Can Congress be saved?

By Aijaz Zaka Syed Salman Khurshid is a man of few words. On rare occasions when he speaks his mind, he weighs his words carefully like the seasoned and successful lawyer that he is. If India’s former foreign minister and law minister has decided to open himself up about the state of affairs in the Congress Party in an interaction with a foreign news agency, you don’t have to be a pundit to recognise the seriousness of the crisis facing the party.
“Congress party’s biggest problem is [that] our leader Rahul Gandhi has walked away”, Khurshid told the Associated Press. “We need to know why we are in the state in which we are. Unfortunately, despite our earnest pleading Rahul Gandhi decided to step down and resign from the president post. We wanted him to continue but it was his decision and we respect it.” A leading lawyer, scholar and author of a number of tomes, Khurshid is the grandson of Dr Zakir Hussain, the late Indian president and architect of Jamia Millia Islamia. He represents the third generation of a family of freedom fighters.
Won’t leave Congress: Khurshid No wonder Khurshid feels strongly about the appalling meltdown of the party that has had such formidable history and led India to freedom besides governing it for 55 out of 72 years. “I have a very deep pain and concern about where we are today as a party. No matter what happens we won’t leave the party, we aren’t like those who got everything from the party and when the chips were down, things were difficult they left the party and walked away”, he emphasised.
Congress spokesperson reacts to Khurshid’s remarks Predictably, the Congress spokesperson has reacted sharply to Khurshid’s remarks, criticising him for going to the media while insisting that the Congress is fully geared up to fight the upcoming Assembly elections in key states like Maharashtra.
Well, the Congress can pretend till kingdom come that all is well with the world or take steps to end its splendid isolation and growing irrelevance in the ‘new India’ being fashioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. Not only has the Congress been summarily and most humiliatingly defeated by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2014 and 2019 General Elections, it has been on a losing spree across the length and breadth of the country, virtually losing every state election. While victory and defeat are part and parcel of a natural democratic process, what has been most alarming is the unprecedented and wholesale exodus from the party for the promised land and plump rewards offered by the BJP.