“Bakrid mein bachenge toh Muharram pe nachenge, pehle mujhe jitao to sahi (If we survive on Bakrid, we will dance on Muharram, but first make me win),” said Mallikarjun Kharge two weeks ago when asked what he plans to do if he wins the Congress president elections — a feat he achieved on Wednesday.
Faced with repeated questions on this count during his campaign in light of his competitor Shashi Tharoor putting out a detailed manifesto, Kharge subsequently said he had a “single-point” agenda to implement the Udaipur declaration of the Congress. This made many in the Tharoor camp wonder if implementing the Udaipur declaration was ever a choice.
“We fight some battles because history can remember that the present was not silent,” Tharoor said in a cryptic tweet as polling began on Monday, indicating he could lose the election, despite a secret ballot. But his vision and ideas are something the Congress should consider and adopt to move on the path of ‘change’ and building a fresh narrative against the all-powerful BJP under Narendra Modi.
Tharoor was panned by senior Congress leaders for being ‘elite’ but in Parliament and other forums, Tharoor’s sharp attacks on the BJP have not gone unnoticed in the past. Kharge’s recent comments that he would have no hesitation in seeking the advice of the Gandhis, underlined the feeling among many that he is the ‘unofficial official candidate’ with the Gandhis not willing to give up their grip over the party.
Tharoor’s 10 ‘Ideas’
What are Shashi Tharoor’s ideas that the Congress could do well to take a leaf out of? The big idea is certainly the vision of a “decentralised leadership at all levels” with giving real authority to the state congress presidents and ‘reimagining’ the role of the Congress headquarters. This has been the bane of the Congress, reflected in multiple losses in state elections, even while the BJP has seriously invested in its state leadership.
Not giving terms beyond 10 years to the party president and officer-bearers and electing half of the CWC members by elections are the other radical ideas proposed by Tharoor to rejig the Congress organisation at the top — something that seemed an anti-thesis to the party so far. Monthly CWC meetings and an “accessible president available to party workers” were other ideas of Tharoor, besides implementing the Udaipur declaration of ‘one man, one post’.
The larger sentiment of Tharoor’s campaign was a focus on change as the present model has not worked to challenge the BJP. With Mallikarjun Kharge in the chair, many feel that ‘change’ may not happen, or will certainly not be as swift as the party needs in the run-up to 2024 general elections. Involving Tharoor in the right spirit, rather than shunning him for entering a contest, could serve Congress well under Kharge.
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