Shashi Tharoor’s exclusion from top panel signals Congress in no mood to change

@the_news_21

Thiruvananthapuram:  Even as he was fated to lose the Congress presidential contest, Shashi Tharoor made a firm statement through his candidacy. He brought to sharp focus what was seriously wrong with India’s grand old party and what he could possibly do to make things a little better.  

Tharoor’s exclusion from the 47-member steering committee announced by the newly elected party president Mallikarjun Kharge immediately after installation was another emphatic statement. The message is loud and clear. Though in existential throes the party is not prepared to for a complete makeover.  A party that claims that inclusiveness is its enduring legacy chooses to be exclusive when it comes to inhouse affairs.

The unwieldy steering committee is mostly packed with the old timers, whose sole qualification is unflinching loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family. It will function as the highest decision-making body, replacing the Congress Working Committee (CWC), at least till the AICC plenary is held a few months later. It is not clear if a new CWC will be put in place at the plenary session, or the steering committee will continue as the core leadership collegium. Everything depends on the wishes of the family and the clique around it.   

During the run-up to the presidential election, the family loyalists had sought to bluff the nation with a false narrative that it was a free and fair contest. They took great pains to assert that there was no ‘official candidate’ enjoying the blessings of the family. The reality, however, was pretty clear that Kharge was the official candidate. Tharoor was an outsider for all practical purposes.  The entire exercise went as per the script. Tharoor could muster the support of only 1072 members of the electoral college of 9385 against the massive 7897 votes garnered by Kharge.

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Though a war-scarred veteran of many a political battle, 80-year-old Kharge is unlikely to cross the Lakshman Rekha set by the family and the cohorts around it. For all key decisions would be made by the core leadership, leaving the managerial tasks to the president and his secretarial team to be formed in the coming days.  

Induction of Tharoor in the steering committee after the bitterness left by the election would  have put out a positive message that the party was prepared take on board people with vision and capabilities. That would have significantly contributed to the efforts to revamp and revitalise the organisation. Instead, the deeply entrenched coterie around the core took great care that persons of independent thinking like Tharoor are left out.

Take for instance the three nominees in the panel from Kerala—AK Antony, Ommen Chandy and K C Venugopal. The biggest qualification of Antony and Venugopal is their complete subservience to the Nehru-Gandhi family. Venugopal has repeatedly proved his organisational incompetence by mishandling the party affairs in the states entrusted to him. Though once a popular leader and former chief minister, Chandy is a fading figure in home state Kerala.

Significantly, Tharoor’s candidacy had met with the biggest opposition from his home state Kerala. Career politicians in the party had tended to look at him as an outsider right from the day he was made the candidate for LS polls in 2009. His impressive personal profile, intellectual capabilities and experience as a UN diplomat failed impress them. Now, there is a distinct possibility that his rivals might start pulling strings to see that the three-time Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram would not get the party ticket in 2024 elections.

Though he knew that he was set to lose, Tharoor had run his campaign in right earnest. He narrated clearly what he would do if given a chance to lead the party. He laid down his basic ideas on how to reconfigure the fast unravelling Congress, despite being a national legacy and still an all-India brand.

Though a war-scarred veteran of many a political battle, 80-year-old Kharge will be confining himself within the Lakshman Rekha set by the family and the palace guards. But things may not be as easy as the leaders think. Much will depend how the party performs in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly polls.