In his first speech as AICC president, Kharge described the Congress' fight as a people's fight — something Modi too did in his public speeches in the run-up to the 2014 polls.
Mallikarjun Kharge takes charge as president of AICC (Twitter/INCIndia)
Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday, 26 October, officially took charge as president of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). In his first speech as president, Kharge appealed for unity within the party, even as he countered the jibes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders of the BJP have thrown at the Congress over years.
“I am emotional today that a labourer’s son, a common worker, has been elected as president of the Congress,” Mallikarjun Kharge said.
His speech had carefully chosen vocabulary that has so far been liberally used only by the BJP to describe its own leadership.
“Shouldn’t a chaiwallah (tea-seller) rule the country,” Modi had asked at an election rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi in April 2014, in the run-up to the elections that made him prime minister. Modi was owning his humble origins.
“This is a kaamdaar versus naamdaar fight,” Modi had said in November 2018 during an election campaign in Rajasthan, referring to his credentials as a worker as against Rahul Gandhi’s as a dynast.
“Is there any doubt that after Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi will become president of AICC? But nobody knows who the next BJP president will be because we don’t allow dynasty politics” is a statement several BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, have asked far too many times to take a swipe at the Gandhi-Nehru family’s control over the Congress.
On Wednesday, Kharge — a first-generation politician, a Dalit who has risen from poverty, a union leader whose life has been filled with adversities, a grassroots-level worker who has toiled his way to the top, a single-parent child whose father worked at a mill — emerged as the Congress’ answer to the BJP’s jibes.
Kharge is not part of any political elite, at least in the sense the BJP has been attributing to the Congress. While Kharge’s loyalty to the Congress party and, as a result, the Gandhi family, will no doubt lead to criticism of him being a “rubber stamp”, the new president is a marked change for the party.
Newly elected AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge with Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday (Twitter/Kharge)
The Congress, with its first family out of official positions, has its “son of a labourer” to take on the BJP’s “chaiwallah” Narendra Modi — a story of adversity, struggle, hard work, and success to counter another one.
If Modi hails from an OBC family, Kharge is a Dalit. Modi’s family was poor and Kharge’s family wasn’t just poor but also persecuted during the Razakar attacks in which he lost his mother, siblings, and uncle when he was still a child.
Modi’s father sold tea, Kharge’s father worked as a labourer at a mill. Narendra Modi has never lost a single election while Kharge, a nine-time MLA and two-time MP, tasted electoral defeat for the first time in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but was elected to Rajya Sabha later.
While their leadership styles are starkly different, both leaders have an unquestionable commitment to their respective party’s ideology — as contradictory as they are.
“With my efforts and experience, I will do whatever is possible, but all of you should work with me with full strength and commitment,” Kharge said as he called for a united fight against the BJP.
Under Kharge’s leadership, the Congress immediately has two Assembly elections to face in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, but the bigger challenge is for him to bridge the gaps among the party’s many factions.
“These are difficult times. Who would have imagined that those in power would weaken India’s democracy? The Congress, I am confident, can break this conspiracy of lies, falsehood, hatred,” Kharge said.
“The Congress’ ideology is in line with the Constitution. Crores of people trust the Constitution. Many of them are not formally with the Congress but they want to save the Constitution, and as AICC President, I appeal to them to join us so we can walk together,” Kharge added, appealing to like-minded people to join the party in its fight against the BJP.
The theme was similar to what Rahul Gandhi has been claiming to achieve with the Bharat Jodo Yatra, praise for which found mention prominently in Kharge’s speech in which he promised to take the spark of the yatra forward.
“We are the soldiers of Mahatma Gandhi and we aren’t afraid of anyone. Don’t be afraid,” Kharge said, taking off from Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Daro Mat’ (don’t be afraid) statement.
“I want to tell the youth of the nation, the fight Congress is putting up is not just for us or our party, but for your future,” Kharge added in the speech selling the Congress’ fight as a people’s fight — something Modi too did in all his public speeches in the run-up to 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
On Wednesday, all the Congress Working Committee members and AICC office-bearers including general secretaries and in-charges submitted their resignations to Kharge.
With Kharge at the helm, the Congress hopes to start from scratch with fresh appointments of office-bearers, but many remain skeptical over how much reform the party can bring in under him.
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