A year after its near-annihilation, the Congress is putting its fate in Modi’s hand. Its leaders are hoping that the party will be back in contention if Modi fails.

Nothing clears the head better than the fear of death.

Faced with the threat of extinction, the mind begins to focus on self-preservation, every joule of energy is spent on sustaining life; every distraction disappears from sight.

The Congress and Rahul Gandhi experienced near-death in 2014. And the effect is visible. Rahul no longer treats Parliament as a tourist destination, doesn’t occupy its back benches; he speaks as often as possible, is visible both inside and outside Parliament; has discarded his silly, child-like experiments within the Congress and appears ready for life as a full-time politician.

Within the Congress, seniors have been overshadowed by the Baba brigade, Manmohan Singh has been sent home, erstwhile PM-aspirants like P Chidambaram have been marginalised and Priyanka Gandhi has become invisible.

In one year, Rahul has become Congress and Congress has become Rahul. The Congress, as Michael Douglas says in the Ghost and the Darkness, looks like a man who wants to live.

The question now is: Are we ready to give the Congress a second lease of life, accept Rahul as our next PM? Are we willing to forgive it for the sins of UPA? Has Rahul done enough in one year to make us rediscover the virtues of dynastic politics?

Only a brave man or a blind Congress bhakt (a rare species) would answer in the affirmative. Rahul may have undergone an image makeover in the past few weeks, the Congress may have shown the will to survive, but they are still not a match for Narendra Modi.

Both Rahul and the Congress can’t be rebuilt in a day. The challenge before Rahul is mammoth; he is caught in woods that are dark, ugly and deep. Rahul has miles to go before he can emerge as a serious contender for 7, RCR.

In December 2014, senior journalist TN Ninan had summed up the challenge facing the Gandhis. “To be in business, it has to offer its leaders and workers the hope of enjoying power and opportunity to misuse office, within a foreseeable future. But in crucial states, the party is neither No. 1 nor No. 2, but an also-ran. Any prospect of power is distant in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Seemandhra, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi - and perhaps even Maharashtra. In Telangana and Gujarat, it is still No. 2, but no more than a rump. These states account for nearly 65 per cent of the seats in the Lok Sabha. In some states, the Congress has not tasted office for two decades and more. Inevitably, the party has withered at the grass-root as party workers have gone elsewhere in the hope of better pickings.”

Not much has changed in a year except that in Delhi it has come down to zero from the eight seats it had in 2014.

The Gandhis have always been overestimated in politics. They might be the glue that binds the Congress, but for voters the Gandhis have been of limited electoral importance.

In the past three decades, just one Gandhi has able to win an election for the Congress. If Indira Gandhi had not been assassinated by her bodyguards, nobody knows if the Congress could have won the next election or would have been punished for the mess in Punjab and Assam. But, Indira’s death won the election for the Congress.

In 1991, the Congress didn’t do too well. Narasimha Rao managed to form a form a government because there was a last-minute addition to the Congress tally because of Rajiv’s assassination. Later, when Sonia returned to lead the Congress, the party’s tally was abysmally low.

The Gandhi surname guarantees recognition, but it doesn’t promise an electoral windfall. Yet, the Congress has chosen another Gandhi as its leader for the Parliament wapsi campaign. It exposes the party’s compulsion as well as ideological bankruptcy.

There is just one hope for the Congress now: the Indian voter’s habit of punishing a leader for breaking poll promises and not living up to expectations. There comes a time in politics when voters begin to feel that the change they were promised is not going to happen, that is when the jumla ‘all of them are the same’ resurfaces in political discourses, and the field becomes level for all players.

The Congress is hoping that Modi will crack under the burden of unrealistic expectations. While it waits for Modi to self-destruct, it will try to get into a position where it becomes the natural beneficiary of the anger against Modi.

According to a report in the Economic Times, the party has already started counting on Modi’s failure. “Rahul's nation-wide tour is being lined up exactly when Modi government's one-year honeymoon period ends. While NDA regime's decision to amend the land acquisition bill has gifted Rahul-led Congress an unexpected plank, party strategists calculate the signs of an agrarian crisis, the projected shadow of bad monsoon and likely inflationary trends could test the 'feel good factor' of the Modi regime in the next year”.

A year after its near-annihilation, the Congress is putting its fate in Modi’s hand. Its leaders are hoping that the party will be back in contention if Modi fails.