Look back in the future

Even as the vast majority of the poor are crushed by economic policies of the UPA, the apolitical stance of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh might spell doom for the grand old party in the days to come, if they don't change their ways

Sanjay Kapoor Delhi

Maulana Kashmiri has seen many summers. By his own admission he is more than 80-years-old, but has a memory which can embarrass his young and inquisitive students. Sitting on the floor at his spartan meeting room, 'baithak' in Deoband, the sleepy town in Uttar Pradesh where the famous seminary, Darul-ul-Uloom, is located, Maulana, who has taught 'Sunnah' for many years in this famous institution, is angry with the Congress party. The venerable Maulana has a reason. A committed Congressman, he is upset with the top leaders for their failure to connect with their grassroots party 'cadre' and supporters. Speaking in chaste Hindustani, he has many stories to tell about the manner in which Jawaharlal Nehru and later his daughter, Indira Gandhi, looked after Congressmen. "They were ever so caring towards us".

Many of these anecdotes, heard from people in different parts of UP and the country, had contributed in feeding the myth about the charisma and leadership of the Nehru-Gandhi family and how they epitomised national interest and brought fealty for them amongst common people. Their manifest sensitivity helped them in garnering electoral support for the Congress. Little wonder that the Congress ruled the country, with a brief interruption, for 40 odd years before hubris caught up with its subsequent leadership. Usually, people like Maulana Kashmiri look for a recipe to revive the Congress in nostalgia about its great leaders and the grand old party, but the moot question remains: Can the past provide an answer to a present where even gentle zephyr have begun to shift the sand dunes of Indian politics?

In the past, a road show like the kind undertaken by the young scion of the Gandhi family, Rahul, in the recent UP assembly elections, would have helped in raking in a lot of votes for the Congress. Isn't charisma all about making brief appearances and slicing through caste and communal divisions? Nehru, Indira Gandhi and to some extent Rajiv Gandhi  managed with fewer such road shows, public appearances and televised speeches to win a mandate for their parties, but young Rahul, who braved the sun and the hot gusts of the plains of UP by swinging through more than 140 assembly constituencies, drew almost nothing. The party experienced a sharp fall in their vote percentage from a high of 15 per cent in 2004 in which they led in 66 assembly segments to a measly 8.6 per cent where they won an unimpressive 21 seats. A major share of these seats came from the Amethi-Rae Bareilly-Sultanpur belt where Rahul's sister, Priyanka, campaigned furiously to save the Gandhi family's pride.

It is not that Rahul did not get the crowds in many places, but for some reason his pitch for change did not make any impact on the masses reeling under price rise, crime, corruption and poor governance. "Price rise has been back-breaking and we know this has more to do with the government in Delhi rather than the government of Mulayam Singh Yadav," explained Aamir, a teacher based in Bijnor. Voters displayed political sophistication to differentiate between the ill doings of the state government and that of the Centre and vent their anger against both. It was an anti-incumbency vote against those in power, whether they were in Lucknow or Delhi.

Communists who support the UPA alliance also had to face the wrath of the voters. For the first time since 1952, both the mainline Left parties did not get even a single seat in the 403 member house in UP despite the fact that they got tacit support from both Mulayam Singh and the Congress.

Electoral drubbing in UP was part of a continuum that included recent setbacks in the states of Punjab and Uttaranchal. There, too, voters resented the elitist orientation of economic policies of the UPA government plus the shoddy and criminal implementation of programmes that were supposed to provide succour to the people living in degrading poverty. Interestingly, in  many of the districts under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the ruling party got a real hammering. In some of the districts of Punjab, for instance, where NREGA was implemented, there were no gains for those who thought that it could help them earn some gratitude or votes. On the contrary, there was anger over the way the contractors-bureaucrats were siphoning out wages meant for the needy.

A study by a NGO revealed that out of the Rs 70 meant as daily wages the beneficiaries were getting only Rs 11. In these states, much of the NREGA funds were also going unutilised. Actually, a well-intentioned programme was feeding expectations, and consequently, grievance, against the State.

Under these circumstances, it was unreasonable of Rahul Gandhi and his Congress handlers to expect a good performance at the hustings. The people of UP realised that it was Mayawati who was best qualified to challenge the manifest delinquencies of the Samajwadi Party (SP) government. Both the Congress and BJP were roundly punished for giving legitimacy to Mulayam Singh during his three-year reign.

The problem for the Congress stems from its inability to leverage its presence in the Centre to lift its political fortunes. Worse, its policies are hurting the goodwill that the party had generated in 2004 when it successfully took potshots at the 'India Shining' campaign of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Its trenchant criticism of Narendra Modi had helped in erasing its duplicitous stand on Babri Masjid and made the minorities perceive it more sympathetically. Separation of powers, between the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, were meant to beef up the fortunes of the party, but just the opposite happened.

What exacerbated the crisis was the apolitical attitude of both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi and their insistence to play by the book  when all their allies were revelling in an environment where lawlessness was a norm. The net result was that the allies not only smo-thered the growth of the Congress in those states where they were a force, but also worked hard to ensure that the party did not become big enough in other parts to form a government on its own in any fut-ure parliamentary elections. To put it blu-ntly, the presence of the Congress in the UPA has begun to hurt its future prospects.

The decision of the Congress leadership to contest the UP elections on its own may have been motivated by the desire to recapture the lost ground in the Hindi heartland, but they floundered due to poor support from the central government, inadequate preparations, poor organisation and aggressive infighting. This bitter political reality is causing sleepless nights for many Congressmen who are not sure how the party leadership would get out of the chakravuyuh (maze) it finds itself in. Their worry being that the government has failed to create the environment where they can go back to their respective constituents and ask for votes. Sports and Panchayat Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer's criticism of his government's economic policies finds resonance with the dominant thinking within the party.  “We do not know how we will win the next elections anywhere with policies that are alienating the masses from us,” confided a Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh.

What can the Congress do? One suggestion is that it should organise free and fair organisational elections so that it ends ad-hocism and nepotism that seems to have taken siege of the grand old party. Organisational elections would spawn a new leadership at the grassroot level, attract new talent and also put pressure on those who have para-dropped into politics. Besides, it would usher in a healthy debate about policies and role of many individuals that routinely shanghai mandate of the masses. It would take great courage on the part of the party leadership to take such a decision, which seems comfortably ensconced in a status quo where there is absence of any organisational accountability.

No one is asking questions about why the party fared badly in UP, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Punjab, or for that matter what needs to be done to retrieve Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi. “There is a no clear vision about how we will get back Gujarat. The Congress does not have a face to counter Narendra Modi even when there is support for the party,” revealed a senior Congress Working Committee (CWC) member.

Last time the Congress had a free and fair election during the days of Narasimha Rao, it ended in chaos as the ruling coterie realised that they would loose control over the party. Rao was given the freedom to elect the CWC members, a move that spoilt whatever chances the party had of reinventing itself.

Confronted by a grave crisis, the Congress could democratise itself even if it causes turmoil and chaos in the short-term. Re-engineering of the Congress through free and transparent elections would put pressure on other small and big political parties to do the same. A move of this kind would bring about a catharsis in our political system and put an end to conspiratorial politics that we have been witness to all these years. It could also bring to an end, at a future date, all those political dynasties that have been ruling different states like Tamil Nadu, UP, Punjab, or even the country.

It is unlikely that Congress leaders like Makhan Lal Fotedar or Ahmed Patel would allow Sonia Gandhi to order such polls. They would tell her that such a move would destroy the party and  country at large as all kinds of riff-raff would occupy important positions. 'It would undermine the control of the Nehru-Gandhi family over the Congress,' they would say. 'After all what is Congress without the Nehru-Gandhi family,' they would explain to her.

Many Congressmen are not averse to the continuation of the dynasty as it has big brand equity all over the country. Also, if the dynasty can make them win elections and bring them to power then they have no problems. When the charisma does not work they get really worried. For more than 50 years this charisma has delivered, but it is not clear whether the Nehru-Gandhi magic can help the Congress cross even 100 seats in the 2009 elections till there is a radical change in the way it conducts itself in the party and in the UPA regime.

Ideally, many in the Congress would like to maintain the status quo and allow the dynasty to carry on as long as it agrees to revive the values that endeared people like Maulana Kashmiri to the Nehru-Gandhi family. They would also like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to understand that charisma is a sum total of authentic and tangible concern for the vast majority of the poor and the fight for justice against all odds. If Argentina cried for Eva Peron, it was because of what she meant for the poor and the marginalised. If the poor feel betrayed and crushed by the arrogance of crony capitalists that economic policies have spawned, and the minorities see communal forces flourish with no justice for the survivors of genocides, as in Gujarat, how can the Congress and its leadership draw popular legitimacy?

In the absence of aggressive pro-poor policies, the successors of Nehru-Gandhi family legacy would look very ordinary — the kind that would struggle to win their own seats in any elections. If the Congress has to slice through caste and communal impediments to be meaningful, it would need to have a vision that is inclusive and progressive without having to resort to the same political tricks as the DMK or BSP. Rahul Gandhi, who spent a month braving the sun in the dusty roads of UP, would have to understand that success would only come if he represents the party's vision for change and there is transparency in purpose. There are millions who would still give the Congress another chance if it remembers its old moorings.

If these changes do not take place soon, the leadership in the government and the party can surely expect more Congress leaders to lend their voice to Mani Shankar Aiyer and many of those who want India's premier political party to reform to meet the challenges of a difficult future. But is Sonia Gandhi ready for the challenge?