DNA Exclusive: How dynasty, nepotism weakened India's 'Grand Old Party'

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary analysed the history of 136 years of Congress party and explained how the nepotism and the injustice with the tall leaders of the party deteriorated it.

New Delhi: Today is the 137th anniversary of India's oldest party, Congress. To mark this occasion, today when Congress President Sonia Gandhi tried to hoist the Congress flag, it did not flutter in the sky, instead, it fell directly into her hands.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Tuesday (December 28) analysed the 136-year history of Congress. He explained how dynasty and nepotism, along with the injustice with the tall leaders of the party deteriorated it.

History of Congress

Congress was founded by a British man named AO Hume. He came to India from Scotland in 1849 as an officer of the Indian Civil Service.

AO Hume was the administrative officer of Uttar Pradesh when the revolt of 1857 - also known as first war of independence - took place.

Hume founded the Congress Party in India in the year 1885. It is said that Congress was established with the purpose to give maximum rights to Indians under the British Rule.

However, some historians believe that the real purpose of forming the Congress was to quell the fire of the rebellion that started from the year 1857.

After Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, in one of his speeches himself expressed how nepotism can destroy a country. In one of his speeches from the rampart of Red Fort on 15 August 1960, Nehru had said that if the people of India put their caste, community, or family before the country, then it would destroy the nation.

Disrespect to tall leaders

Other than the Nepotism that deteriorated the Congress, the party's injustice to its tall leaders is also one of the reasons for its present situation. Congress always did injustice with its stalwarts except for Nehru. Four tall leaders - Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Chaudhary Charan Singh - were the top leaders who were not given their due respect in the party.

The first of these leaders is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. In the year 1939, when Subhash Chandra Bose had submitted his claim to be the President of the Congress again, an alliance of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru was formed against him, which gradually declined his importance in the party and he had to resign in the end.

Similarly, the country's first law minister, Bhim Rao Ambedkar, was also ignored by the party. In 1951, when Jawaharlal Nehru withdrew the Hindu Code Bill, Ambedkar resigned from his ministerial post and later left the Congress.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel also did not get the respect he deserved in the Congress party. In the year 1946, a year before independence, when elections were held in the Congress for the post of President, it was certain that the leader who would lead the party will become be the first Prime Minister of India.

At that time, there were a total 15 committees of Congress in India, out of which 12 chose Sardar for the post of president. Three committees did not participate in it. But despite this, Nehru first became the President of the Congress and then became the Prime Minister, because Mahatma Gandhi convinced Sardar Patel to withdraw his name. 

Congress has never did justice to the fifth Prime Minister of the country, Chaudhary Charan Singh. He served Congress for 40 years, but during this time he was not even allowed to become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh because Nehru was not very fond of Chaudhary Charan Singh. He left the Congress in the year 1967 with tears in his eyes.