To ‘jodo’ Congress, Rahul Gandhi needs to pick his poison — power or philosophy

What professional politicians seek is power, and they draw uncertain conclusions from Rahul Gandhi's project, which is heavily ideological but so far non-electoral.

Illustration: Soham Sen | ThePrint

Has Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, entering Delhi now after 107 days, bombed as a political move, or has it made the intended impact for his party? With this Lal Singh Chaddha-esque (sorry, Forrest Gump) campaign, has Rahul redeemed himself as a mass leader, or only reaffirmed that he’s the ‘Pappu’ his detractors see him as? And lastly, where do he and his party go after this ends in Srinagar in some 43 days?

In our search for answers, we stay with our favourite three-questions rule. First, does the Congress party matter? Second, what do Congress people want? Finally, what does Rahul want?

If you put the first to Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, or any senior BJP leader, you will have the answer. They will say it doesn’t matter at all — a party in terminal decline, owned by a fading dynasty. Then check their actions.

Nothing triggers the BJP leadership and its political machine more than any move by the Congress, even a routine statement by Rahul Gandhi. The BJP social media machine tracks each twist and turn, step and speech from the yatra. As you’d expect, their running commentary has its own spin.

The BJP will never admit it, but it is surer than any other party — including UPA members — that the Congress is its biggest adversary still. At least until 2024. The Congress’s 20 per cent share of the national vote is still intact, AAP has failed to hurt it badly in Gujarat as many (including this columnist) had expected, it has another state under its belt, and will be the only formidable challenge in the state elections coming up in 2023.

The BJP certainly doesn’t see the Congress as a challenge for 2024, but the latter is the only party capable of breaking its momentum in the run-up to that. And a party that’s now got so used to winning thrives on momentum. Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh are in the BJP’s electoral airspace, and the only hostile lurking in its radarscope is the Congress.

Plus, today there is only one party building a campaign proposition in ideological terms. Bharat Jodo versus Bharat Todo. Love versus hate. Secular versus communal. The aam aadmi versus Adani/Ambani. Gandhi versus Savarkar. You can be on one side or the other.

You may argue that all this is fake and hypocritical. That doesn’t change the fact that the Congress is the only party even trying to set these binaries. The Aam Aadmi Party avoids all of these, sticking to schools, health, free this and free that. Other parties are all limited to their respective states.

If you are a BJP backer, you might find this laughable. You’d ask why Modi and Shah would even bother about Rahul and Congress. But they do. Because they are serious politicians who win elections, not mere fanboys. That’s why their priority is to ensure Rahul cannot shed his ‘Pappu’ image.

The second question — what do the Congress people want — is easily answered in one word: Power. Why else would they be in politics?

Which brings us to the third question. What does Rahul want? Which is where we get into trouble.

Because we’ve been asking that question since 2004 and failing to answer it. Is the yatra telling us something new? Does he, like his party comrades, want power? Does he, instead, want to be a new moral force? Non-electoral but at the same time not apolitical? A philosopher, not a king? And if so, who’d be the king that philosopher Rahul would dispense advice and wisdom to?

Rahul did start a debate of sorts on the day he took over as party vice-president in Jaipur and described the “power that everybody seeks” as poison. I had then countered this as a totally flawed proposition in this National Interest published on 26 April, 2013.

In a democracy, we had argued, power isn’t a poison. It is a wonderful gift, an honour and a cherished privilege that the voters give you. Good leaders, we still argue, should embrace it with joy, gratitude, and humility. Power and public office are synonymous with public trust. That power is poison is a feudal proposition, and should be abhorred in democracies. If Rahul still does not want power, as indicated by his absence in the recent election campaigns, what does he want?

If Rahul Gandhi’s primary objective is to rebuild his tired, demoralised, much-defeated party, he will use the yatra to raise its morale, bring in a new spirit, an ideological rejuvenation, and new energy. Meanwhile the process of bringing democracy to party bodies will go on.

He’s told us since 2004 that ushering in real democracy within his party, or what we may describe as de-feudalising it, has been his project. That was also his excuse for not taking any responsibility in the UPA government. If this is still an ongoing project, something isn’t working.

The party did, finally, elect its president after a vote. How good and fair was that contest? Shashi Tharoor would’ve lost anyway, so that isn’t the issue. If a real, principled internal change was intended, he would’ve been treated with dignity, respect and much gratitude after his defeat. It was his audacity in contesting against the establishment’s candidate that gave some legitimacy to the election. That isn’t happening.

One thing Rahul has achieved to a large extent is lifting the morale and spirits of his almost dead-in-the-water party. The crowds that have walked with him include a fair number of old workers and loyal voters in the regions he’s been traversing. All that is good for his party. Good, but not good enough.

A film actor, an economist, a superannuated editor, an author or even a stand-up comic may adore him for gifting them the heady thrill of having participated in a very visible pan-national political movement at zero risk of tear gas or lathis. For some, much Instagram fame too.This isn’t what professional politicians in his party are after.

Which brings Rahul back to where he started. Because what these politicians seek is power, which he described contemptuously as poison. If he has changed his mind since, his party doesn’t know.

They draw uncertain conclusions from his project, which is heavily ideological but so far non-electoral. If Rahul Gandhi doesn’t want direct power — as in, elected office for himself — he should say so. He cannot make the same demand of his party. Here, then, is a question his party comrades desperately want to ask him, but are too scared to. Are you committed to doing whatever you can to win us power? If not, why this boondoggle?