Criticising, even openly, is the easy part. India will be waiting to see what Mr Gandhi attempts to do to set matters right.
Criticising, even openly, is the easy part. India will be waiting to see what Mr Gandhi attempts to do to set matters right.
The real “chintan” (contemplation) on public affairs at the Congress Party’s recent Jaipur conclave was left to newly-appointed vice-president Rahul Gandhi to do in his long acceptance remarks. But for this speech, the party appears to have given little evidence of “brainstorming”, which was the express purpose of the meeting.
The so-called Jaipur Declaration has little of substance in it, though party president Sonia Gandhi’s opening statement acknowledged the reality of the coalition era in Indian politics. This contrasts with the Congress’ past insistence on going it alone and the virtues of single-party rule.
While the practical implications of this will occupy the party as well as analysts for some time to come, it needs to be said that, to his credit, Mr Gandhi spoke without inhibition about a variety of themes that concern the Congress Party and those who are in it — pointing in essence to some of the shameless things that are done by Congress people while in positions of power; for instance the corrupt pretending to look to fight corruption, or those who do not respect women shedding crocodile tears about the empowerment of women.
True, only Sonia or Rahul Gandhi could have said such things and got away with it. The reason is that theirs would be seen to be the voice from on high, but no less importantly also a neutral voice that does not feed into factional warfare that is endemic to the Congress. Even so, when a general election is barely a year away, it does call for some courage for a top party leader to publicly criticise his own brand, lest opponents seize on this to extract advantage. Mr Gandhi also spoke about the nature of power and noted that those who wielded it had let the people down as they had sought to feather their
own nest.
But criticising — even openly — is the easy part. India will be waiting to see what Mr Gandhi tries to do to set matters right. Will he deny party tickets in the next round of Assembly polls and for the Lok Sabha election to those who flagrantly break the sanctity of the compact made with the people? Mr Gandhi also disapproved of the practice of the central leadership deciding party nominees instead of leaving the selection to the district or state level. This is a subject to which attention has been drawn in party forums from time to time, but usually in the form of a pious hope, not as a goal to achieve. If Mr Gandhi can actually get this done right, genuine Congress supporters might repose hope in their heart for the future, to which the young vice-president alluded.
