It has been a hard, long, lonely and hugely gutsy battle for Sonia Gandhi. Today she stands vindicated, upholding all she believes in. The Indian electorate has debunked much with this mandate. It has been an unprecedented victory for many things ? victory against skewed and superficial economic policies that ignored the many realities of India; victory against a crass, unrelenting and sickening personal attack by those opposing her that was an anathema to the sensitivities of Indian culture; a victory against the attack on ?foreign origin? and ?dynasty?; a victory against the old-fashioned and past generation trick of double talk with a straight face; a victory for pluralism. The Gujarat result endorsed that sentiment as well. It was the true surprise, one that did India proud.
It was Sonia Gandhi who campaigned tirelessly, alone yet again, addressing the issues she believed in without descending to the lower depths of undignified rhetoric. Her two children went about their new political task in the same tradition, for the same reasons. They stuck to their guns, had faith and won out. All this pitted against what the media described and endorsed, a formidable opponent, AB Vajpayee. India rejected it.
The media is of course stunned. They did not have their finger anywhere near the pulse and were so, so wrong in their assessment of the churning across this ancient and struggling land. They mocked anyone who said it differently. They knew it all and they were wrong because they were hearing each other, not listening. Today, they are desperately attempting to re-adjust and forget the diatribe against Sonia Gandhi that they have indulged in for years. Somersaulting began within three hours!
Adjectives took precedence. Content was virtually a blank. And, on television, the expressions on the faces of reporters and anchors alike, spoke volumes.
How will they admit that they were wrong, that Sonia Gandhi has single-handedly initiated the renewal of the broken down Congress Party, that it could well be on track to reinvent itself with a new generation of leaders, charged with a contemporary ethos, most of whom won their first election facing a Vajpayee-led party as their opponent. Will they make the corrective and distinguish between reporting and editorialising, particularly while reporting? Differing opinions and strong ideological views are essential for all democracies. Honest reporting, analysing shifts and realities, is the other face of the coin. To blend the two is suicidal.
There is one lesson here for those who report ? get out into the field, do not depend on party handouts which is the easy option, cut out the personal element, question policy and its implementation, discard the irrelevant questions of ?are you being groomed to become prime minister? et al. Good journalism is hard work, it is not a party.
For the Press to now say that the BJP did not recognise that their policies had remained at the superficial level, that they were disconnected with the reality on the ground, is all very well but where were they, the communicators of that reality? Why were they not sending out the warning signals? Why did they not address and debate the policies? Why did they not question anything? This is what happens when the Press, defined traditionally as the watchdog, becomes a lap dog. In the end it hurts everyone because it keeps the truth at bay.
The pollsters ? we will now see them scrambling about reinterpreting their positions. They will never admit that they were way off the mood. But, India can see they were. That is what is important.
Maybe the BJP/NDA should not have usurped the Congress agenda, maybe they should have stuck to what they believed in, all that made them stand apart from the Congress instead of trying to be what they were not. In the process, they lost touch because they were not familiar with their own new rhetoric or comfortable in their new clothes. The Shining India mirage that overwhelmed this country on billboards, through television and the pages of newspapers and magazines was a disaster because those outside the closed doors from where this strange campaign was emerging, could not understand why the party was indulging in this grand lie. India was bewildered by it, urban and rural alike. What a waste of money, time and emotion. This packaging of hype, hoping that people are foolish and gullible, is something all political parties should refrain from indulging in.
All those in the Congress Party who sat about in Delhi through the campaign, thinking the change would be marginal, now need to get out there and repair their machinery in all the states of the Union. They have to restructure their party network on the ground. This is their one chance, their possible lease of life. The old ethos of intrigue and other such traits has to give way to serious and dedicated rebuilding.