Modi Has Little to Fear From New Congress Leader
The real issue is that voters no longer want to buy what the main opposition party is selling: a return to muddled moderation.
Congress is still beholden to the Gandhis.
Photographer: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images
On paper, it looks like an overdue transfer of power. India’s principal opposition party, after an internal election contest between two members of Parliament, has elected a new president; and, for the first time in over two decades, the party will not be led by a member of the Gandhi family. The new president may not be the most inspiring of figures — Mallikarjun Kharge is 80 years old and has had a largely forgettable tenure as leader of the opposition in both houses of Parliament — but at least nobody can argue he is inexperienced.
Critics have been clamoring for such a shift for years, arguing that only fresh leadership could rejuvenate the storied Indian National Congress party and, with it, the liberal and secular opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The sad reality, however, is that this change at the top likely won’t improve the Congress’s national prospects — and it’s not clear anything can.