Downward spiral all the way for Cong: Refusing to learn

This is the time for the Congress to be seriously looking into what went wrong, how to deal with its bankrupt ideology, infuse energy with leaders who can look beyond five/ten years. However there is nothing to suggest that the grand old party of the country has learnt any lesson from the drubbing it received at the hands of the BJP in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections. The country has more than demonstrated that it has moved beyond a particular family, but the grand old party refuses to acknowledge the reality and seems to be more concerned with the decision of Rahul Gandhi to step down as the president of All India Congress Committee. Accountability that is the call of the hour and if the Congress is unable to acknowledge this, then it can only be downhill for the party, which ruled the country for the greater part after independence. Not that anyone should be unduly worried over the fate of the Congress, but with other regional political parties unlikely to adopt a pan India presence and come out of its regional cocoon, the country needs a strong Opposition. The BJP  alone enjoys a whopping majority in the Lok Sabha with 303 MPs while with its allies in the NDA its strength is 352. With almost all the States under the BJP and its allies, the Congress will just be a small presence in the Rajya Sabha too. This does not augur well for the country, for a strong Opposition is a must to act as the check and balance to the Government. The only question is whether the Congress has it in itself to be a meaningful Opposition.
It is discouraging and disheartening to note that the Congress has failed to move beyond a particular family. If Rahul Gandhi wants to opt out, then let it be so, for accountability is what democracy demands. The only point is, how sincere and well meaning is the decision of the Gandhi scion to opt out and let the Congress find its own leader. A hand picked man for the party, that too by the Gandhis will be self defeating in the long run, for it will all be about power sans responsibility, a situation that India witnessed when the Congress was in power under Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. In  a nutshell,   honesty is what is called for and Rahul Gandhi must demonstrate that he is sincere in his decision to quit, else the much publicised decision to quit will only flush the party faster down the drain. The interesting question is what impact will this have on the State unit of the Congress. To be sure if the Congress is seen as a tottering, clueless party at New Delhi, it will definitely have a profound impact on the State unit of the party and this is best avoided. As it is, already eight MLAs elected on the Congress ticket in the 2017 Assembly elections are today supping with the BJP and to be sure its morale must be low. For a party which has also ruled Manipur for the greater period of time after Manipur attained Statehood in 1972, this is not what is expected. It is not the BJP alone which has managed to dent the Congress, but its pathetic failure to promote the right man to the top job and yet at the same time it is disheartening to see that the party of Nehru, Gokhale and Tilak should today be reduced to such a pitiful state.