The stark truth is that if it is serious about reviving itself the Congress will have to sing for its supper.

It tells us something about the state of the Congress party that despite losing 12 seats in Jammu and Kashmir it is reported to be “happy” with the result, presumably on grounds that it could have been worse. Congress state vice-president Ghulam Nabi Monga breezily cited “anti-incumbency’’ as a factor behind party’s poor performance. An excuse he had trotted out even when it lost in Haryana and Maharashtra barely a few months ago.

Once regarded as a national party of natural governance, the Congress party’s stock has fallen so low that it now sees anything short of a complete wipeout as a triumph. In economics. it's called junk status when the value of something falls so low that its owner is happy to get anything for it. The Congress is now the electoral equivalent of junk.

It seems the party has effectively given up after the general election rout and a series of electoral reverses it has suffered in recent months. Any party dogged by successive defeats would be demoralized, but the answer is not to go into a shell, sit back, and hope-- in the manner of Charles Dickens’s reckless and blindly optimistic fictional character Wilkins Micawber -- that something will "turn up".

The degree of complacency and smugness demonstrated by the Congress in the past six months is breathtaking. There is a misplaced notion at the highest level of the party that the crisis it is facing is simply the result of a blip in the electoral cycle and that --as in the past--it will bounce back again after a while. The truth is that the crisis is much deeper. It is not just another blip; nor does the Congress have a divine right to bounce back automatically, its great pedigree notwithstanding.

The stark truth is that if it is serious about reviving itself it will have to sing for its supper. The Congress leadership--specifically the so-called High Command --will have to work (and work hard) to make itself relevant again. But, alas, there's no evidence that any such effort is being made.

After every election defeat, which itself has become a routine, there's a buzz that Rahul Gandhi is working on plans to reorganize the party’s "grassroots". He shuffles his team, appoints a panel to review progress and give report, but nothing ever comes out of it.

This CNN-IBN report after the May debacle gives a flavour of the exercise : "The Congress has now decided to go for a complete rejig of the organisation. There will be more focus on state leaders. Senior leaders will be asked to reach out to grassroot workers and communicate effectively. Rahul's team is likely to face the heat. Those who were in charge of the campaign and failed to deliver will be asked to explain the failure. Younger leaders are now likely to be given charge, but seniors will be given added importance. Rahul and Sonia are expected to travel across India to enthuse the highly demoralized cadre.’"

There is the same old buzz again. On Wednesday, Rahul met AICC general secretaries for a "brainstorming", as media reports put it, to strengthen the party. And guess what the outcome was? He told them to “meet party's block and district level workers and prepare a report within two months on how to take the party forward’’.

"The Congress Vice President has asked the general secretaries to meet the workers at block and district levels to get their feedback on how to take the party forward in terms of strength, ideology and other aspects. They have been given two months to prepare a report which would be submitted to the party and then a special AICC session would be held to discuss it," party officials said.

So much for the much-hyped brainstorming and his reported plans to offer a "roadmap" for the party's recovery. The problem is that under Rahul the Congress has got into the habit of simply fire-fighting. Which means doing nothing beyond trying to contain the crisis for the moment. In other words, storing up more trouble for the future and postponing the inevitable.

No wonder, the latest gimmick has been greeted with deep disappointment by party's supporters --and much glee by its critics. The internet is buzzing with sarcastic comment and calls for Sonia and Rahul to go. And the sense that Rahul is becoming a liability for the party is not confined to internet chatrooms alone. There are many in the party—and at senior levels—who hold the same view but are afraid to speak up publicly.

It is no secret that behind the facade of apparent unity unrest is brewing—and rapidly spreading to loyalist ranks. Senior leaders such as AK Antony, P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Kapil Sibal and Sushil Kumar Shinde—all former ministers and once close to the high command-- have questioned the drift in the party and implicitly raised questions about Rahul’s strategy. Another former union minister minister Ashwani Kumar called for Sonia Gandhi to take charge of the party suggesting that Rahul was not delivering. Other senior leaders have been reportedly accusing Rahul and his “coterie’’ of being out of touch with the party’s grassroots and of damaging the organisation with their “arrogance’’ and “corporate-style’’ approach to politics.

More recently, Milind Deora, a former union minister and a part of Rahul’s young brigade, publicly expressed his disillusionment after losing his South Mumbai parliamentary seat. In what was seen as a not-so-veiled attack on his boss, he said: "Everyone needs to share the blame, especially those who felt they had value to add but kept quiet for the past 2-3 years when things weren't going well. Those who were silent are to be blamed as much as those who were giving wrong advice."

The unrest is certain to grow after the losses in J&K and Jharkhand--and the imminent rout in Delhi. Things are coming to a head and the party cannot afford to be complacent anymore. There are only two options: either the high command shapes up and undertakes a root-and-branch reorganisation even if it means dispensing with Rahul; or the young “Turks” must seize the moment and --like what Indira Gandhi did— force a split to create a new (“real’’) Congress in order to save India’s “grand old party’’ from further ignominy.

Judging from the party’s handling of the crisis, the first option looks unlikely. That leaves it with the second but given the culture of sycophancy in the Congress, the big question is: who will bell the cat? Admittedly, a split is a radical option but desperate situations require desperate solutions. Sometime you need to amputate a limb in order to save the rest of the body from infection.

The bottom line is that the status quo is not an option any more; and the longer it lasts the closer the party will get to extinction.