The Congress Party: From Evolution To Devolution by Venu Gopal Narayanan - May 3, 2021 01:43 PM A Congress supporter waves the party flag during the road show of the All India Congress Committee president Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru. (Arijit Sen/Hindustan Times via Getty Images) Snapshot An analysis of what the Congress has been reduced to in Kerala, and why that is a reflection of what is happening to the party in other states. German naturalist Ernst Haeckelâs biogenetic theory posits that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. It is a powerful aphorism which states that ontogeny, meaning the growth of an organism, mirrors phylogeny, or the evolution of a taxonomic group.