Corporate culture shock for India’s Congress; Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is trying to bring corporate management to the 128-year- old party rooted in tradition that usually resists change

Corporate culture shock for India’s Congress

Friday, August 30, 2013 – 03:00

Nirmala Ganapathy

The Straits Times

INDIA – Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is trying to bring corporate management to the 128-year- old party rooted in tradition that usually resists change. Since taking over as the party’s second in command seven months ago, the 43-year-old politician has introduced questionnaires for state leaders, a colour grading system to gauge performance and quarterly reviews to see if state units are meeting targets like shortlisting potential candidates for the 2014 general election.In Kerala, a three-colour-coding system was introduced two months ago with red for bad, yellow for average and green for good. Three functionaries have been graded red and warned to buck up or lose their posts.

Senior Congress politicians, more used to a laid-back style of functioning, complete with long meetings over hot cups of tea and samosas, must fill up a four-page form every three months with questions such as: What have you done to prepare for the elections?

What have you achieved in the last three months? and How many hours did you work?

The answers are reviewed in meetings by Mr Gandhi’s chosen aides, who fly down to state capitals from Delhi.

To the great discomfort of those who fall short, the Gandhi scion is making sure every form and target report is catalogued.

The corporate world is not unknown to Mr Gandhi, who worked as a management consultant in London for three years after graduation. He returned to India in 2002 and in 2004 joined politics, embracing his political legacy as the heir to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty which has given India three prime ministers.

Often seen as a reluctant politician, he has spent most of his eight years in politics on the fringes, taking care of the youth organisations of the left of centre party, only emerging occasionally to handle state elections.

His own political record remains patchy. The Congress fared poorly in state elections where he took charge in the northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

In January, the bachelor accepted the post of vice-president to the delight of Congress politicians impatient to have the younger Gandhi at the helm. He promised a system based on meritocracy and internal democracy even though his own rise has been through dynasty.

While his father Rajiv Gandhi, a former prime minister, during his time took disciplinary action to rid the party of the old guard and power brokers, Mr Gandhi’s attempt to bring in internal democracy in a country where politics is determined by caste, religion and money power is being met with scepticism.

Management gurus say political and corporate cultures just do not mix.

“Certainly, it is more systematic and organised but the reality of the Indian political system is that a politician wants his assessment to be done by his electorate and nobody else,” said brand-strategy specialist Harish Bijoor.

“A politician has recourse to faith in people at the grassroots rather than those who govern him, That is why there is resistance.” But there are also those in the party who appreciate his efforts.

“We had so many office-bearers. Some of them worked, some didn’t,” said Mr George Mercier, a member of the Kerala Congress. “There was no accountability but that has changed.”

The Congress party, however, has bigger problems going into the general election ranging from a slowing economy, a tanking currency and high food prices. In Madhya Pradesh, which goes to the polls in November, Mr Gandhi had promised candidate selection would be complete by July but it is still going on.

“Traditionalists find this whole thing futile,” said Mr Rasheed Kidwai, author of 24 Akbar Road, a book on the Congress party.

“Everybody knows caste and resources play a role in Indian politics. A person who is moneyed and belongs to an influential caste has an edge. Then what is the point of meritocracy.”