A pro-active leader on solo march and an inertia-ridden organisation refusing to shrug-off its lethargy; it is an interesting-phenomena, dichotomous, that has landed Congress in a bind. Not the political rivals but the party’s top leadership should take the blame for this confusion, showing no hurry to extricate themselves out of this situation.

There is no doubt that Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is a man on the march. From a reluctant player, during his first two terms as Lok Sabha MP and in between becoming Congress president, he has come a long way to become proactive, daringly raising issues, political and societal. And above all managing to establish a connect with younger generation or the Gen Z who have steadfastly stood behind Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi during the last one decade. Squatting on a dharna outside Parliament Street Police station in support of pellet-injury hit youth, is the latest in the series of steps in this direction.

The contrast between Mr Gandhi's high-profile individual outreach and the perception of a sluggish Congress party stems from deep structural decay, heavy reliance on a top-down (mostly defunct) leadership model, and disconnected regional hierarchies. When high-visibility campaigns fail to translate into organized local momentum, it exposes a disconnect between national optics and ground-level execution. This has repeatedly happened but there is no attempt to learn lessons and set the house in order.

Despite his sensible interventions and thoughtful suggestions on vital national and international issues, Mr Gandhi gives an impression of still being a loner in the GOP’s vast spread all over the country. That is strange enough. But why........

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