By Patricia Mukhim
I am sure every Congress party member including all who are interested in the political future of this country watched Rahul Gandhi’s interview (grilling is a more appropriate word considering the man asking the questions is a known inquisitor) on Times Now. Arnab Goswami’s reputation as a self-appointed prosecutor on our behalf (the nation?), is legendary. It was expected that he would grill Rahul G like he would a piece of marinated meat without allowing him to slip through the cracks or to digress. Arnab dwelt at great length on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 2002 Godhra riot that was predominantly anti-Muslim. Rahul G came across as a naïve (not so young) man on the street who is not well informed about the facts of the two cases. He called Godhra a state-sponsored riot and defended the 1984 bloodbath as one, ‘which the State had tried its best to control.’ 1984 has always been a slippery patch for the Congress and indefensible at best. It is difficult for Congress party members to try and get out of this one without covering themselves in shame. Rahul G too stood exposed.
For anyone watching the interview it would seem that Rahul G was largely discomfited to be answering questions to a discerning media person and to a larger audience, courtesy satellite television. It’s one thing to be breathing fire and brimstone and to make disparaging remarks against opponents at a public rally comprising an uninformed audience with one-dimensional thinking; a rally where questions are never asked and only claps are solicited. It is quite another to be questioned relentlessly on issues that any aspiring prime minister of a country would be expected to answer. Ultimately Rahul G came across as a good human being but too simplistic and certainly not cut out for the rough and tumble of Indian politics. His father too did not choose politics but having got in he learnt the ropes pretty fast. Rahul G would be good as an NGO leader.
So where does that leave this country? We are in a fix. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) talks of anarchy as if that is the DNA of democracy. We can’t have a politician and chief minister who self-flagellates (sleeping in the cold) and indulges in name calling almost like kids do when they fight over toys. Mr Kejriwal has not even begun his work of crafting out a model of governance for Delhi by beginning with those Departments that are under the jurisdiction of the Delhi administration. He needs to first set them right before aiming at reining in the Delhi Police which is perhaps the most corrupt force in the country! The AAP began with a bang. It still is in the honeymoon period so we cannot pass judgement on its performance as yet although Kejriwal’s shenanigans don’t seem like a very successful alternative to the Congress and BJP.
Talking about the BJP, many wish that the party could have thrown up a more liberal leader, free-thinking leaders and not a right-wing pracharak, so drenched in the ideology of “One India, ” (Hindutva) that he is likely to forget that this country is multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-religious. This could be problematic for us in this region who are not Hindus and have fairly liberal views on religion – treating it more as a private and personal matter. Although the courts have acquitted Narendra Modi of the Gujarat carnage, the incident still rankles. A communal riot of the scale of Godhra (thanks to television) is not easily forgotten. It may not have been, as the Courts decreed, state-sponsored but it surely was a case of Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burnt. Nero did not burn Rome. He just watched while it went up in flames.
So that leaves us with virtually little or no choice. The UPA is a spent force that cannot reinvent itself unless it goes through a complete overhaul. That complete overhaul seems a distant dream because the Party it so dependent on dynasty. The workers feel that without dynasty the Party will collapse like a house of cards. Desperadoes even want Priyanka Gandhi to throw herself into the political well just so she can salvage something out of what is seen as a crumbling pie. But Priyanka has the baggage of husband Robert Vadra whose penchant for the good life has all but sullied the Nehru-Gandhi name. Such knavery is unexpected from someone who is married into the first family of India. Look at us Indians! It’s a shame that we cannot find a leader of substance from the 1.2 billion people in this country. And because the Congress Party has supported dynasty for decades its followers across the country practise the same model unabashedly. There are several legislators in Meghalaya from the same family. Hence wealth is concentrated among a few. This political economy sponsored by the Congress is treacherous. But the excuse trotted out is that if it’s good for the Nehru-Gandhis it must be good for all Congress acolytes. How can we have a plutocracy superimposed on a democratic system? No wonder we have failed on all fronts.
The audacity of the Congress Party this time has shocked everyone, not least the people of Assam. Sanjay Singh from Uttar Pradesh who has no credentials except to have been embroiled in a murder once, is getting into the Rajya Sabha through Assam. For the people of Assam this is This is an affront because it would appear as if there is no Assamese worth his/her salt who could represent the State in the Upper House. During a conversation with media colleagues the other day in Guwahati when this topic of Sanjay Singh cropped up, a journo in defence of Tarun Gogoi said, “Well if the Congress High Command were to tell the Chief Minister of Meghalaya to send in someone from Andhra Pradesh or Bihar from Meghalaya, would he dare to protest?” Well, the answer to that is, ‘we don’t know what would be the circumstances because we are not in it.’ But just imagine having only one Rajya Sabha seat from Meghalaya and that going to a rank outsider! Isn’t that an insult to the intelligence of the people of Meghalaya? Thankfully that has not happened yet and we will, hopefully continue to depute Wansuk Syiem as our Rajya Sabha MP. But this High Command politics is nerve wracking to say the least!
Coming back to the 2014 election which is creating quite a stir across the country and in Delhi no less, there is a vague sense of expectation that things would be better; that people would vote for a change; that the next government would deliver. This audacity of hope is likely to be thwarted because the BJP is yet to play a decisive role. Modi has only now come up with a model for economic development which somehow seems to forget that people are primary actors in the economy. And that the word socio-economic does have real value because human society and human institutions and their active engagement in the growth process would determine the state of our economy. Anyone who leads India in 2014 should also recognise that the strength of any democracy lies in its institutions. In India, both at the national and state levels most institutions are crumbling. Whether we talk of health delivery institutions, educational institutions, universities, technical and medical institutions, there is none that we can claim as being world class. Perhaps the IITs and IIMs are still sought after because they enjoy a sense of autonomy. But for how long? The next prime minister needs to inject life into these institutions and desist from politicising or bureaucratising them. If institutions work, the system will deliver.
But the million dollar question still remains. Who do we vote for? The Congress or the BJP? The Aam Aadmi would be a new kid on North and South Block. It still has to prove that it can govern Delhi. So we are literally caught between the devil and the deep sea. What a situation to be in!