Issue of token gesture

Thirdly, can we discount the fact that for the first time a woman is set to become president? It’s true, that the Congress or the UPA did not start by saying that they wanted a woman to be the president; instead, they threw across any number of names of male candidates. Only after Pratibha Patil’s name was adopted, the motif of woman candidate was invoked. This has been the bane of UPA and the present Congress leadership. They do things in an ad hoc manner and do not seem to be aware of the possible significance of some of their actions. They first do things almost by stealth and manipulative slyness and then ask for the credit! Having said this, there is no point denying them the credit, because, they have given an interesting message. The debate about the symbolic value of such tokenist actions will certainly continue; but politics will always rely on symbols and the language of symbols. To that extent, the UPA has scored a victory, not only over its rivals, but over itself.

The writer teaches political science at the University of Pune