Congress is afflicted with malady of patronage circuit. There is no hope for it
- In Politics
- 12:24 PM, Mar 22, 2017
- Nitten Gokhaley
After Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa fiasco, several Congress leaders have come out in open to criticize the century-old party as its relevance is at stake due to its way of functioning. One of the most popular names in this list is former Lok Sabha MP-Sandeep Dikshit. He recently interacted with journalists and showed a flag of rebellion to his party.
On being asked if the Congress is in ICU, Dikshit pointed out that one needs to use a stronger word than ICU as far as Congress party's health is concerned. The party is facing the most serious crisis since its formation.
If a private company keeps making losses during every quarter, shouldn't the leadership be held accountable? Raj Babbar, Sanjay Nirupam, and other senior leaders took responsibility and offered to resign, but what about Congress president and vice-president? While answering these questions, Dikshit pointed out that Congress supports social democracy and is a left-of-center party. But, it has lost its identity and brings people in through a patronage circuit since the last few years. The party drastically needs to change this and be pluralistic, inclusive.
“We need a soul and we need a life. Congress leaders and workers are so confused that they do not know what their party stands for. The party has become a cozy club that consists of a few leaders who are disconnected from workers,” said the former Lok Sabha MP while highlighting the point that saying this will cost him a lot.
It's obvious that even Sandeep Dikshit has benefited from dynasty politics. During his interaction with Rajdeep Sardesai, he made a self-goal by sharing information about the letter that he had sent to Sonia Gandhi saying he wants to disassociate from all the privileges that he has in the party as Sheila Dikshit's son.
“I wrote a letter to Mrs. Gandhi about six to eight months ago saying that this patronage circuit has to break. People like me withdrawing from powerful positions would open up spaces for many others to come.”
Probably to save him from any action, the leader also made it clear that he is not willing to leave the party. He claimed he stands with the party and no one can take the Congress out of him.
(From 13: 36 to 26: 10)
Sheila Dikshit's son suggests that Congress party's entire top leadership needs to sit down and openly think about the roles that they need to play. They need to sit with people other than those from AICC, PCC as these individuals are not elected using a clear format.
He indicated his support for party's vice-president by suggesting that Rahul is necessary to keep the party glued together. But, the overall message from Dikshit seems clear. It's not business as usual.
Losing relevance?
At one point, the party's leaders were accused of looting national wealth with various scams during ten years of UPA rule. Today, the condition is such that people roped in to attend Rahul's rally in UP actually stole the benches placed by Congress workers for those attending the gathering.
As RSS Ideologue-Rakesh Sinha pointed out during his recent interaction with journalists, Rahul lacks vision and a leader without vision cannot remake his party. This big leadership vacuum in the opposition is definitely not good news for world’s largest democracy.
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