Congress President Sonia Gandhi has set about the task of working for the Congress Revival. Without losing any time, she has taken charge of the new political situation, in the wake of the shocking results of the just-concluded round of the five State Assembly elections.
Sonia Gandhi is faced with the gravest political crisis in the history of Congress. For the first time, Congress is faced with a steep decline.
The task on her hands is clear. At a time of fragmentation in Congress, arresting and reversing the trend is an urgent need. Sonia Gandhi has faced a similar situation in the past and saved the Congress in 1998 and brought the party back to power in 2004, remaining in Government for 10 years till 2014, under her stewardship.
It is for this reason that she inspires confidence in the rank and file of the Congress, as she steers the party ship once again in choppy waters.
Seizing the Initiative
The Congress President has been quick to seize the political initiative. Within three days of the disastrous election results, Sonia Gandhi chaired the meeting of the highest policymaking body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC). She decided to seek resignations of five PCC Presidents of the election-bound States, to pave the way for organizational revamp. Besides, she decided to hold Chintan-Shivir, to chalk out the blueprint on the way forward for the party, with an eye on the General Election in 2024.
In the four-and-a-half-hour meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Sonia Gandhi offered to step aside, if that was their wish. G-23 leaders included, three of whom are members of the highest policymaking body, the CWC unanimously resolved that Congress President Sonia Gandhi must continue in office, till the regular election of Congress President takes place in August 2022.
Breaking the Ice
Interestingly, Sonia Gandhi was quick to open the line of communication with G-23 leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, to break the ice.
Azad called on Sonia Gandhi to discuss the issues threadbare with her. Perhaps Sonia set a new benchmark in reaching out to dissidents and in trying to bring them on board.
To the credit of Sonia Gandhi, it must be acknowledged that this is something unknown in other political parties. Her attempt being to end the impasse within the party and to unify all sections of party leaders. Sonia Gandhi told the G-23 leadership that the question of forming a front comes later.
Sonia Gandhi has got her priorities right. Her first priority is to strengthen the party. It is only from a position of electoral strength that the party can stitch up electoral alliances. Without strengthening the organizational structure and party’s mass-base, Congress cannot become the pivot of the Opposition front. So, her attempt is to revamp and revitalize the party structure.
Focus has to be three-fold: Organizational Revamp; Ideological Clarity; and Mass-Based Agitational Programmes.
G-23 Dilemma
Sadly, the G-23 has emerged as a disgruntled group that chose to open a front against the Congress High Command, rather than fighting the BJP. These leaders lack mass-base and flourish in the party through the nomination route.
Sonia Gandhi, on the other hand, is the lone victorious Congress MP from the entire Uttar Pradesh that returns 80 MPs even in 2019 and she has been consecutively ever since she moved to Rae Bareli in 2004, leaving Amethi to Rahul Gandhi.
The problem with the G-23 leaders is that hardly any of them enjoy a popular mass base. G-23 leaders operate on the basis of media coverage. Front-formation; press statements; and event-based publicity like statements after dinner-diplomacy. But that is not the brand of politics that Sonia Gandhi either believes in or practices.
Why the Decline?
Reasons for the decline are not far to seek. The ethos of the Freedom Struggle powered the intelligentsia in the early years after Indian Independence. Following the end of the Cold War and the advent of Liberalization Privatization and Globalization in 1991, there was a Right-turn, especially in the middle-class, who, today, are a staggering 600 million. The middle-class, unlike during the Freedom Struggle, is no longer enthused by liberal values of Secularism, Socialism and Democracy.
This has brought about a sea-change in the political landscape of the country. Progressively, there has been an ascent of the Rightist forces. Gradually in 1998, the Saffron Party stormed to power.
Sensing trouble for the Congress in 1997, Sonia Gandhi decided to come out of her seclusion and step into active politics, in order to save the Congress from fragmentation.
On December 29, 1997, she announced her decision to campaign for the Congress during the General Election in 1998. The Congress lost and the BJP came to power under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in March 1998.
In a way, the popular mandate was for Sonia Gandhi to assume charge as Congress President, which she did, on March 14, 1998. The following day, on March 15, 1998, Sonia Gandhi became the Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson, when she appointed Sharad Pawar as Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Dr Manmohan Singh in Rajya Sabha.
On April 6, 1998, the AICC Session ratified her election as Congress President. And due plunged headlong into the job of working for the Congress Revival.
Brainstorming Session
In right earnest, Sonia Gandhi organized a Brainstorming Session in Panchmarhi, in Madhya Pradesh, from September 6-8, 1998. Taking a cue from Indira Gandhi, who organized a Brainstorming Session in Narora in Uttar Pradesh in 1974, to clear ideological confusion in the Congress cadres and the people at large, Sonia Gandhi organized the Chintan-Shivir in Panchmarhi.
In her address to the party conclave in Panchmarhi, Sonia Gandhi acknowledged that the Congress had not successfully accommodated the aspirations of a whole new generation of Dalits, Adivasis and people belonging to the Backward Classes, particularly in the northern States. This failure was one among other reasons for the decline of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. She conceded that this, in turn, had done great damage to national-level politics.
Sonia Gandhi declared, “Electoral reverses are inevitable and are, in themselves, not cause for worry. But what is disturbing is the loss of our social base, of the social coalition that supports us and looks up to us.”
On December 18, 1998, the AICC Session amended the Congress Party Constitution to give 30 per cent reservation in party posts for Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, Minorities and Women in party organizational posts.
Although she could not lead the party to victory in the 1999 polls, she built up the party organization and brought the party to power in 20 States, before bringing the party back to power at the Centre in the General Election in 2004.
Parliamentary Leader Role
Raising the pitch against the Government in her capacity as Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) leader, Sonia Gandhi flagged an important issue. Recently on the floor of Parliament, the Temple of Democracy, Sonia Gandhi raised the issue of how the level-playing field is being eroded and destroyed, which is the basis of parliamentary democracy.
For the first time, Facebook and Twitter are out to interfere and influence the shaping of the political narrative in the run-up to elections.
The Congress laid the foundation for the parliamentary democracy in the country. As a proud legatee, Sonia Gandhi points to threats in such a dispensation.
The folly and failure of its greatest guardians, the people, to take steps to rectify the situation when there is still time, could cause irreparable damage to the system of parliamentary democracy gifted to the nation by the Congress.
Governments come and go, but the system of parliamentary democracy remains. What is being done now by the BJP can result in the erosion of this very system of parliamentary democracy.
Above Partisan Politics
Putting the issue in perspective, Sonia Gandhi pointed out that this is an issue, which is beyond partisan politics. “We need to protect our democracy and social harmony, regardless of who is in power,” she argued.
Repeatedly, it had come to public notice that global social media companies are not providing a level playing field to all the political parties.
At least in nine out of 10 elections, including the national parliamentary elections of 2019 that the BJP won, there was a discernible trend. The BJP was charged a lower rate for advertisements than its opponents.
Such favourable pricing allows the BJP, which is the largest political client of Facebook in India, to reach more voters for less money. This provides an enormous political advantage and gives a headstart for the ruling BJP election campaigns.
Raising a Zero Hour submission in the Lok Sabha on March 26, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said, “Sir, the blatant manner in which social harmony is being disturbed by Facebook, with the connivance of the ruling establishment, is dangerous for our democracy. Young and old minds alike are being filled with hate through emotionally charged disinformation and proxy advertising. Companies like Facebook are aware of this and are profiting from it. These reports show a growing nexus between big corporations, the ruling establishment and global social media giants like Facebook.”
Modus Operandi
How does this operate? For instance, for advertisers promoting the BJP, Facebook charges an average of Rs 39,552 for one million views for an advertisement. However, for advertisers promoting the Congress, on the other hand, the same Facebook charges 32 per cent more, that is, Rs 52,150.
Such brazen and blatant policies threaten the electoral politics in a vast democracy like India.
As Sonia Gandhi put it, “Mr Speaker Sir, thank you for allowing me to take up an issue, which is of paramount importance and that is the rising danger of social media being abused to hack our democracy. Global companies like Facebook and Twitter are used increasingly to shape political narratives by leaders, political parties and their proxies.”
Latest Expose
Indeed, this is not a new phenomenon. Last year, for instance, the Wall Street Journal reported on how Facebook’s own hate speech rules were being bent to favour politicians of the ruling party. Now, Al Jazeera and the Reporters Collective have come up with fresh surveys and analysis.
As Sonia Gandhi put it, the latest survey only demonstrates how a “toxic ecosystem of proxy advertisers, posing as news media, is flourishing on Facebook, bypassing election laws of our nation, breaking Facebook’s own rules, and completely suppressing the voice of those who are speaking up against the Government.”
The Government must take urgent and immediate steps to put an end to this systematic influence and interference of Facebook and other social media giants in the electoral politics of the world’s largest democracy.
Venkat Parsa is a senior journalist and writer based in New Delhi.
Views expressed are personal
| 
