Leadership vacuum, not crisis

Democratically electing a full-time party president could help change public perception of the Congress

- SHASHI THAROOR

THE DEPARTURE OF Jyotiraditya Scindia has led many to predict a slow unravelling of the Congress party and created much unwarranted speculation about others who might be tempted to follow. There is a lot of loose talk about his exit being symptomatic of a larger leadership crisis in the party. I beg to differ.

First of all, calling it a ‘crisis’ suggests that we simply do not have any solutions to the current leadership vacuum that we are facing following the resignation of Rahul Gandhi—and that is not the case. For one, the Congress Working Committee made the right move by appointing the redoubtable Mrs Sonia Gandhi as interim president to direct the efforts of the party for a temporary period of time. For another, we do have strong leaders, both in New Delhi and in the states, who continue to offer leadership and have credibly led the party in the past. But the delay in appointing a full-time president should be a concern for the party since the absence of such a leader is hampering our credibility, our collective capacity and our ability to effectively convince the voting public to support us.