Wednesday night the TimeNow TV telecast a Prime Time debate with the hashtag #AllNewRahul. Watching it might make you think that pathetic media handling was the sole reason for the humiliation in the General Elections 2014 for the Congress party. But that was not the sole reason, and we will analyse the confluence of reasons in a series starting tomorrow.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2014 General Elections, the widespread belief was that the Congress lost the elections because of the Commonwealth and 2G Scams, the controversial Coal Block allocations, and price rise in food grains. In my opinion it is a very simplified conclusion. The seeds for the defeat were sowed as far back as 2010, notwithstanding some new noises about it now.
Soon after the Congress constituted a committee with, who else but A.K. Antony as head to analyse the defeat, find out the reasons and chart out a plan of action. No one knows what is in that report, except that Antony has not blamed the high command for the defeat. Perhaps the only good to come out the report is the absence of leaks about it in the news reports. Even without such leaks it should not be difficult to guess what is in the 2014 Antony Committee Report. After all Shri. A.K. Antony, to my knowledge has submitted at least 3 such reports after election debacles.
The first one to my knowledge was in 1999, when the NDA won the election after their own misery of 1997. The 1999 Antony Committee Report blamed the organisational weakness, and recommended a slew of measures including selection of candidates months before the elections, coalitions as a last resort, re-connect with educated, urban middle class, more dalit and OBC faces to re-attract their votes among others.
The second Antony Committee Report was in 2008 after the defeat in the Karnataka State Elections. After four years, Antony was tasked with another report after the rout in the State Elections of UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa in 2012. Goodness knows what was in those reports, and what happened to the recommendations.
Starting tomorrow we will analyse the various reasons for the Congress debacle – corruption, inflation, media-disconnect, media mishandling including leaks, hunger for power, inability to owe responsibility, over confidence, sense of entitlement, holier-than-thou and patronizing attitudes, disconnect with voters, inability to convey ideas, severely blurring the Executive-Legislature divide, frivolous policy decisions, monogamous professional representation and infighting are among the few. An old timer who I spoke to recently speculated even internal sabotage.
The Return of Rahul Gandhi is also the most appropriate time for such an analysis. 2014 was too early, and too near the catastrophe to make meaningful reasoning. With Rahul Gandhi away, there was no point, as things would have continued like in the times of earlier Antony Committee Reports. If he was not going to be back, same reason. The time is when he is back and before he makes his moves - to see how many of my independent analysis makes or breaks.
:-D
In the immediate aftermath of the 2014 General Elections, the widespread belief was that the Congress lost the elections because of the Commonwealth and 2G Scams, the controversial Coal Block allocations, and price rise in food grains. In my opinion it is a very simplified conclusion. The seeds for the defeat were sowed as far back as 2010, notwithstanding some new noises about it now.
Soon after the Congress constituted a committee with, who else but A.K. Antony as head to analyse the defeat, find out the reasons and chart out a plan of action. No one knows what is in that report, except that Antony has not blamed the high command for the defeat. Perhaps the only good to come out the report is the absence of leaks about it in the news reports. Even without such leaks it should not be difficult to guess what is in the 2014 Antony Committee Report. After all Shri. A.K. Antony, to my knowledge has submitted at least 3 such reports after election debacles.
The first one to my knowledge was in 1999, when the NDA won the election after their own misery of 1997. The 1999 Antony Committee Report blamed the organisational weakness, and recommended a slew of measures including selection of candidates months before the elections, coalitions as a last resort, re-connect with educated, urban middle class, more dalit and OBC faces to re-attract their votes among others.
The second Antony Committee Report was in 2008 after the defeat in the Karnataka State Elections. After four years, Antony was tasked with another report after the rout in the State Elections of UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa in 2012. Goodness knows what was in those reports, and what happened to the recommendations.
Starting tomorrow we will analyse the various reasons for the Congress debacle – corruption, inflation, media-disconnect, media mishandling including leaks, hunger for power, inability to owe responsibility, over confidence, sense of entitlement, holier-than-thou and patronizing attitudes, disconnect with voters, inability to convey ideas, severely blurring the Executive-Legislature divide, frivolous policy decisions, monogamous professional representation and infighting are among the few. An old timer who I spoke to recently speculated even internal sabotage.
The Return of Rahul Gandhi is also the most appropriate time for such an analysis. 2014 was too early, and too near the catastrophe to make meaningful reasoning. With Rahul Gandhi away, there was no point, as things would have continued like in the times of earlier Antony Committee Reports. If he was not going to be back, same reason. The time is when he is back and before he makes his moves - to see how many of my independent analysis makes or breaks.
:-D
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