All the criticism at the INDIA bloc meeting of June 6 in New Delhi was, appropriately, directed at Rahul Gandhi – and this points to his centrality to the grouping, not just to his party.This had not been evident in January 2023, at the inaugural meet of INDIA in Patna, although the senior Congress leader was then just coming off his 4,000-km long Bharat Jodo Yatra which established his credentials as the signifier of the opposition.What has brought clarity now is Gandhi’s relentless ideological energy and drive, his unerring homing in to challenge the Hindutva ideology which, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is being sought to be made the nerve centre of the nation’s political life, its new point of departure and the new narrative that permeates the country.Hindutva in the Modi scheme and domain seeks incessantly to negate the influence or even the reality of India’s anti-colonial freedom struggle which defined and crowned composite Indian nationalism as modern India’s leitmotif. Hindutva, in contrast, aims to make the country’s religious minorities suspect, and thus to disable India emotionally, socially, materially. It is Gandhi’s defining characteristic of challenging the regime’s ideological edifice paired with his conceptual clarity on, and sharp intellectual analysis of, key national issues pertaining to nearly every aspect in the public sphere, which keeps his own party going. And in turn it is the Congress which, not wholly but in large measure, binds opponents of the BJP together – no matter that they have grouses against the party based on local political grievances or circumstances or perceptions. This was revealed amply on June 6, as was the aspect that the Congress remained the fulcrum of the nation’s opposition dynamics (and hence is the primary focus of regime attacks). In fact, the INDIA meeting after a hiatus of two years was called at the request of former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in her hour of despair. It is useful to pay heed to CPI(M)’s John Brittas who pithily summed up the expectations from Congress. He pointed to something that is subtle, relevant, and catches the essence of INDIA. The Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala said that while the Congress-CPI (M) political competition in Kerala was understandable, there would be no issue if a Congress leader from Kerala, such as K.C.Venugopal, the influential Congress general secretary, politically sought to take on the Left in the state.However, the complexion of the Congress’ criticism/opposition – indeed the spirit of it – changed if it came from Rahul Gandhi (or Congress president Mallikajurna Kharge) who, in the ideological sense, is the progenitor of INDIA. The tremendous national enthusiasm generated by Gandhi’s long march, and the coalescing of anti-regime grievances from all parts of the country at the time, provided the moment – and the scaffolding – for the subsequent coming together of opposition voices, their contradictions notwithstanding. What had been brought forth in 2023 was the idea of a national coordinated opposition to the Narendra Modi government in parliament. For that reason, the criticism Brittas makes applies to all states, although now it is only in Kerala that two INDIA constituents compete for power. For all the serious setbacks INDIA has faced in the two years since its spectacular showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, which reduced the Narendra Modi government to a minority in the parliament from its earlier lofty numbers, bloc leaders noted at the meet that the Congress remained the glue to hold the framework together. CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya put it with finesse when he said that INDIA needed to move from being (just) an “idea” to becoming an “identity”. The first necessary step in this direction, of course, is to work to make composite Indian nationalism prevail over religion-based ideas of pseudo-nationalism which are taking India back centuries. That triumph is a necessary condition for national advance, but not a sufficient one. For it all to come together for India and Indians in the coming decades, INDIA or a like entity by any name needs to pull Indian capitalism up by its bootstraps, rescue it from its humdrum stupor, and seriously launch a multi-dimensional assault on mass poverty in all its forms. There is no other way to aim for “Viksit Bharat”. What goes under that rubric today is the regime’s fraudulent slogan to keep the mass of Indians deluded by promising them the earth in the future provided they first turn back centuries in search of the mythical Hindu Rashtra.A truly “Viksit Bharat” or developed India cannot be built on the rungs of poverty in which 85 million Indians live on the dole of five kilograms of grains per month, as the Prime Minister has boasted. A policy overhaul is an ineluctable condition for material advance. A grouping like INDIA cannot escape having this on its agenda if it is to persuade people of its sincerity. But it must seek to reform itself in crucial ways in order to succeed, starting with the Congress, INDIA’s centrepiece. So long as the party continues to have a rickety organisation in large parts of the country, it will make unreasonable demands on allies in the states at election time. It must learn to walk through hurdles, not leap over them artificially by making such demands – and that can only happen if the party can build a sound election-based organisational structure from the booth-level up. One is reminded of Vladimir Lenin’s words here: “Better fewer, but better!” The maker of the Russian revolution used this grand expression in the last document he wrote for his party in March 1923, as he suffered one brain stroke after another in the months before his death when he was not yet 54 years of age. The document was about combating defects and improving the state apparatus by introducing change and bringing in good personnel and eschewing the urge to claim that the revolutionary victors knew everything. If the Congress can so change, it is bound to impact the political culture within the INDIA bloc too, as some of its parties are seen to rely over-much on parochial tendencies. Gandhi had sought to bring modernity to political and electoral processes and discourse in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when he campaigned by placing the constitution at the centre. When the campaign is sincere, it is accepted. In this case, the poorer people did so most avidly. And that is what had brought Modi’s numbers down. That campaign, following on Bharat Jodo Yatra, also helped catapult Gandhi to gain his present recognition.As a tactic, in 2024, the Congress also contested far fewer seats than in 2019, and that had a calming effect on the INDIA allies. There was no fear of the ogre. This is a good model to pursue, particularly when a party is aiming for better quality leadership in its organisation rather than former senior figures long past their worthiness certificates or their relatives.The regional parties, likewise, are badly in need of their own perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). Their stock-in-trade has been leveraging of the most abject aspects of our caste society whose natural dynamic runs in the direction of venality and nepotism which can translate to cartel or hoodlum rule in spite of adopting progressive ideas in broad-brush class terms, for instance, helping farmers or giving sharecroppers’ rights.J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah made a valuable contribution when he urged all INDIA constituents to support the National Conference party’s proposed protest in New Delhi to demand restoration of statehood to the Union territory.Also, INDIA’s decision to back the youth and students in turmoil nationwide over the triple-crisis of examination, education and employment – and standing behind them in seeking the resignation of the Union education minister – is a step in the right direction. This is among the most pressing questions before the country. It concerns the bulk of the young population. It also dovetails perfectly into the volatile issue of denial of voting rights to millions of Indians, and the concomitant denial to them of their civic rights, such as ration cards.These are existential questions for the country. The INDIA bloc would gain an altogether new dimension if its constituents began to take part in people’s struggles initiated by one another. Imagine if leaders of parties that would make up INDIA had without reservation endorsed the Bharat Jodo national march. Mass joint and common struggles help parties cleanse themselves. They help to overcome squabbles which typically arise from leaders’ needs – and not people’s concerns. Since 2024, the regime has made big strides by subverting institutions and winning state polls. Leading INDIA constituents have ceded ground in their respective states. This is the time for the language of conciliation, consolidation and salvaging what remains, and not frittering energies through emotionalism or vowing revenge. The hour needs a new way of politics, a whole new approach.