However, just a new face won’t work. The Congress doesn’t just need a new face, it needs a new value system. More than anything, the Congress needs to value something that it stopped valuing ages ago – excellence.
Chasing excellence is the mantra that leads to success, whether in life, a company or a political party. More than anything, Indians have now tasted and learnt to value excellence in various spheres of life. It is what they want to see around them, in the brands they consume and the leaders they vote for.
Today, Indians rate everything, from delivery boys to drivers (five stars hopefully). We expect excellence when we board a plane. We want our train stations to be clean and our vaccination centres to not make us wait. We want fast data speeds. We want to book our tickets quick. We want our online ordered food to be hot when it arrives. We want our movies to entertain us, or we move on to the next one to another OTT platform. We want new airports and expressways. We want metro trains in every city. We want things to be done well. We want the one thing in everything – excellence.
Is everything in India being done well? No, certainly not. Life in India can still be frustrating, and we have a long way to go. However, here’s the thing. We now want things to be better. Indians now understand excellence means and want it.
In this India of 2022, to have a party like Congress, which has no regards for excellence but all the regards for a surname and whoever bows the most to that surname is mind boggling. Anti-excellence is a definite losing strategy in India today and the Congress results in various polls is ample proof.
Hence, without this core value of chasing excellence, you can change faces all day long but still nothing will resonate with Indians.
When we say the Congress is broken, what exactly does it mean? It means the Congress has broken its value system. Excellence isn’t valued in the party. Today, it is a party where talent goes to die.
Indians don’t want that. Indians want to see examples of talent being rewarded. They want to see people who come from nowhere make it, because most Indians come from nowhere. Indians want to see excellence being valued. The Congress values entitlement, privilege, and sycophancy. It is reminiscent of India of the past, you had to be born to someone powerful or rich to become someone in life.
Today, things are different. India had two dozen unicorns (companies with over US$1bn valuation) in the last year alone. These companies were created by ordinary Indians, mostly bright young Indians who chased excellence and never gave up. Hence, where is the place and need for an organization in India that hates talent and rewards chamchagiri? The Congress does represent a much-needed political ideology. It also fulfills the role of the opposition, which is much needed in a democracy. These two factors are indeed the moral arguments for Congress to exist. However, how can we morally justify an organization that hates excellence in todays India? Why should Indians support any entity that will not reward Indian talent?
In contrast, the BJP has room for talent to rise. Is the BJP perfect when it comes to rewarding excellence? Not at all. There’s still dynasty politics. It does have its share of sycophants. Not everyone talented gets rewarded and not everyone rewarded has the talent. It doesn’t have a perfect meritocracy by any means, but it does it much better than others. There are numerous examples within the BJP of new, first-generation politician faces in important positions of power. The single biggest example is of course the prime minister himself. However, there’s also plenty of BJP CMs and Union Ministers who have risen from ground level.
The Congress on the other hand, sees merit as a liability, a threat to the existing order. Until that changes, how will changing a face help? Hence, the Congress doesn’t just need a new face – it needs a whole new value system centered around these two magic words that all of us should center our lives around – chasing excellence. For in today’s India, Indians will settle for nothing else.