Two days ago, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said something that Congress leaders might well say about their party workers in private: ‘useless fellows.’
The event itself was hardly extraordinary. BK Hariprasad was being sworn in as Karnataka Congress president when some Congress workers started chanting ‘DK-DK.’ Of course, this was in support of DK Shivakumar, Karnataka’s new two-and-a-half-year chief minister. Shivakumar was quick to stand up and gesture for them to stop. But they continued.
As a result, Kharge had to say: ‘This is a Congress party meeting. It is not a meeting meant for any one individual. It is a function where everyone has come together to strengthen and unite the party. If one person keeps shouting one name and another person shouts another, then have the rest of the people come here just to sweep up the garbage?’
Indeed, the party should be the priority of every party member. However, I wonder why Mr Kharge even said so.
After all, Congress has always been a party dominated by individuals rather than organisational discipline. For decades, its politics has revolved around the Nehru-Gandhi family. Workers merely imitate their leaders.
When leaders themselves do not place the organisation above individuals, how can workers be expected to do so? If politics becomes centred on personalities, workers will naturally rally behind personalities as well.
In any political party, discipline comes from organisational structure. In Congress, however, authority has often appeared to flow from the Gandhis rather than from strong institutions. Journalists who have covered the party for decades won’t disagree.
That is why Kharge’s frustration is understandable but misplaced. The workers were not behaving contrary to the Congress tradition. They were behaving exactly in accordance with it.
