NEW DELHI, Mar 23:
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh likened his party to a “well-established company” whose market capitalisation keeps fluctuating and asserted that it will stage a comeback.
In an interaction at the PTI office here, Ramesh also dismissed suggestions that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma that was responsible for the BJP’s electoral performance and stressed on the importance of organisational strength.
The idea of a charismatic leader was a “dangerous concept” to believe in as one doing so, automatically believes in a “demagogue”, the Congress general secretary in charge communications asserted.
Talking about the need for bringing in new faces, Ramesh, however, noted that this was difficult in the Congress because people have been in the party for long.
“It’s easier for the BJP. Because, you know, the BJP is a startup in many states. You look upon the BJP as a startup. The Congress is not a startup. The Congress is a well-established company whose market cap (market capitalization) keeps fluctuating. But the BJP is a startup,” he said.
“So, a startup can absorb a lot of people. The guy who does not get a ticket in the Congress joins the BJP. So in many of the states, I would say, the Congress’ disadvantage is that it has been entrenched for decades,” he said during an interaction with editors and journalists of the news agency on Friday.
One of the disadvantages of being entrenched is that one is not able to give opportunities to new people to come in, Ramesh noted.
Asked about the central leadership, he said the Congress is the only party to have an elected president.
“We tend to ascribe far too much importance to individuals… If you read the bible of Indian political science by Rajni Kothari, one of the points Rajni Kothari makes in that book is that there was a Congress system and that system first got broken in 1969 with the first split and then it got broken in 1978 with the second split,” Ramesh said.
He said, “You can have all the charismatic leadership on the top, but if at the district level, at the block level and at the state level you don’t have these systems of mediation, of conflict management and of bringing people into the fold, then no individual is going to make a difference.” (PTI)
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