The predicament of the Congress Party!

Congress party is moving to a terminal phase ? Unless congress party is rebooted and reinvented the grand old party of India will move to a terminal stage.

The very organisational design of the party , from the 1970s, is based on two factors : Factionalism in every state and High-command soothsayers and rootless wonders in Delhi.

Factionalism in every state is engineered, maintained and managed by the 'High Command'. Without factionalism, it is difficult for any leaders to survive in congress anywhere in India as it is now almost in the DNA of the congress.And factionalism was never ideological or even in terms of policies. It was based on power cartels driven by loyalty network with semi feudal characteristics. The top-down command and control structure became high command through the power of arbitrating factional feuds in different states and distributing funds from huge formal/informal corporate donations. And caucus of rootless wonders who pretended as national leaders, survived on servility and loyalty, managing the high command driven factionalism and dirty departments in Delhi. This design adopted by Indira Gandhi worked for a while as she was the fountainhead of charisma and charm, advised by really intelligent men like PN Haskar. Sonia Gandhi too learned this from Indira and tried to revive the high command and she deputed her adviser to be the PM.

The first danger of high command driven top down political culture was the new authoritarianism within congress and the demise of democratic culture, eventually leading to the emergency.

Post emergency enabled congress to reboot to some extent. However, whenever a mass-less leader from a state joined the loyalty caucus of the high command in Delhi, they presided over the destruction of the congress through factionalism and marginalizing young popular leaders in their own state. As long as Pranab Mukharjee was powerful chief soothsayer in the high command, congress ended as powerless in West Bangal. Mamta had to leave congress to make her presence felt. In Andhra, YSR had to wait till Narasimha Rao died. Shard Pawar was marginalized when VN Gadgil called the shots in Delhi Darbar. Mooppanar presided over the demise of congress in Tamil Nadu. That is what happened in every state. As long as Ahemad Patel became key insider in the High Command, no mass-leader from Gujarath ever emerged. This has been the story everywhere.

While Indira Gandhi coopted rootless and skillful loyalists who came through the congress party, Rajiv Gandhi co opted sophisticated urban educated managers who hardly got any congress party loyalty except their loyalty to the power. Chidambaram and most of the key actors in Delhi belonged to this gang of 1980s.
Now the factionalism has gone beyond the high command as it is neither high nor in command. A high command devoid of money or vote catching charisma does not add up. And debilitating factionalism made the party in a state of paralysis in all states.

Young popular leaders at the grassroots level get finished even before they develop credible mass base. Intelligent and high caliber people will never be allowed in the party.
And all factional leaders derive their power from a clueless Delhi durbar. And the mass base leaders get pushed back. And everyone think Priyanka will come and save congress. As of now the party is too paralyzed in almost all state.
Even in Kerala where congress has a grassroots presence, congress is in deep trouble. The soothsayers and gossip managers in Delhi are operators that weaken congress further on the ground.

Unless the entire organisational design is changed and high command driven power factionalism is dismantled, the party will be too tired to get out of the terminal stage. There is hardly any coherence of ideas or ideology. Organisational structure is in shambles and the older leaders don't give space to the young.

This was the condition of the Mogul high command in Delhi Durbar in 1858