He was once dubbed “pappu”, or witless, by the ruling regime for regularly fumbling while delivering speeches or sounding clueless about important national issues. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi remained stuck in that image for long and what didn’t help was his failure to shed the perception of an entitled princeling. The successive defeat of the Congress in elections made things worse. However, June 4, 2024, promises to change all that. The election results have finally brought vindication for him, personally and politically due to sheer persistence. The two Bharat Jodo yatras may have made him a butt of jokes, but the silent voter has recognised his hard work. Gandhi, the politician, seems to have finally arrived.
But it’s not about Gandhi alone. For its voice to be taken seriously in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and become a political centre of gravity, the Congress had to do reasonably well electorally. That has been partially achieved through the near doubling of its seat share. Its vote share jumped 3 percentage points even though the party contested 93 fewer seats this time. The grand old party also came off the high horse by agreeing to play second fiddle to several regional parties. Quite a few other Opposition parties — Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, in particular — have done spectacularly well in their respective states, lending credence to the view that INDIA has emerged as a credible Opposition.
That in itself is a huge achievement, considering the odds stacked against them. Two chief ministers were arrested as electioneering gathered momentum, the threat of raids or arrest by investigative agencies hung over many others in the INDIA ranks. The Congress’s bank accounts were briefly frozen and I-T indemnities slapped on the party, formations like the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party were splintered, and verdicts twisted in smash-and-grab adventures. Then INDIA itself was on the verge of collapse even before elections were announced. One of its founders, the Janata Dal (United), crossed over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yet again while others were busy cutting Congress to size. In some sense, this was understandable as state parties are bound to have concerns about their self-interest and expansion and need to balance those interests with the need to work with each other. It’s good that the INDIA grouping has got its act together.
But the real action of the spirited and inspired Opposition starts now. Painting an apocalyptic picture of BJP rule and leaving it at that, instead of providing an alternative vision of governance and politics, has only a limited shelf life. The Opposition needs to frame an alternative vision of how to reduce the extreme distress and unease on the ground over unemployment, over prices, over the widening gulf between the rich and the poor, etc. There is often the lure of a catch-all centrism when it comes to socio-economic policies. That may not help the new front. The Congress’ manifesto, or “Nyay Patra”, gave a nuanced view on its politics and policy. But there needs to a common programme so that all INDIA partners get the clarity on how to make their voice heard and keep the government on its toes in Parliament and other spaces. That’s what is expected from a strong Opposition in a healthy democracy. Slipping into the slumber that marked much of the last term is no longer an option.
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