The Unbearable Lightness of Crony Capitalism

The bitter truth about the economic policies of the UPA government is that the poor have been left to fend for themselves, while the State pampers the millionaires and billionaires and helps them to grow richer. Will this be the message to the people of India in this budget?

Hardnews Bureau Delhi

At a recent event organised by a television channel to declare the 'Indian of the year', Congress General Secretary, Rahul Gandhi, who was part of the audience, was cajoled by the organisers to ask a question while film star Shah Rukh Khan was occupying the dais. His question was a Freudian slip of what was going on in his troubled mind. He wanted the film star's advice for politicians. Khan expectedly pontificated the usual cliché that politicians should not be corrupt and should have integrity.

Khan is hardly the person from whom Rahul Gandhi should have publicly sought advice. Surely, the multi-crore box office actor, who can sing and dance even in private weddings for money, is not much high on social vision, intellectual credibility or political insight. And he is no philanthropist, philosopher or cinematic great of world cinema. Surely, if he had witnessed this TV show, Rahul Gandhi's proud and cerebral great grandfather would have been devastated by the not-so-young man's public display of his own (and his party's) confusion. Also, Khan's simplistic, even if well-intentioned prescription, is unlikely to help the Congress to claw out of the deep political abyss it finds itself in after a series of embarrassing defeats in the last few assembly elections.

The Congress leadership does not need a public lesson on morality from a money-spinning freelancer, what it needs is serious introspection on why it is losing ground steadily to its aggressive opponents. The party should try to figure out why the much vaunted charisma of their leader Sonia Gandhi and her son is not working any longer in large parts of the country. Expensive election campaigns and mindless controversies have not yielded the kind of dividends the Congress was expecting in the much hyped polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. In Gujarat, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, to their credit, campaigned hard to help the party regain power, but it did not work. Hindutva Hriday Samrat Narendra Modi won.

The defeat in the western state was not a fluke. Decline in the party's fortunes has been steady after it came to power in 2004. In the early part of 2007, Congress did very badly in the Uttar Pradesh elections and belied the expectations that were raised by the well-orchestrated and choreographed campaign by Rahul Gandhi. He got the crowds in some places, but no votes. Colossal amount of funds, quite like in Gujarat, went down the tube without showing the desired results.

So what is really wrong with a party that accidentally came to power in 2004?

“It is economy, stupid!” would have been sincere advice to anyone who is in power. This is the fundamental reason behind why the ruling party is performing so poorly in grassroots politics. The charisma of leaders works better when they represent policies that show fealty towards the poor and the needy. Remember, Argentina cried for Eva Peron because the poor in that country thought the former first lady stood for them. That lesson seems to have been forgotten by our leadership in the country.