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The Congress Party and the election campaigns specialist Prashant Kishor, whose company has done strategic communications for a host of political parties across ideology, should both count themselves lucky that they could not reach an agreement for Kishor to join the party.
News reports suggest that the Congress rejected Kishor’s terms. This is not wholly unexpected. People join a party because they are attracted to it, and wish to serve it in any capacity that the party may see fit. But that isn’t Kishor at all.
He gave the impression of entering into a contract, as a trader might. If news reports are to be believed, he sought freedom to report directly to party chief Sonia Gandhi, and sought untrammeled control over party communications. When such ideas did not find favour, the consultant withdrew.
It is clear he has no particular love for the Congress, and its ideas, ideology and politics. In contrast, look at the key personae in G-23. They have big issues with the Gandhis, but have never threatened to quit the party just because the leadership has not conceded their demands on a here-and-now basis.
It is evident the G-23 are not “gomashtas” (middlemen) but politicians who feel bound by a common ideological thread and imagination even if they might fight with the party leadership on organisational and political issues. Nevertheless, in the present context, while inner-party disagreements and debates might abound on organisational matters or economic ideology, there is consensus on the most important metric- the combating of communal ideas, politics, and policies. Kishor does not shine on this count.
He has shown himself to be completely eclectic. His first client was Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2011. The poll strategist also planned the marketing and advertising for the Modi campaign when Modi successfully ran for Prime Minister. He is credited with conceiving the aspirant’s 3D rallies and the social media campaign highlighting good governance since the client had to be rescued from any association with the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat on the then CM’s watch which had drawn worldwide condemnation.
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The trouble is the Congress learnt little from that experience and once again sought to flirt with the election consultant. This was doubtless a sign of draining out emotionally after suffering defeat upon defeat in state elections. So, it should cause no surprise if Kishor once again comes calling at the drop of a small hint. That is how fragile or fickle the Congress appears to have become in its present avatara.
The party forgets all too often that though it is greatly reduced, it is demonstrated to have some 12 crore committed voters who have persisted in their choice through thick and thin. This is probably more than the numbers commanded by the principal regional parties put together, or thereabouts. Of course, support for Congress is spread very unevenly in the country.
Generally, that does not give the party sufficient heft to ensure victory at the constituency level even for reasonably good candidates. What should the ground tactics be in such a situation? Is an external agent in the shape of a campaign specialist needed to solve the problem? Indeed, is the solution a mystery when Congress ranks are filled with warhorses at every level who have a well-earned reputation for commanding a trick or two in all seasons?
If the Congress still coheres in the Modi era when large parts of India are enveloped in the ideology of majority communalism, as daily events and election results lately show, the party cannot but have genetic resources that the leadership would do well to tap. That the leadership has failed to do so is the Congress’s primary weakness, and this is from where the first idea of reform needs to emanate.
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Partly because a modicum of the democracy ideology and good sense still inhabit the Congress, and partly under high-pitched pressure mounted by G-23, otherwise a long-spent force that once fattened on patronage from the Gandhis, the Congress happens to be in the middle of an organizational election after decades. This was before Kishor entered the picture. Interestingly, the consultant too has reportedly advised organisation polls as a means to fight stasis within. In that case, what’s so special about external counsel?
As for Kishor, he has successfully counselled only one-woman/one-woman parties. When Modi had hired him, BJP too had become a one-man show, which it remains to this day.
The Congress, in contrast, is not a single-person party, despite appearances. In fact, it is a maze, a labyrinthine entity, in which multiple interests and groups operate, sweetly cutting one another even when in the opposition. That indeed is one of its charms. The Congress is like no other party in the country and the Gandhis do not control it, although they may be its most important inner spirit. But that could change if the country is at an inflexion point.
Jamnalal Bajaj, a major industrialist, had renounced the British title of Rai Bahadur to be a member of the Congress. In time he became an elected member of the party’s Working Committee. Businessmen today seek short-cuts. The Congress too looks guilty of that.
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*Senior Delhi-based journalist. A version of this article first appeared in the Asian Age
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