Shashi tharoor’s winning idea

Shashi tharoor’s winning idea

Both the articulation of the Congress's problem and the proposal of possible solutions will be a significant legacy of the ongoing contest. Even if, as is likely, Tharoor loses this so-called election, the party should listen to him.

Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge’s claim to be the “candidate of all”, as he launched his presidential campaign on October 2, will be tested in the Congress’s internal election later this month. But for now, with AICC office-bearers and other prominent leaders — including members of the G-23, the so-called rebels — arrayed in his support, Kharge seems to be, despite his protestations to the contrary, the establishment’s candidate. For now, too, his rival, Shashi Tharoor, appears to be the lonely challenger. As it is shaping up, the contest that was so long awaited in Congress and is all too rare in political parties in this country, seems headed towards a let-down rather than a show-down. What else could it be when the apparently stronger candidate prefers “consensus” — that discredited Congress term which reeks of entitlement, complacency and do-nothingness — and the candidate who speaks of the need for a presidential-style debate, a contest of ideas and the necessity of change is widely perceived to be on the weaker wicket? If this presidential contest is Congress’s attempt to break a dismal and congealed status quo and find a way out of its darkening political corner, the possibilities of those expectations being fulfilled seem shrunken already.

As candidates and Congressmen, both Kharge and Tharoor have their strengths and weaknesses. Kharge is a Dalit leader who has worked his way up against odds and is a seasoned veteran of many battles. Tharoor is a scholar-politician who has more eloquence and erudition than political experience. But it is clear that of the two, only one, Tharoor, has a spelt-out manifesto. And in the manifesto, are suggestions for the party to deal with the debilitating crises it faces internally, with regard to its decision-making processes, and externally, in its apparent inability to stand up to a formidable opponent. Tharoor’s “ten tenets” include steps to decentralise the organisation and empower the party at all levels, re-imagine the role of the AICC, and recalibrate outreach to the people with a bigger role for women and an increased focus on youth. It is necessary for Congress to reach out to the layered and varied concerns of the BJP voter, he told this paper, instead of writing her off as Hindutvavadi. It can be contended that those are pretty words and phrases, and it is true that their real test will lie in politics. And yet, the Tharoor tenets are a valuable step forward in a party in which the governing principle tilts towards the supreme leader’s unchecked prerogative and unquestioned discretion.

Regardless of the outcome of the contest, therefore, and irrespective of who becomes Congress president, both the articulation of the Congress’s problem and the proposal of possible solutions will be a significant legacy of the ongoing contest. It is up to the party to pay attention to it, and build on it, once the election is over, or not. Or maybe it isn’t entirely upto the party. Once they are out in the sun and in the air, ideas have a way of exerting pressure and springing a surprise, and making their own way.