Just Dumb Charades

Confusion Compounded 

• The Congress’s return to power in 2009 was seen as validation of the grand old party’s ability to attract allies, but it is increasingly toxic
• In just last six months, four parties—Trinamool, DMK, Majlis, JVM—have deserted Congress. Ten parties have left UPA since 2004.
• Even like-minded potential allies like Samajwadi Party are beginning to view the Congress with circumspection, at least in public
• Confusion over UPA leadership, caused primarily by Rahul Gandhi’s poll record and reluctance for top job, have confounded matters
• Digvijay Singh’s comments on the failure of “two power centres” is seen as an unspoken bid to undercut rival P. Chidambaram’s emergence as contender
• Manmohan Singh’s dismissal as “hypothetical” the possibility of a third term as PM could be further proof of Rahul Gandhi’s no-show
• Janardhan Dwivedi’s reassertion of utility of separate heads confuses Rahul backers who’ve waited long for him to take charge.

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What passes off for news in the Congress party at times appears to be just a sort of pantomime around the dynasty, about the dynasty. Last week, Rahul Gandhi made another sincere-sounding speech in a carefully choreographed appearance, and Janardhan Dwivedi yet again contradicted Digvijay Singh.

And at the end of it, no one was any wiser as to whether Rahul would be the prime ministerial candidate—it is a relevant question, after all—or whether he is looking for a partner like Manmohan Singh and, if so, who that individual is. Rahul’s words bordered, instead, on the mystic. India, he said, is “an energy, a force. If you go back a thousand years, you find that force came from our rivers, Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati. We worship­ped these rivers because that is where our energy came from.” Addressing an audience at the CII, he went on to say, “now we have gone way beyond that...you are the people who are allowing this energy to rise, to explode.”

The note of sincerity continued as he described his discovery of India on a train journey from Gorakhpur to Mumbai. “What struck me about the train,” he said, “was the optimism. These were poor people, weak people, but not one of them was pessimistic. And this optimism for me is India—it is bursting with dreams and fearless ideas.” The foundation for hope thus laid, Rahul went on to talk about the need to create a stable business environment.

But as he did at what was seen as his coming-of-age speech at Jaipur earlier this year, Rahul sounded like a man questioning the system as opposed to being the face of the party that has created it. “Why is it that a degree from Harvard costs the same as the capitation fee of a medical college in Lucknow? Why are our students forced to study obsolete things?” There was no dearth of questions on his mind.

But when it was his turn to answer the one question on everyone’s mind—whether he will formally become the PM candidate—he kept the suspense going: “It’s an irrelevant question. It’s all smoke.” The ultimate insider in the system, Rahul Gandhi has adopted the stance of a man who prefers to be outside it. He also prefers to talk about vague ideas rather than specifics. Since access to mother and son is limited, journalists can only read the signs (akin to reading tea leaves) that often result in attributing great meaning to completely ordinary events.

What is clear is that Rahul is keeping the exit route of not trying for office although he will remain the main campaigner for the Congress in the next general elections. It’s a privilege dynasts get to have: if the Congress does well, he will always have been the face of the party and the government; if it does badly, he would be seen as someone who tried his best but never really hankered for power.

Digvijay and Janardhan. (Photograph by Narendra Bisht)

Meanwhile, senior leaders in the Congress kept up a Punch & Judy kind of sideshow, acting to a script meant to keep you wondering. In keeping with his thought-out plainspeaking technique, general secretary Digvijay Singh first created a relatively interesting story when he declared that “I personally feel that this model of ‘two power centres’ has not worked very well. I personally feel there should be no two power centres and whoever is the PM must have the authority to function.” It was interpreted as Dig­vijay both criticising Manmohan and suggesting that Rahul position himself as PM candidate.

It took a couple of days for the leader in charge of the Congress party’s media department, general secretary Janar­dhan Dwivedi to take on Digvijay as he has done all too routinely in the past. He countered: “The relationship which has existed between Soniaji as party president and Manmohan Singh as the prime minister is unique and not seen everywhere usually. I think, for any democracy, this is an ideal model even for the future. Both the party and the government have continued to function with dignity and mutual understanding. What better situation could be there for a democracy?” That is, a significant advocacy of the twin-sharing model.

Basically, as a party leader joked, the story of who will be the PM if Rahul does not want to be one can be expected to play out for some more time. Asked about Rahul’s repeated ducking of the big question, party spokesperson P.C. Chacko said, “When he said that he is not attaching much importance to who is going to be the prime minister, that did not mean that he is not going to be the prime minister or that he is going to be the prime minister. This is not the first time he is saying this. He said this in Jaipur. He said this on many occasions. Today we are measuring politics with certain old parameters like who is going to be the minister and who is going to be the prime minister alone.”

As the usual non-stories played out in the Congress, Narendra Modi from the opposition corner declared that now that he has paid off the debt to the people of Gujarat, the time has come to pay off the debt to the people of India. Some saw in this a sign that Rahul’s CII speech had struck home. Even so, everyone faces the saga of an ambitious leader taking on a reluctant leader—and that when no one has a clear idea as to how long this government will survive.