By Kalyani Shankar
The Congress leadership is at last getting ready to face the 2014 elections. It is pulling up its socks on both fronts, the government as well as the organisational, as both need some surgery if the party intends to do a hat trick.
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made a major reshuffle of his cabinet with much hype but it has got a mixed reaction, as any major step would do. While there is appreciation of youth getting important portfolios as well as more representation, some call it an old wine in new bottle. There is discontent within the party even from senior leaders like AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh. There is revolt in Andhra Pradesh, which got a bonanza of 11 ministers in total. There are murmurs in Maharashtra as seven times M.P. Vilas Muthemwar and Gurudas Kamat were expecting a berth each. Bihar did not have a single minister inducted, while in U.P there is dismay in general that Salman Khurshid had been elevated and other ministers, who were facing allegations like Sriprakash Jaiswal, were not touched. Senior minister Jaipal Reddy is said to be upset about his change of portfolio. Nevertheless, these frictions are natural fallouts of the cabinet rejig, as it was not possible to please all.
However, the gaffe about allocation of portfolios could have been avoided. Even two days after the reshuffle, allocation confusion prevailed. The press release announced Jitin Prasada as the MoS Defence, but later it was clarified that it was Jitender Singh and the mistake was due to a clerical error. There was also confusion in the case of two Rajasthan ministers — Kataria and Jitender Singh — regarding the MoS position in the Defence ministry. Kataria naturally lost out because Jitender Singh happened to be a close fried of Rahul Gandhi. There was also confusion about R.P.N Singh and Jitin Prasada, two of Rahul’s close aides, about holding more than one portfolio. However, giving important portfolios like Power, Corporate Affairs, Petroleum, Railways and Roads and transport to his own brigade of men of confidence and loyalty, demonstrates that Rahul could play a role from behind the scene even in the government. It also shows the pro reform agenda of the Gandhi scion.
The Congress spin-doctors give credit to Rahul for the youthful face of the Cabinet, which is seen as the representative of Rahul when he leads the party in the upcoming polls. This was also the first time Rahul Gandhi had discussed the cabinet with Manmohan Singh and had done so openly. While many, including PM Singh, would have liked Rahul Gandhi to join the cabinet, they are reconciled to Rahul steering the government through his close buddies. Now the government has to move forward get out of the policy paralysis.
The organisational shake up is also long overdue. The first thing is Rahul should be designated as number two within the party. He holds that position even now but not officially. In a way, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has already more or less handed over the party to her son giving up part of her responsibilities. The immediate challenge is the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections, and also, next year there are more elections to come, in Rajasthan, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh respectively. The trend for the Lok Sabha will be set if the Congress does well in these Assembly polls.
Rahul Gandhi is expected to get a free hand to choose his election team. It will need a lot of hard work to enthuse the workers. The new team should have new faces as well as the loyalists as there is no time for experiment now with polls coming sooner than later. His first task would be to energize the AICC headquarters.
In the past nine years, Rahul’s experiments in the party have not been very successful. His ideas regarding the youth Congress and the NSUI, though laudable, did not bear fruit and Gandhi had to abandon his ideas. The Bihar elections or even in the recent U.P elections did not give any dividends to the party. His choice of chief ministers like Omar Abdullah for Jammu and Kashmir or Prithviraj Chavan for Maharashtra has proved to be a partial success. Loyalists are feeling neglected. There is heartburn that those who have made lateral entries from other parties like the Janata Dal, Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam, Samajwadi Party or the Bahujan Samaj Party have been given more important positions than the loyalists. The Congress party needs a combination of youth and experience. Rahul must make sure that he takes every one along.
Secondly, so far Rahul has not made his views on several controversies dogging the Congress party. For instance there is no point in wishing away the corruption issue. Price rise and inflation are two other issues he should focus on. What are his views on foreign policy is not clear. If he wants to lead the party there should be clarity about what he stands for. He should interact with the media more often than giving one -liners to the electronic media.
Thirdly, all vacant positions should be filled in the party. For instance there is no PCC chief in Bihar even two years after the miserable performance. Haryana, too, is waiting for a PCC chief. Punjab also is waiting to see if there was a change. The PCC chiefs should also be made accountable.
For the past nine years, the young Gandhi has been influencing the party politics and even the government from behind but the time has come to lead from the front. Otherwise it would look as if he wants to wield power without responsibility in either the government or the party. The success of the party would be due to the combination of the government performance and the party’s ability to propagate them. (IPA Service)