Sultanate gone but we act like sultans: Jairam Ramesh says Congress in crisis

New Delhi: The Congress is facing an “existential crisis”, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday said, pitching for “a collective effort” by party leaders to “overcome” the challenges it faced from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.

Ramesh also said that the 'business as usual approach' would not work against Modi and Shah and advocated a flexibility in approach to make Congress relevant.

“Yes, the Congress party is facing a very serious crisis,” Ramesh said in an interview.

He said the Congress had faced “electoral crisis” from 1996 to 2004 when it was out of power. The party had also faced “electoral crisis” in 1977 when it lost the elections held soon after the Emergency.

“But today, I would say the Congress is facing an existential crisis. It is not an electoral crisis. The party really is in deep crisis,” he said when asked whether the threat of “poaching” of MLAs posed by the BJP in Gujarat had forced the party to transport its MLAs to Karnataka to ensure party leader Ahmed Patel’s victory in the Rajya Sabha polls.

He, however, justified the Gujarat Congress’ decision to send 44 of its MLAs to a resort in party-ruled Karnataka on July 29 to fend off the alleged “poaching” attempts by BJP, saying the saffron party had also “transported” MLAs in the past.

He said it was wrong for the Congress to think that anti-incumbency will work automatically against the Modi-led government in states being ruled by the BJP.

“We have to understand we are up against Mr Modi, Mr Shah. And they think differently, they act differently, and if we are not flexible in our approach, we will become irrelevant, frankly,” the Congress leader said.

He said the Congress party must also recognise that India has changed. “Old slogans don’t work, old formulas don’t work, old mantras don’t work. India has changed, the Congress party has to change,” he said.

The former Union minister hoped that party vice-president Rahul Gandhi would end the uncertainty over becoming Congress president to make the party ready for crucial electoral battles in key states in 2018 and the Lok Sabha polls scheduled a year later.

“I think, in all probability, Rahul Gandhi would take charge (as Congress president) before the end of 2017,” he said.

The senior leader lamented he had been proved wrong in the past about his predictions about Rahul’s ascendancy to the top post.

“I thought it would happen in 2015, it didn’t happen. I thought it would happen in 2016, it didn’t happen. So I am the wrong person to ask this question. I feel that it may happen before the end of 2017,” Ramesh said.

He said he had “no” indication about Rahul Gandhi's appointment as Congress president.

“I have only expectation. That’s all. In 2018 and 2019 you would be busy with elections. State elections, national elections... and this type of thing... this uncertainty is not good,” he said. Ramesh urged the Gandhi scion to “finish it off”.

Asked if there was anyone in the Congress party to give a strong challenge to Modi in the 2019 elections, Ramesh said, “I have always maintained it is the collective strength of the Congress that will overcome Mr Modi, not some individual magic wand”.

“It has to be a collective effort,” he said.

Ramesh took potshots at party leaders who "still behave as if the party is in power".

“The sultanate has gone, but we behave as if we are sultans still. We have to completely redo our way of thinking, acting, projecting, communicating.

“I think there is a lot of goodwill for the Congress, a lot of support for the Congress but people want to see a new Congress. They don’t want to see old mantras, old slogans. We must recognise this is a big challenge. It is a huge challenge for us,” he said.

He said Nitish Kumar’s return to the NDA fold was a big setback for the anti-BJP coalition in the country, describing it as a “completely betrayal of the mandate” given to the Mahagathbandhan by the people of Bihar.

Ramesh, who shares a personal rapport with Kumar, said, “Personally, I was aghast, astonished, deeply disappointed, but we have to move on and we don’t have time.”

Ramesh, who represents Karnataka in the Rajya Sabha, expressed hope that the “revival” of Congress would happen in Karnataka next year as it had happened 40 years ago in 1978 in the Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat which served up a "political rebirth" of Indira Gandhi in the elections held after the Emergency.