A party with only leaders, no followers

It is quite evident that the Congress will always remain as a bundle of contradictions. It is never an organic whole. It is always the same Congress whether it is in power or in the Opposition. There everyone is a leader, and none is a follower.

Take the case of MLC Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy. The verbal poison he spewed at party Telangana in-charge RC Khutia recently after the constitution of various committees for the PCC came as a shocker. It was, in fact, a disconcerting symptom of a systemic malaise that, for long, has afflicted the grand old party.

Ever since stormy petrel A Revanth Reddy left the TDP and joined the Congress, he appeared a threat to Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and his brother of Rajagopal Reddy.

With Revanth Reddy not making any secret of his ambition to become the Chief Minister of Telangana State, all other Reddy leaders in the party have turned against him. Though most of them are not comfortable with one another, when it came to “outsider” Revanth Reddy, they have made a common cause.

When Revanth Reddy was made the working president of the PCC, Komati brothers smelled trouble. While Venkata Reddy was not very angry, probably because he was appointed the chairman of the publicity committee, Rajagopal Reddy could not contain his anger since his name was one among the 41 names in the Pradesh Election Committee. Unable to control himself, Rajagopal Reddy called Khuntia “shani” and that he had filled the election committees with people who cannot even win a ward election.

It is not just Rajagopal Reddy but other leaders too who always let out their spleen once in a while against the party State leadership, a phenomenon that does not exist in any other party. In fact, former MP V Hanumantha Rao walked up to Khuntia and asked him why he was not made the chairman of the campaign committee since he was tailor-made for the job. He told him that he had even kept Indira Ratham ready for campaigning.

Rajagopal Reddy's diatribe against Khuntia has made the party issue a show cause notice to him and when the reply did not satisfy the disciplinary committee, it issued another notice to him. It beats one why it was dragging its feet as Rajagopal Reddy was on TV calling Khuntia names.

All these developments indicate one thing: The leaders do not hesitate to slam the leadership and the latter is not ready to take action against them. There were instances of the Congress leaders holding press conferences in Gandhi Bhavan and targeting their colleagues. Recently, former MLA DK Aruna has admitted, in an interaction, with media that she has issues with former Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy.

No one would dispute that there should be democracy but too much of it will make the entire party come apart. The party leadership should have courage to take action against those who lower the dignity of the party ahead of elections, no matter how powerful they are.

At the same time the leaders too should resolve their issues with the leadership at appropriate party fora instead of washing the dirty linen in public. Meanwhile, for the public, it is entertainment unlimited.