As a news report in The Indian Express suggested yesterday, Rahul Gandhi, the Amethi MP, has finally said something about a work-in-progress policy matter. Several people now know his mind on how foreign educational institutions should be treated in India?they should be allowed in to enhance the supply of quality education. Young Indians, who constitute the majority today, want to be educated at high-prestige institutions. This is likely to generate a big debate, not least because it has the makings of a Big Idea.
Moreover, it has been a long time since a Congressman has spoken passionately on his/her view of the world, and on how problems can be cracked. The Congress of recent times has seemed not just unsure of the plot, but quite cut off from what was the party leadership?s hallmark once upon a time: the Big Idea.
The list is a long one. Big dams were Nehru?s Big Idea (?temples of modern India?). So too, the IITs, medical institutes and independent research, even though foreign advisors were nudging the country to focus on what poor countries are supposed to. In 1947, it was also the Congress that insisted on a Constitution that regarded all citizens as equal. Or take the latter-day PMs. Indira Gandhi?s Garibi Hatao may have been a just a vote catching idea, but it was a great one to peg a party to. Rajiv Gandhi?s Big Idea was of ?taking India to the 21st century?, and at a time that his laptop bag- swinging friends and advisors were laughed off as geeks with no clue about the ?real India?. Software success was only a dream in the 1980s.
Even Narasimha Rao?s government ushered in economic reforms, under the guidance of his finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Opening up the economy was another Big Idea. Even the worst critics of the Congress must hand this policy shift to them.
What of the UPA government? In its first two years, it passed crucial legislation on the citizen?s Right to Information, with far-reaching implications to the concept of citizen rights and the accountability of those who govern. This is a Big Idea. And some would also classify the employment guarantee as such.
But now, all of a sudden, there is minimalism?no broad idea, but a sense of war-weariness in peacetime.
Of course, the show will pull along, but if the central political party in the country wants to be more than just a survivor, it needs much more than a survival strategy as it goes into fourth gear before the 2009 polls.
The talk of Young India?s demographic dividend is now almost a clich?. But among political parties, it is the Congress that boasts of the largest number of young, articulate MPs, even if the articulation is confined to private group discussions. How about an open and robust exhibition of what they really stand for? And so, especially in contrast to those in the same age cohort in other parties? Is it that they feel they mustn?t speak out of turn? Even so, how come the party isn?t pushing them forth as prime movers as we edge closer to 2009? This is not a plea for laptop presentations by young MPs. They?re great with their keyboards, we?re sure.
But what the Congress needs is the energy and belief in its ability to still conjure Big Ideas that make for the nation?s destiny?and at least pretend to chase them. Whether ideology is dead or not can be debated, but any political party is certainly dead without ideas. Even for as self-serving a reason as a re-election, consider the governments of West Bengal and Gujarat?you might tick ?good?, ?bad? or ?ugly?, but both have clear ideas about what they stand for, respectively, and that gets the votes. If parties don?t have a Big Idea, then voters have an old idea that works?it?s called anti-incumbency.