack the courage for the ideological fight that Rahulji has outlined; this is what the new headquarters should signify”.

Also read: Why it's increasingly a challenge for Congress to keep INDIA Bloc glued

'Organisational revamp'

Several Congress leaders The Federal spoke to agreed that the long-due organisational revamp, promised by the party leadership at the Belgaum session, should be rolled out "without delay". A PCC chief from a Hindi heartland state said the high command "should not patronise a few favourites" who have "repeatedly failed" in delivering on the tasks assigned to them and that "the roadmap for nurturing young leaders that was laid down in our Udaipur Declaration in 2022 should be implemented as a priority".

It now remains to be seen if the new party headquarters heralds these changes in the functioning of the Congress or if Wednesday's event will be confined to a memory of the controversy triggered by Rahul's aggressive tirade against the RSS-BJP combine.