Once Senior leader Mr. P. Chidambaram said that there is more internal democracy in Congress than BJP.

Even if we assume that the statement is true, organizationally BJP is more robust and is built to last longer than Congress. How?

There is a robust, dedicated, talented organization called RSS. Though it doesn’t control BJP, it has the ability to control BJP as it is the ideological mentor of BJP. If needed we have seen RSS step in and calls shots. For e.g. it was RSS who forced Advani to retire and brought-in Modiji. Whenever BJP will slip to crisis in future, RSS will step in and correct it. There is no such organization which acts as the ideological mentor for Congress and Congress is not a cadre based organization like RSS.

In absence of such an organization to control you, you need to derive strength from within. How?

The answer is democracy. The source of strength absolutely cannot be a dynasty. For millenniums, we see the quality of leaders a dynasty produces reduces and eventually the leadership vanishes or is overthrown. But democracies will stay for perpetuity. Hence, it is no surprise why the Gandhi dynasts are now reduced to jokers (whom we affectionately call Pappu and Pinki) instead of being leaders.

In order for Congress to revive, I would recommend the following:

First, Remove the Gandhis. They should not even be in CWC.

Second, Incorporate in your constitution the following: Hold elections at all levels and make the leadership go up. For e.g. congress workers of every district elect a leader. The district leaders elect the state leadership. And the state leaders who should automatically move to the CWC and choose a president who can be a person even not a state leader.

Third, the term of the President should be limited to 4 years.

Fourth, A person can be a president for a combined total for 12 years, not more. Why? If a person occupies the top post for long, others don’t get a chance. Due to that, talent is not nurtured. Also, it is a human psychology, a successor will always try to outsmart the predecessor. Due to this, the quality of leadership will increase. Now we see Sonia is the president for 24 years. Due to the principle of dynastic succession other smart leaders are not gearing for occupying the top post. And with the reduction in quality of dynastic leadership, the INC is getting sucked to a whirlpool.

Fifth, After a person leaves the President’s office, his/her spouse, children, grand children, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and grand-children-in-law cannot hold the office of President for next 4 years.  This will ensure that no leader however powerful he/she is tries to establish a dynasty.

Sixth, And person who has been the president for more than 20 years shall be in-eligible to be the president including his/her spouse, children, grand children, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and grand-children-in-law.

Seventh, Introduce all the  chapter 0 in your constitution. Put the point #2-Point #7 in that chapter and write that nothing in the chapter 0 can be changed.  Also in the same chapter mention that the chapter will remain in force till the party consists of at least 3 members.

It is extremely important that INC stays relevant in politics. Why?

For democracy a bi-polar system is must. We have BJP which believes in a capitalist system of economy. A capitalist system of economy is very much necessary to generate wealth. INC believes in a “welfarist” economy which is necessary for the distribution of wealth among people. We hence need rotation between these 2 systems for overall progress of the society.

The earlier flaw was that the Gandhis believed in a socialist ideology (different from welfarist ideology) which resulted to corruption. and due to their anti-capitalist ideology, wealth could not be generated. And hence, we saw the economic crisis of 1991.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.