Dear Sonia Ji and Rahul Ji,

(An open letter to the acting president of the Indian National Congress!)

The Assembly elections have just ended. The BJP or its allies have won two and lost three. Many leaders from the Indian National Congress, symbolically headed by you, expressed their joy, not over your party’s poll performance. There was nothing to cheer about but about the other regional parties defeating the BJP. Your joy could have been meaningful if your party had won the polls in any manner.

From a National party, INC is now reduced to smaller than many regional parties in the States, often at the mercy of the regional leaders to accommodate you in the poll plans. There is severe grassroots disconnect, which cannot be doubted. The relevance of a national alternative to the right-wing BJP also cannot be questioned. It could be a nightmare if a coalition of many regional outfits run the nation at the Centre. I am concerned particularly about our country’s security and economy.

Your family has been in the INC lead and thus managing the nation for as long as I remember. The Voice of the Congress never escaped attention even whilst the opposition ruled India. That is all now history. The Congress party is in a severe crisis. Periodically the leadership questions and the internal election questions are raised but quickly quelled. Critics are silenced and sidelined by loyal sycophant groups with vested interests. The result: disinterest and distancing by many elders as well as youthful critics from your party.

Rahul Ji periodically appears in the political scenario to criticize issues, which have only damaged INC. For example, over the hackable EVMs, the Rafale purchases, expressing doubts over the Pulwama Massacre, doubting the Balakot strikes, and now the Covid, a global pandemic. INC could have played a more constructive role by holding Covid camps, by networking with the Congress-ruled States in furthering the cause of the nation’s good health and prosperity.

Rahul Ji has failed to evolve as an INC leader and as a future alternative Prime Ministerial aspirant. In the unlikely future of an opposition coalition at the Centre, most regional leaders could easily chew Rahul up and throw him into oblivion, further damaging the cause of the INC.

Sonia Ji, I can understand the pangs of a mother that you wish to try out, again and again, Rahul Ji, despite his inherent disabilities. Please now leave him alone and grant him the hiatus from politics. He must taste other vocations, more passionate to him. Your health, too, is deteriorating, as I understand. Now is the time to think the unthinkable, do the undoable, leave the reins of the party to a fresh face outside your family for the sake of INC’s survival and political relevance.  You are shouldering responsibility as the last national opposition party in an atmosphere of a unipolar polity.

The nation cannot obliterate the contributions and the sacrifices of your family. I guess you will dare to act, now!

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix