'Time for a non-Gandhi to take on the reins of Congress'

In an exclusive interview with Nishant Sharma, Editor of ETV Bharat, Political Commentator Neerja Chowdhury dwells on the existential battle which Congress party has been fighting of late. Amid political fiasco in Rajasthan, Chowdhury stated that it's need of the hour for a non-Gandhi to take on the reins of Congress in order to gain its lost ground.

Hyderabad:A party that is closely tied to the Independence movement of the country is now fighting an existential battle.

Congress far from recovering its lost ground is mired with infighting and loss of next-generation leaders who are supposed to be its future backbone.

After losing Jyotiraditya Scindia to the saffron camp, there has been another battle brewing in the deserts of Rajasthan where the Congress old guard is battling rising impatience among the young turks of the party. Sachin Pilot has led the camp from within making the high command to take note and at the same time act with a stern hand.

Political analyst Neerja Chowdhury says that Sachin Pilot by categorically saying that he will not join the BJP has opened a chink for some kind of a compromise to be worked out.

“For the next 48 hours an opportunity has presented itself that something might be worked out,” she said over the overtures being made by the Sachin Pilot camp.

Interestingly, the crucial question for the party will be why the young turks are looking to exit from the party where they have been building their careers.

Read:Congress deboards Pilot, sacks him as deputy CM

"While the people in their 60s, 70s and 80s now feel the state of helplessness in the Congress and is swallowing what is there in the party and making the best of a bad situation, for those who are younger and have an entire public life ahead of them, 20-30 years of politics ahead of them, they are not prepared to say that there are no options and sit in a corner,” said Chowdhury.

She highlighted the issue of how the young in the party feel being neglected by the seniors and how they feel sidelined when it comes to sharing power.

The Congress seemed to be oblivious to the fact that the patience of the younger lot was tested with Scindia's exit but seems to have learnt no lessons at all.

“This is a generation that says, I want to perform, I want to deliver and I want to be given my due,” said Chowdhury on the generational change in perception that has happened in the party.

The Gandhis had an opportunity to stop the Rajasthan crisis from blowing to the point it is now.

“If the Gandhis had intervened last Saturday when Sachin Pilot had come to Delhi with his team, it could have been settled in ten minutes but they did not,” Chowdhury said.

Read:Pilot will not join BJP, reveal sources; but speaks with friend Scindia while incommunicado

It also reflects the issue of the Congress not having a defined 'High Command'. According to Chowdhury, it was good that the party does not have a high command as it is anathema in democracy but the party needs a collective decision-making body.

“The Congress should have genuine free and fair elections so that the better person emerging from it can bring in a revival,” she added.

The Congress has been depending on the Nehru-Gandhi family to which Chowdhury added that it is time that the Congress thought of a non-Gandhi to take on the reins of the party.

However, there is Priyanka Gandhi, the trump card that Congress might rely on. Yet it is the openness of an elected Priyanka in the Congress rather than a foisted one that can make the difference among the party cadres.

Meanwhile, as the Congress pond gets muddier, it looks like the BJP is more than happy to fish in muddy waters.