Why Congress Is Again In Crisis After Digvijaya Singh’s Tweet on Modi and RSS-BJP

EXPLAINER: Veteran Leader’s Praise for BJP Organization Exposes Internal Rifts as Party Struggles With Electoral Losses

The Congress party finds itself embroiled in yet another internal controversy after senior leader Digvijaya Singh openly praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the organizational strength of the BJP-RSS, triggering widespread political backlash and exposing deepening fissures within the opposition party.

What Did Digvijaya Singh Say?

On December 27, 2024, during the Congress Working Committee meeting, Singh shared a 1990s photograph on social media platform X showing a young Narendra Modi seated on the floor near BJP veteran LK Advani. The image was from the 1996 swearing-in ceremony of former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela.

Singh wrote about how grassroots RSS workers and Jana Sangh/BJP members could rise to become Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers, calling this “the power of the organization” and ending his post with “Jai Siya Ram.”

Critically, Singh tagged Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and party general secretary Jairam Ramesh—making clear his message was directed at the party’s top leadership.

Why Is This Controversial?

The timing and content of Singh’s post created a perfect storm:

1. Unprecedented Praise for Political Rivals Singh, known as one of the BJP and RSS’s fiercest critics within Congress, suddenly lauding their organizational discipline shocked party members and political observers. The contrast between his decades of opposition and this public commendation appeared jarring.

2. Timing During Critical CWC Meeting The post came as Congress was holding its Congress Working Committee meeting to decide on agitational plans. Party sources revealed that Singh also raised concerns about organizational weaknesses at the grassroots level during the meeting, suggesting the party needed to emulate some aspects of BJP’s structure.

3. Pattern of Public Dissent This wasn’t Singh’s first recent public criticism. Just days earlier, on December 19, he had posted another message addressing Rahul Gandhi, calling for “pragmatic decentralised functioning” and reforms within Congress, noting that the “only problem is that it is not easy to ‘convince’ you.”

4. Implicit Criticism of Gandhi Family Leadership By praising BJP’s meritocratic rise (Modi’s journey from grassroots worker to Prime Minister) while tagging the Gandhi family, Singh appeared to draw an unfavorable comparison between BJP’s organizational democracy and Congress’s dynastic leadership structure.

The BJP’s Response

BJP spokesperson CR Kesavan immediately seized on Singh’s remarks, calling them a “truth bomb” that exposed how the Congress “first family ruthlessly runs the party in a dictatorial manner”. The BJP used the incident to question Rahul Gandhi’s leadership and the party’s internal democracy.

Another BJP spokesperson, Sudhanshu Trivedi, drew pointed contrasts between Modi as “guddri ke lal” (diamond in the rug—referring to his humble origins) versus Rahul Gandhi as “Jawahar ke lal” (great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru), suggesting that Modi rose from bottom to top while taking BJP upward, whereas Gandhi inherited leadership while bringing Congress down.

Digvijaya Singh’s Hasty Clarification

As the controversy exploded, Singh quickly backtracked. He issued a clarification stating: “I am a supporter of the organization, but an opponent of the RSS and Prime Minister Modi. You are mistaken. I have praised the organization, but I remain strongly opposed to the RSS and PM Modi and their policies.”

However, the damage was done. His clarification was widely seen as damage control rather than genuine explanation, especially given the deliberate nature of his original post—tagging top leaders and posting during a crucial party meeting.

What About Shashi Tharoor?

Contrary to some reports circulating on social media, there is no evidence that Shashi Tharoor backed or supported Digvijaya Singh’s controversial tweet. Recent headlines linking the two leaders refer to past interactions from 2022 regarding the Congress presidential election or their current roles as committee chairpersons, not the current controversy.

Tharoor has separately made statements that the party has characterized as his personal views, including recent remarks about electoral defeats, but these are unrelated to Singh’s Modi-RSS praise controversy.

Why This Deepens Congress’s Crisis

This episode is symptomatic of larger problems plaguing Congress:

Electoral Decline and Demoralization After successive defeats in state elections and struggling to regain national relevance, party veterans are increasingly frustrated with organizational weaknesses and leadership decisions.

Leadership Questions The incident reignites questions about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership style and decision-making processes. Singh’s comment about Gandhi being “not easy to convince” suggests rigid top-down control that frustrates senior leaders.

Organizational Atrophy Singh’s core point—that Congress lacks the grassroots organizational strength of BJP—resonates with many within the party who see their electoral machinery crumbling while BJP’s expands.

Public vs Private Dissent Previously, such criticisms remained within closed-door meetings. That Singh chose to air these views publicly, during an official party meeting, indicates growing desperation among senior leaders who feel unheard.

Discipline Breakdown Congress has traditionally maintained strict public discipline, with internal disagreements kept private. Singh’s public dissent represents a breakdown of this convention, emboldening other dissenters.

The CWC Meeting Dynamics

According to sources present at the December 27 CWC meeting, Singh persistently raised organizational issues, pressing for decentralization and grassroots strengthening. Eventually, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had to intervene, asking Singh to stop so other leaders could also speak—an unusual public rebuke that further highlights tensions.

Historical Context

This isn’t the first time Congress has faced internal rebellion from senior leaders:

• The G-23 dissent in 2020 saw 23 senior leaders write to Sonia Gandhi demanding organizational reforms and visible leadership
• Multiple state-level rebellions over chief ministerial candidates
• Ongoing speculation about veteran leaders feeling sidelined by younger Gandhi family members

However, Singh’s public praise of BJP marks a qualitatively different form of dissent—not just criticizing Congress but openly lauding its principal opponent.

What Happens Next?

The Congress leadership faces a delicate situation:

Option 1: Disciplinary Action Taking action against a Rajya Sabha MP and former Chief Minister could trigger further rebellion and validate BJP’s charges of authoritarian functioning.

Option 2: Ignore and Move On Letting the incident pass without consequences could encourage more public dissent and signal weak leadership.

Option 3: Address Underlying Issues The leadership could use this as an opportunity to genuinely address organizational weaknesses, though substantive reforms would require acknowledging Gandhi family leadership constraints.

The Broader Implications

This controversy arrives at a critical juncture for Congress:

• Elections in multiple states are approaching in 2025
• The party is attempting to rebuild INDIA alliance cohesion
• There are ongoing efforts to revitalize the organizational structure
• Questions persist about leadership succession and democratic functioning

Singh’s post, whether intentional or not, has publicly exposed what many within Congress have privately acknowledged: the party’s organizational machinery has significantly weakened compared to BJP’s, and addressing this requires uncomfortable conversations about leadership and structure.

The incident underscores a fundamental tension within Congress—between maintaining loyalty to the Gandhi family leadership and implementing reforms that might dilute their control. Until this tension is resolved, such episodes of public dissent are likely to recur, further weakening an already struggling party.

For now, Congress finds itself in damage control mode, with the BJP effectively using a veteran Congress leader’s words to attack the party’s credibility and internal democracy. Whether this becomes a catalyst for genuine reform or simply another episode in Congress’s ongoing decline remains to be seen.