The Antony report exonerates Rahul Gandhi. But with no honest introspection on how to stem the rot, with a rout possible in Assembly elections, the Cong could eventually wake from its slumber to find the world a changed place.

New Delhi: The Congress has been virtually somnambulant since the declaration of the Lok Sabha results on May 16. Much like the American fictional character Rip Van Winkle who went to the mountains to escape his nagging wife and ended up sleeping for 20 years, the Congress too seems to have sleep-walked the last two months to wish away the nagging questions thrown up by its electoral debacle.

But the first wake-up call has now come for the party to do "something".

On Thursday, senior Congress leader AK Antony finally submitted to Congress president Sonia Gandhi his report on the factors responsible for the party’s humiliating defeat and the corrective steps required to get it out of the morass it is in. The report is meant for Sonia’s eyes only and it is for her to decide whether to share or how much to share with the Congress Working Committee or other aides.

Given the magnitude of the defeat, which left the party with only 44 Lok Sabha seats, the decision to entrust Antony with the task was intended to serve two purposes: one, to figure out where the party had gone wrong and what it should do to fix the problem; two, and more importantly, to buy time to dilute any post-debacle anger, desperation and frustration of the workers, particularly towards party vice president Rahul Gandhi.

Neither purpose seems to have been effectively served, though there is no word on what the report says or recommends. But it does not require rocket science to figure out that Antony, a loyalist, would have attributed the debacle to a whole range of subsidiary and secondary factors, including infighting, faulty ticket distribution, a biased media and the aggressive, polarising, communal and presidential style of campaign by the BJP’s then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, now prime minister.

And in keeping with the Congress culture of protecting the fountainhead, Antony glossed over the one single overriding factor that most Congressmen talk about -- the abject failure of the leadership, in this case of Rahul who had spearheaded the Lok Sabha campaign.

Antony gives a clean chit to Rahul

Indeed, Antony dismissed all talk about Rahul’s role in the debacle. "This is all speculation… Such things are being spread by mischievous people who want to weaken the party," he said on the sidelines of the flag-hoisting ceremony at the Congress headquarters on Thursday. "The reasons for the Congress defeat were something else," he added without elaborating.

Antony, who had proposed Rahul’s name as vice-president at the party’s Jaipur conclave in January 2013, maintained that only Sonia and Rahul campaigned while the party did not work at the other levels as strongly as was required.

Notwithstanding what Antony said, many in the party believe that Sonia’s experiment to groom the Amethi MP has been a disaster, with Rahul’s uninspiring leadership a lethal dose for the party already sapped of all energy by 10 years of incumbency of the UPA, allegations of corruption in high places and a paralysis in decision-making in the Manmohan Singh government. And if the party thought that the time-buying exercise of the Antony report would stave off the attacks on Rahul, it was clearly misplaced.

Sonia’s initial effort to protect Rahul by taking on the blame for the debacle on herself worked for some time. But when she failed to convene any introspective or brainstorming session, the patience of some leaders ran out. Congress leaders from Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan slammed Rahul as a "joker" -- and indirectly the Congress president for giving him such a long rope. Senior leader Jagmeet Singh Brar asked the mother-son duo to take a two year break and hand over the reins of the party to someone else. He has now been suspended from the party.

Some Gandhi loyalists too came out with cryptic remarks. Before Priyanka Vadra dismissed reports of her induction as baseless, Oscar Fernandes urged her to play "a more active role" in the Congress and "strengthen" the party along with the Congress president and vice president. It was seen as an admission that Rahul had failed and the Congress needed a new face and vigour.

General secretary Digvijaya Singh’s recent comments on Rahul too were interpreted in the same fashion. The man, who was once known to be mentoring Rahul, maintained that Rahul is not a "sattadhaari vyakti" by temperament. "Voh aisa vyakti hai jo anyay ke khilaaf ladna chaahta hai," (He is not a ruler by temperament. By temperament he is a person who wants to fight injustice).

"What does all this mean? It means that Rahul is not like Indira Gandhi or even like his mother Sonia who could fight back and revive the party. He is not like Narendra Modi who showed that he could inspire and lead. He is not even like regional chieftains like Mulayam Singh Yadav or Lalu Prasad Yadav who relish a fight-back. He is at best capable of leading an NGO," said a Congress leader worried about the growing leadership vacuum in the party and the absence of any post-debacle introspection.

Will Sonia finally act?

So with the report now in her hands, will Sonia finally try to get the party out of the state of inaction and ennui? Will she share the report with the Congress Working Committee or senior aides?

"She can either constitute a panel to follow up on the recommendations or call a meeting either of the CWC or the party to spell out the roadmap for the organization without actually sharing the contents of the report with them," said another leader.

So far there is no indication of any such meeting. Opinion is divided on whether the party should hold a meeting now or sometime early next year.

Holding a conclave now would interfere with the preparations for the assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir where the party has to fight with its back to the wall. And yet such a meeting is considered necessary if Sonia has to use the report to take remedial steps and deliver a message to pep up her demoralized workers before the polls.

But then, if the party does badly in the state polls, as is being anticipated, she will have to put in another such effort next year. That would coincide with the organizational polls and, given the sorry state the party is in, there is speculation that Sonia would once again be reelected party chief and abandon any plan she may have had of installing Rahul as the helm.

Parliamentary route to revival?

In the absence of any action on the organizational front, the focus has been on the party’s attempt to revive itself through its parliamentary performance. But even that has been a mixed bag. The Congress was denied the Deputy Speaker’s post which is normally given to the main opposition but has been handed over to the AIADMK. It unsuccessfully cajoled, threatened and even begged Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to grant it the status of leader of opposition even though it was 11 seats short for that position.

But, along with some other parties, it succeeded in forcing the Modi government to refer the Insurance bill to the Select Committee and agree to a debate on price rise, the Gaza conflict and the growing incidents of communal violence.

But cast an eye on Rahul’s parliamentary performance and he once again failed the party. He was inconsistent: he slammed the Speaker and came to the well of the House to demand a debate on communal violence but failed to speak when the relevant bill was brought before the House; he raised slogans and criticized the chair for not allowing a discussion but snoozed through the debate on price rise; he refused to take the leadership of the party in the Lok Sabha but his party did not hesitate to demand the position.

Even Sonia’s pep talk to her MPs to use the parliamentary forum for revival came at the fag end of the session. "We have been reduced in numbers to an all time low in the Lok Sabha. But we have not been reduced in spirit. It is our task to play the role of a vigilant Opposition…This we have begun to do, I believe, with increasing effectiveness…The process of rebuilding and restoring the confidence of the public in the Congress Party has begun. Our work in Parliament is the foundation of this process," she told her MPs at the Congress Parliamentary Party meet recently.

But she acknowledged that Parliament is but one forum. To revive the party, its MPs and workers have to hit the streets, strengthen the grassroots connections with the voters and re-connect with the people. "The work of the party is in Parliament, in public forums across the country, in our media and in the streets and homes of ordinary Indians everywhere," she said.

But the one big problem looming over the party is the one that Rip Van Winkle had faced. By the time he woke up, the world around him had changed such a lot that he had trouble adjusting to it.

Will it be the same for the Congress?