How the bloc is chipping away at itself

Contradictions between INDIA partners have been coming to the fore since the 2024 Lok Sabha results. The Congress can neither go it alone nor wholeheartedly take others along.
For the uninitiated, the sardonic exchange between Congress scion Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal may have come as a surprise. But it was inherent in the situation.
For the uninitiated, the sardonic exchange between Congress scion Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal may have come as a surprise. But it was inherent in the situation.Photo | Express Illustrations, Sourav roy
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A recent trading of barbs between two INDIA bloc allies over the Delhi assembly poll showed that the alliance was stitched in a hurry for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. For the uninitiated, the sardonic exchange between Congress scion Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal may have come as a surprise. But it was inherent in the situation. There is little doubt that the 26 stakeholders—from Trinamool Congress in the east to Shiv Sena-UBT in the west, and from DMK in the south to National Conference in the north— had come together on July 18, 2023 with the sole motive of dislodging the BJP from power.

However, the disparate parties couldn’t fuse into a cohesive and harmonious team without a constructive common programme. The 2024 Lok Sabha poll results were undoubtedly disappointing for Narendra Modi. But they were an unmitigated disaster for INDIA partners. An unfazed Modi was back in the prime minister’s office for the third time. But the glue that held the alliance partners together dissipated fast. Personal ambitions, mutual distrust, lingering bickering and historical baggage laden with ideological contradictions overshadowed the shared goal of taking on Modi.

On January 13, Rahul Gandhi lashed out at Kejriwal with a ferocity he usually reserves for Modi. At a rally in Delhi’s Seelampur, Rahul said, “Kejriwal had talked of removing corruption. Has he removed corruption? Just like Modiji’s propaganda of making false promises, he follows the same strategy.... Pollution, corruption and inflation are on the rise in Delhi.” With this, Rahul put Modi—his principal opponent—and Kejriwal, a part of INDIA, at par. He painted a newfound friend and a declared foe with the same brush.

Rahul’s observations against Kejriwal are harsh. However, the comments of some of his colleagues are even harsher—and there is nothing to suggest that they don’t have Rahul’s approval. Addressing a press conference on December 25, Congress treasurer Ajay Maken called Kejriwal “anti-national” and “bereft of any ideology except personal ambition”.

In a scathing attack against AAP, Maken also said, “I feel the Congress got weakened [in Delhi] only because we supported AAP for 40 days in 2013… A mistake has been made again in Delhi by making the alliance [in the last Lok Sabha election], which now needs to be rectified.”

On December 31, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit called Kejriwal a “pathological liar”. Dikshit, the Congress candidate pitted against Kejriwal from the New Delhi constituency for the February 5 election, is the son of Sheila Dikshit, a former Congress chief minister of the state.

The acerbic exchanges between Congress and AAP aren’t a sudden development. The honeymoon between the two was a transitory interlude in an otherwise innately hostile relationship. On May 7, 2016, addressing a rally at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, Kejriwal had lambasted the Modi government and Congress over the AgustaWestland helicopter scam and alleged that the prime minister did not have “enough courage” to arrest Sonia Gandhi and that the two parties had an “alliance in corruption”.

Kejriwal continued, “The Italian court order has the names of Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, certain officers and other Congressmen, but Modi is not able to gather enough courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi, to ask her even two questions, to interrogate her. Modiji... our chest would also be 56 inches if you had sent her to jail.”

Now that Kejriwal is mired in controversies of his own, including corruption allegations, and is playing the victim card, his response to the Congress onslaught is measured and subdued. When asked about Rahul’s comments against him, he said, “I will not comment on his statements... His fight is to save the Congress; my fight is to save the country.”

To begin, the alliance between the APP and Congress is a contradiction. AAP’s origins lie in the anti-graft movement of the Gandhian Anna Hazare against the second UPA government. However, Anna has wholly disassociated himself from Kejriwal and his party for a long time now. Several other prominent faces of that movement— Kiran Bedi, Kumar Vishwas, Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Anand Kumar and Swati Maliwal—have either been expelled or have left the party.

The disquiet within the alliance is pervasive. At least two major INDIA partners—Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party—have supported AAP. On January 9, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who of late has been warming to Modi, expressed dismay over the lack of clarity regarding the leadership and agenda of the INDIA bloc.

Abdullah’s remarks come amid reports of tension between the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal, another key alliance partner in Bihar. Relations between the two were strained recently when RJD supremo Lalu Prasad backed Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s claim for leadership of the INDIA bloc. In West Bengal, the Congress and Trinamool Congress could never work together as Mamata refused to agree to the seat-sharing demands of the grand old party.

In Kerala, the Congress and Left parties are bitter rivals. A recent editorial in Saamana, a mouthpiece of the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Thackeray faction, targeted the Congress’s approach to the INDIA bloc, blaming the party for the breakdown of communication within the opposition alliance and questioning its future.

While the regional outfits have been sniping at the Congress, the grand old party hasn’t shown any accommodation towards its allies either. In Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, where the Congress was the dominant political player, it snubbed allies and refused to have any seat adjustment pact with them.

It’s a Catch 22 situation. Since the Congress finds itself inadequate to face the BJP juggernaut, it must seek alliances with those who have replaced it in various parts of the country over decades. Its past bugbears are its present-day allies. A case in point is how the AAP has decimated and substituted the Congress in Delhi and Punjab.

To regain its old pan-India status, the Congress has to reclaim the political space it has ceded to others. And any such effort on its part brings it into confrontation with its newfound allies. So, it’s a no-win situation for the grand old party.

Balbir Punj

Former chairman, Indian Institute of Mass Communication and author of Tryst with Ayodhya: Decolonisation of India

(Views are personal)

(punjbalbir@gmail.com)

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