Interview | Prem Shankar Jha slams Congress for India Bloc's poor show

In a revealing episode of Capital Beat hosted by Neelu Vyas on The Federal, veteran journalist and former advisor to Prime Minister V.P. Singh, Prem Shankar Jha, provided incisive commentary on the challenges facing India’s opposition alliance and the Congress party's leadership. His critique ranged from the India Alliance's structural weaknesses to its ineffective narrative strategies.

India alliance’s disunity and Congress’s responsibility

Jha highlighted the disarray within the INDIA alliance, attributing the dysfunction primarily to the Congress party’s inability to forge a cohesive leadership strategy. He noted that Congress, as the largest constituent, bears the responsibility of uniting the alliance but has consistently faltered due to internal factionalism and leadership dilemmas.

He pointed to instances like Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, which alienated regional allies such as Nitish Kumar in Bihar, as evidence of Congress's failure to prioritize coalition-building over its own agenda. “Working together requires compromise,” Jha emphasized, but Congress has struggled to heed this lesson.

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Issues of national concern: Adani, jobs, and electoral reforms

Asked about the Opposition's focus on the Adani controversy, Jha dismissed it as ineffective in gaining public support. While acknowledging the allegations of crony capitalism, he stressed that issues like unemployment and judicial inefficiency resonate more with the common voter. “For the future of this country, taking up issues like Adani is completely irrelevant,” he stated, urging the Congress to pivot towards people-centric narratives.

He also criticized the BJP-led government’s handling of electoral systems, highlighting the misuse of Form 7 to manipulate voter rolls. Jha proposed that the opposition should campaign aggressively for abolishing such provisions, which undermine electoral integrity.

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Factionalism and leadership crisis in Congress

Jha did not spare Congress’s central leadership, describing it as paralyzed by factionalism and outdated strategies. He advocated for reviving the concept of a coalition-driven leadership model, akin to the Congress Syndicate of the pre-1969 era. “An Alliance Working Committee should replace the Congress Working Committee,” he suggested, to enable weekly deliberations and unified policy decisions.

Jha reserved praise for Priyanka Gandhi, whom he described as an idealist with pragmatic instincts, but lamented her underutilization in the party.

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Broader political landscape and electoral reform

Addressing the BJP’s dominance, Jha conceded that while the ruling party has consolidated its base, its governance has failed to address the chronic unemployment crisis. He underscored the need for state-financed electoral systems to curb criminalization in politics and emphasized the importance of providing quality education and job creation to uplift marginalized communities.

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The way forward

Jha concluded with a call for empathetic and grassroots-driven leadership. “This country is in great pain,” he remarked, urging opposition leaders to prioritize the economic and social issues that affect the majority. Without such a shift, he warned, the opposition risks remaining irrelevant against the BJP’s political machinery.

This candid analysis by Prem Shankar Jha sheds light on the structural and narrative challenges that the opposition faces as India approaches a critical electoral cycle. Whether the Congress and its allies will heed this advice remains to be seen.

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