If it wasn’t for the novel coronavirus and the nationwide lockdown, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi would not have discovered his true political character — a retired European social democrat.
Over the past two months, Covid-19-related social restrictions have afforded Rahul Gandhi a chance to do the kind of politics that he has always wanted to. He can interview economists and scientists from Harvard and Oxford over Zoom calls. He can address virtual press conferences, and if something goes wrong, he can use social media to berate the news media for misconstruing his statements.
In fact, it was the BJP’s arch political strategist and Home Minister Amit Shah who, during a virtual rally, called out Gandhi’s new avatar.
“People are discussing in English about India’s fight against coronavirus in Sweden and America. Please give an account of what you have done except giving interviews,” said Shah during his address to Odisha’s BJP cadre and supporters.
By talking about “Sweden, America, and interviews”, Amit Shah is dissing Rahul Gandhi for interviewing academics from Sweden and America, while he further implied that those countries are busy discussing how Prime Minister Narendra Modi “fixed” the pandemic situation in India.
It seems that Amit Shah really gets Rahul Gandhi — someone who broadly adheres to European notions of social democracy, is more enthused with academic debates than talking to India’s rag-tag masses, prefers working from home like a politician who has quit active politics, and uses Twitter to critique the government.
In a way, Rahul Gandhi appears to be doing what European social democrats do after quitting active politics.
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Who is a European social democrat?
There are two aspects to them. First, they act like retired politicians. Second, their worldview is situated in broad Euro-centric conception of social democracy, which accepts markets but only if supplemented with a lot of welfare. Rahul Gandhi meets both these criteria.
Over the past few months, Rahul Gandhi’s politics have been eerily similar to the post-retirement politics of Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister and leader of the Labour party. Both hate the people in power and want to fundamentally overhaul the direction of their countries. But they feel they can do so by intellectually changing public sentiment, as opposed to indulging themselves in hardcore politics. Gandhi has especially tried to do this after stepping down from Congress’ presidentship.
Blair is remembered for effectively moving his party towards the centre, and rebranding it as the “New Left”. But since his retirement in 2007, he has tried to influence Labour politics and the general direction of the UK in one way or the other. Most notable was his attempt to reverse the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum vote, and somehow ensure that his country stayed within the European Union.
Blair hoped his intellectual and passionate defence of the UK’s rightful place in the EU would sway public mood. Never mind the fact that during the same time, Boris Johnson and his cabal were busy dethroning Theresa May so they could come to power and oust the UK from the EU.
Miliband-style politics
This brings us to another British Labour party leader Edward Miliband. After stepping down from active politics, Miliband has kept alive the post-retirement social democratic tradition, trying to influence politics by becoming a popular podcaster and radio host. But just before he quit politics, Miliband oversaw probably the most significant decision in Labour Party’s recent history.
Under Miliband, the Labour Party’s membership fee was drastically reduced and brought down to just a few pounds. This facilitated the entry of thousands of hard-Left millennials into the Labour Party. That helped its next leader Jeremy Corbyn expand his base and turn Tony Blair’s centrist Labour Party into a somewhat socialist one.
Affinity to Left-leaning economists
It is in terms of the worldview that Rahul Gandhi is increasingly beginning to echo the views of European social democrats. Nothing reflects this better than the economists he chose to virtually interview during the Covid crisis. Both Abhijit Banerjee and Raghuram Rajan, though highly respected economists across the world, belong squarely to the Left-side of the economic spectrum.
While they both have sufficient experience with India, their policy suggestions are often critiqued as implementing Western fixes to the rugged and complex Indian economy. And if they are the only economists Rahul Gandhi interviews, then he is implicitly linking their economic views with that of the Congress’.
Even this would not be problematic, except that interviewing only foreign talent seems to suggest that Gandhi thinks smart economic advice lies only outside India. This directly plays into Amit Shah’s caricature of Gandhi as a social democrat who’s heart truly lies in Europe.
Views are personal.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi had another chance to look different from Modi. Comeback shows same old problems