So many people have left Congress in recent days and joined BJP. Today Jitin Prasada, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi left Congress to join BJP. Lets analyze why this exodus is happening from Congress?

For any democracy to remain healthy, it is important to have a strong and healthy opposition to keep the necessary check and balance or else democracy will become a dictatorship.

I can think of following reasons behind this:

  1. Leadership selection: When the USA constitution was being drafted nearly 250 years back, the founding fathers(like Geroge Washington, Benjamin Franklin etc.) asked themselves a very tough question “we are all good people, but how do we ensure that USA always get good people to rule?”. After lot of deliberation, the came up with the modern concepts like written constitution, Presidential form of Govt, separation of powers and Independent Judiciary etc. Please note, at that time, the concept of Democracy was very new. Apart from UK (which was a semi-democracy) there were only dynastical monarchies. What is the problem with dynastical monarchy? It is seen that in any dynasty, the initial couple of leaders are efficient, but the quality of leadership of the later generations degenerate as the later generations have not faced the rigors of the the earlier ones. Same is the case with Gandhis, the initial Gandhis were good leaders, but as their dynasty has progressed, the leadership quality of the later dynasts has hit rock bottom. Lets understand the side effects of a dumb leadership
  2. Side effects of dumb leadership: Every organization typically aims to reward, promote and groom their talent. But due to to dumb dynasts leading Congress, the Gandhis in order to secure their turf are filling all the leadership positions with dynasts. We see many such examples, starting from Gaurav Gogoi to Milind Deora, Rajesh Pilot and so on. This further has reduced the efficiency of Congress as a political machine.
  3. Bad criteria for elevation: The sole criteria for elevation in Congress is: the person has to be a “bigger donkey” than Pappu and Pinki. Finding a bigger donkey than Pappu and Pinki is tougher than finding a more intelligent person that an IIT student. Even the loyalists who are smarter than Pappu and Pinki are suppressed. Take the case of Jyotiraditya Schindhia – he had good leadership abilities, but congress sidelined him in Uttar Pradesh during 2019 Lok Sabha elections to prove that Pinki is smarter than him. What was the outcome, Congress lost badly in UP. Jyotiraditya Scindhia pulled down the MP government and permanently disabled congress in Madhya Pradesh.
  4. Gandhi’s link with China: Due to Gandhi’s pro China mentality (remember the MoU signed by Sonia and Pappu in 2008 with CCP), many Indian, EU and US companies are skeptical about Congress and are not funding Congress and instead funding BJP.
  5. Financial problems: Due to all reasons above, plus the anti-corporate communist mindset of the Gandhis, no corporates (excepting few Chinese companies) are funding the Congress. We see that BJP is able to bag most of the corporate funding. And since, meritocracy is not given a chance in Congress, corporates are not trusting Congress. They are not sure if Congress can do reforms, make policy changes in an ever changing world. Due to this reason, we saw during Sonia’s period very little reforms occurred in India.
  6. Cold war between Pappu and Pinki: This typically happens in every dynastic succession. This is not known to many, there is a cold war between pappu and pinki. Pappu probably has got a family which is kept hidden from outside world. Probably due to some compulsions, he is unable to announce this. Sonia has colluded with Pinki and wants to promote Pinki’s children which is not liked by Pappu and Pappu’s wife. And Sonia is doing this, as she may not be liking her daughter-in-law.

What should Congress do?

  1. First, it needs to kick out the trio of Sonia, Pappu and Pinki. It may be tough but Congress needs to bite the bullet.
  2. Establish internal democracy. BJP in a way is controlled by RSS which is a cadre based organization. But Congress doesn’t have an equivalent of RSS, hence Congress needs to draw strengths from inside by having a well defined democratic process.
  3. Make changes in Congress constitution that no leader can hold the president for more than say 6 years. We see that Sonia is Congress President for last 2o odd years. If you remain in a position for long, you lost the motivation to work. There should be rotation. But power mongers like Sonia and Gandhis are not going to give up the position so easily, hence they need to be kicked out.

Why it is important to have a strong opposition?

  1. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
  2. Congress was not corrupt from beginning. After the Gandhis stayed in power for long, they become corrupt. Hence, we need to ensure that BJP also goes the Congress way.

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