Viju Cherian

With polling dates for five states announced, election fever has gripped India. The results from Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana is largely believed to signal the mood for the general elections that are likely to take place early next year. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continues to ride on the Narendra Modi wave that brought it to power at the Centre in 2014, but the Congress is yet to place a firm foot on the pedal. It is on the defensive and that’s not a position of advantage going into an election season.

For example, take the Congress’ reaction to a recent statement by former Union minister Shashi Tharoor. Speaking at a function in Chennai on October 14, Tharoor said no good Hindu would want to see a Ram temple built "by demolishing somebody else’s place of worship.”

It is not so much what Tharoor said but the Congress’ reaction to the statement that’s interesting. The Congress went on the defensive distancing itself from the statement. However, what Tharoor said was a matter-of-fact statement: no good Hindu — or good non-Hindu for that matter — will favour violence and destruction.

Similarly, when former cricketer and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu went to Pakistan and met the Pakistan army chief in August, there were leaders from within the Congress who joined the chorus blaming Sidhu for his actions. More than the merits or demerits of his actions, it exposed the lack of cohesion in the Congress and how it wilted under harsh criticism.

Compare these with the umpteen controversial statements made by BJP leaders over the past few years. A majority of it does not affect the party leadership; many a times the party chose to not even respond to these statements. The Congress leadership, however, is easily rattled. It jumps to clarify and goes on the defensive. It is the BJP’s ability to turn or even twist the narrative against the Congress and the latter’s inability to set the agenda that is pushing the grand old party on the back foot.

Over the past five years, the BJP has quite successfully managed to discredit much of what the Congress claims it stands for — secularism, liberalism and cultural diversity have become political shibboleths. The Congress has failed to discredit some of the tenets the BJP stands for, such as jingoistic nationalism and fervent regionalism. On the contrary, the Congress has adopted these traits.

Even since it was reduced to 44 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, much of the Congress’ time is consumed in playing catch-up with the BJP. Whether it is in using social media platforms effectively or in establishing a connect with the non-resident Indian (NRI) diaspora across the world or at focusing at the booth level during elections, the Congress is always two steps behind the BJP.

To its credit, the Congress has enjoyed partial success. Since 2014, the BJP has lost at least eight Lok Sabha seats in bypolls, while the Congress has not lost any and has wrested four Parliament seats from the BJP. During the same period, while the BJP won at least 13 state elections, the Congress won just two (excluding Puducherry, which is a Union Territory).

Its performance in the Gujarat elections was commendable and its ability to form the governments in Punjab and Karnataka speaks volumes of the zest its President Rahul Gandhi has brought with his leadership. By raising issues such as the lack of clarity on the Rafale deal and by focusing on the problems in the agrarian and employment sectors, Gandhi has turned the heat on the BJP. But as a political party, the Congress has not been able to sustain this pressure.

At the slightest of distractions — be it a comment by Tharoor or the ‘neech aadmi’ remark by Mani Shankar Aiyar — the Congress’ focus is derailed. This is because often the party fails to set the agenda and is engulfed in firefighting.

In 2013, a year before the general elections, it was the BJP (in Opposition) that was setting the electoral agenda; the Congress (in power) was trying to catch up. In 2018, a year before the general elections, it is still the BJP that is setting the electoral agenda with the Congress playing catch-up. A major difference is that if in 2013 the Opposition had the upper hand, the ruling party enjoys that edge in 2018. That’s bad news for the Congress if it aims to come back to power.