Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday fired a salvo, saying that the party was facing an "existential crisis". Making a case for introspection within the party, Ramesh pitched for "a collective effort" by party leaders to "overcome" the challenges it faced from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
Talking to a news agency in Kochi, Ramesh also said that a "business-as-usual-approach" will not work against Modi and Shah, and advocated for flexibility in the approach to make Congress relevant.
For long, political analysts have said the grand old party was facing an existential crises due to the lack of leadership and the absence of aspirational cadres. Last week, the BJP snatched the last bastion from the Congress, emerging as the largest party in the upper house. There is realisation in political circles now that the Nehru-Gandhi brand, that has been synonymous with political power for more than 70 years, no longer sells. Following Venkiah Naidu's victory the in vice-presidential elections, the BJP now occupies the top three offices in the country for the first time.
"We have to understand we are up against Modi and Shah. And they think differently, they act differently, and if we are not flexible in our approach, we will become irrelevant, frankly," the Congress leader said. He said the Congress party must also recognise that India has changed. "Old slogans don't work, old formulas don't work, old mantras don't work. India has changed, the Congress party has to change," he said.
Ramesh took potshots at party leaders who still behave as if the party is still in power.
"The sultanate has gone, but we behave as if we are sultans still. We have to completely redo the way of thinking, the way of acting, the way of projecting, the way of communicating. He also admitted that Nitish Kumar's return to the NDA fold was a big setback for anti-BJP coalition in the country, describing it as a "completely betrayal of the mandate" given to the Mahagathbandhan by the people of Bihar.
