New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi officially declared on Wednesday that he has resigned from the position of Congress president and entrusted the Congress Working Committee (CWC) with finding his replacement soon.
Immediately after the grand old party faced a humiliating defeat in the parliamentary elections, Gandhi had handed over his resignation at a party meet. He did not agree to withdraw it despite many in the CWC requesting him to do so in the subsequent days.
Congress sources have confirmed the development multiple times since then, but none of them came on the record. This led to speculation regarding the future of leadership in the party. Many party leaders, considered close to Gandhi, have also followed suit and resigned from their respective posts in various states.
The speculations now may come to a close, with Gandhi himself confirming that he will not be leading the party’s affairs.
In a note that he released on Twitter, he said, “As President of the Congress Party, I am responsible for the loss of the 2019 election. Accountability is critical for the future growth of our party. It is for this reason that I have resigned as Congress President.”
It is an honour for me to serve the Congress Party, whose values and ideals have served as the lifeblood of our beautiful nation.
I owe the country and my organisation a debt of tremendous gratitude and love.
Jai Hind ?? pic.twitter.com/WWGYt5YG4V
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 3, 2019
Much of his note talked about the need for party leaders to take accountability for the loss.
“Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019. It would be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as President of the party,” he wrote.
The need for “accountability” in the party that the outgoing president wrote about, perhaps, has a specific context.
“Ever since the party’s disastrous defeat in the elections, most of the top leaders who were in-charge of different states have evaded taking responsibility,” a Congress leader, who did not want to be named, told The Wire.
“Before the elections, these leaders had high hopes about Congress party’s performance. Only Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel had told Rahulji that the party will not be able to repeat its assembly elections’ performance.”
After the elections, he said, the very same leaders tried to pin the blame on other party leaders for the loss.
Gandhi’s note reflects similar sentiments about top party leaders.
While saying that he will “continue to fight for the ideals of the Congress Party” and that he will be available to the party for “inputs or advice”, he said that to defeat the BJP, which according to him has hit the syncretic idea of India hard, “the Congress Party must radically transform itself”.
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“Today the BJP is systematically crushing the voice of the Indian people. It is the duty of the Congress Party to defend these voices. India has never and will never be one voice. It is and always will be a symphony of voices. That is the true essence of Bharat Mata,” he said.
While he hit out at the leaders of the party indirectly, he showered praise on ground-level workers.
“To those who support the Congress ideology, especially our dedicated and beloved karyakarta, I have absolute faith in our future and the utmost love for you.”
Perhaps trying to break-free from the much-criticised “Congress system” – a term coined by the political scientist Rajni Kothari to describe the chain of patronage politics that the party encouraged and espoused after independence – Gandhi said, “It is a habit in India that the powerful cling to power, no one sacrifices power. But we will not defeat our opponents without sacrificing the desire for power and fighting a deeper ideological battle. I was born a Congressman, this party has always been with me and is my life’s blood and forever that way it shall remain.”
Regarding who will be the new president, Gandhi left the CWC to make the decision independently.
“Many of my colleagues suggested that I nominate the next Congress President. While it is important for someone new to lead our party, it would not be correct for me to select that person. Immediately after resigning, I suggested to my colleagues in the Congress Working Committee that the way forward would be to entrust a group of people with the task of beginning the search for a new President. I have empowered them to do so and committed my full support to this process and a smooth transition,” he said.
Gandhi’s attack on BJP
He criticised the way BJP has allegedly compromised public institutions and planted seeds of hate in the country.
“My fight has never been a simple battle for political power. I have no hatred or anger towards the BJP but every living cell in my body instinctively resists their idea of India. This resistance arises because my being is permeated with an Indian idea that is and has always been in direct conflict with theirs. This is not a new battle; it has been waged on our soil for thousands of years. Where they see differences, I see similarity. Where they see hatred, I see love. What they fear, I embrace.”
Gandhi said that under the BJP-led government, constitutional principles have been attacked and that “the stated objectives of the RSS, the capture of our country’s institutional structure, is now complete.”
He argued that “every institution”, including the election commission, judiciary, press, “was marshalled against the opposition.”
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“It is now crystal clear that our once cherished institutional neutrality no longer exists in India…Our democracy has been fundamentally weakened. There is a real danger that from now on, elections will go from being a determinant of India’s future to a mere ritual,” he said.
Attacking the unparalleled financial muscle of the BJP, he said that the election can only be free if one party does not have “a complete monopoly on financial resources.”
“This capture of power will result in unimaginable levels of violence and pain for India. Farmers, unemployed youngsters, women, tribals, Dalits and minorities are going to suffer the most. The impact on our economy and nation’s reputation will be devastating. The Prime Minister’s win does not negate the breadth of corruption allegations against him; no amount of money and propaganda can ever hide the light of the truth,” he said.
When Gandhi joined the Congress party as one of its general secretaries in 2007, he had unsuccessfully tried to incorporate democratic changes in the party, especially at the bottom-most organisational level. He failed. Much of that resentment holds strong for him even today, as his resignation note indicated.
Yet, he finished by sprinkling a little hope for his party workers at the end. “The Indian nation must unite to reclaim and resuscitate our institutions. The instrument of this resuscitation will be the Congress party,” he said.