National

The Show Of Hands

Rahul Gandhi is pushing for change in election season. Is the timing right?

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The Show Of Hands
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Rahul G In Da House

  • Rahul leads the Congress party, from banners, ads, Election 2014 campaign to party reorganisation, appointments of young leaders.
  • More than the elections, the focus is on the party, it seems. Rahul is radical in choosing allies, dealing with the coalition, even finalising tickets.
  • Disappointment, unease among the party old school. Since most are not mass leaders, they have no option but to keep themselves in assembly line.
  • Rahul is being criticised for repeated mistakes: the staid replies, one-way communication, other immature moves.
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It was at short notice, but on February 17, journalists were called to attend a Rahul Gandhi press briefing at 10, Janpath, the official residence of his mother and UPA chairp­erson Sonia Gandhi. As journalists que­ued up for the usual security checks, the party old guard trooped in one by one—Mohsina Kidwai, A.K. Antony, Janardhan Dwivedi, M.L. Fotedar, Ambika Soni.... They were there for the party’s election committee meeting later and hung back at the briefing. Though Rahul once again disappointed (before most reporters were seated, he was in and out after pre­ssing the point that it was he who had got the government to accept the one post, one pension demand, a long-standing grievance with the armed forces), the signals were clear—the young Gandhi would be the face, the voice and the mind of the Congress in this elections.

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Be it the party website, TV promos or print ads, Rahul and his ideas are the party campaign. He’s the man calling the meetings for a more “inclusive party manifesto”, he’s the one meeting various sections of society in different cities and areas to shape it. Indeed, there seems to be no other recognisable faces visibly involved in these proces­ses. At the same time, Rahul is also making changes at the organisational level, youths selected by him are the faces of the future, from district-level bodies to the national level. So there’s a Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, pow­ering ahead of C.P. Joshi and Ashok Gehlot; there’s Arun Yadav and Jyoti­ra­ditya Scindia in MP rustling the likes of Digvijay Singh. (In fact, press releases notifying  changes in the order—at  all  levels—have been frequent of late.)

As is to be expected, the emergence of a new generation has created some worry among the party old guard. The stories of pain and disappointments are “off-the-record” and “only for favoured ones”, but the sense of unrest is palpable. Senior leaders like Janardhan Dwivedi, who have served the party obediently for decades, have been so moved as to make remarks about the ‘reservation pol­icy’ (the party leadership issued a quick clarification, and leaders quickly dissociated themselves saying it was his personal views). One senior Congress lea­der suggested that “his point might be valid, but his timing is wrong”. On the new generation in the party, ex-CM of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, who had led the Congress to three consecutive poll victories but was trounced by AAP man Arvind Kejriwal in the last elections, told Out­look, “The Congress is the oldest party of Indian politics. The best part about us is that we have always had a nice rapport between new knowledge and experience. This coexistence is very important, it must remain a quality of the party.”

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Interestingly, the Congress is undergoing this overhaul just before a gene­ral election when the UPA-2 is bat­t­ling weakening alliances and anti-incumb­ency. Is it then the right time for such experiments? “Of course, the party is undergoing a change; changes in the system, structure...we’re moving towa­rds being a more open party. I am witnessing what we saw during Rajivji’s time. We were picked by him when we, the younger generation, were least known faces,” says party general secretary Digvijay Singh. He refuses to accept that there is any unease within the party. But then he adds a caveat, “It’s not good for anyone to be in the chair and then be disappointed or frustrated when it comes to handing over charge.” Another party voice close to Rahul says, “This is the right time to choose a new team. Newc­omers should start taking up tasks when things are to be done from scratch.”

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The party, in real time, faces two crucial challenges today. Firstly, there’s the missing organisation at the ground level. “Those days are gone when rallies and public meetings were sufficient to keep the voter interested. The new world of information is interactive, it’s important to touch the voters by all means; from door-to-door to the virtual world. We som­ehow didn’t take our promotion seri­ously. The party today lacks the cadre to counter the new and old opposition fronts,” says one senior leader. Secondly, there hangs the ques­t­­ion: where’s this new experiment lea­­d­ing to? Will Rahul bec­ome an acc­eptable name for everyone, and why is he fighting this battle when public perception says that chances he can sustain it are slim?

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Congress insiders have another take on this. “This election isn’t going to be the defeat of Rahulji. Rather, if it happens the way the media is predicting, it would be the defeat of the UPA-2 coalition. Rahul will emerge as a more powerful leader in the party post-elections,” this leader says. So, with defeat an admitted possibility, there’s also some reluctance among sen­ior leaders about facing ele­c­tions this time. They are more keen on “helping the organisation”. But it can’t be helped, the party might ask some of them to contest anyway. Observers see this as an easier situation for Rahul to handle, as any ‘election losses’ would also stymie unrest.

But there’s still the question of whether his policies will click, and it worries many within the party and outside. While some leaders do accept that “Rahul is not that good in communicating, his basics are clear; he is clear about the party’s ideology, programmes and policy. And he has clarity about moves and actions”, there are voices from the alliance who are not as kind.  ncp general secretary D.P. Tripathi says, “The politics of the country is changing but the basic contradictions in the Congress’s style of functioning haven’t. They are still going on with the same feudal, oligarchic style. Moreover, this is a transition without vision. Rahul’s politics and understanding has no space for non-Congress parties and the opposition. In a democracy, this is a bad way to do politics.”

Well, transitions are never smooth. The more important question is of the outcome and the timing of the change. Is this going to help the party in the upcoming elections or is this the start of preparations for the one after this? The party, and in some ways the country, is looking for answers to Rahul Gandhi. He has loads of work ahead.

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