But more seriously, it runs up against a fundamental contradiction. What does it mean to express solidarity for the rural poor when your power ministry has been moribund, when your ministry of agriculture wakes up too late, or your ministry for education continues to stymie opportunities for mobility? In keeping a distance from hard policy decisions, other than the ones that express a politics of pure intention, that embody a symbolic gesture here and there, Rahul Gandhi has fallen victim to the oldest fallacy in politics: that there is grassroots out there that can be cultivated without sullying your hands with the exercise of power. Of course, being in touch with the so-called grassroots matters in some sense. But it is odd to think that leadership can be exercised by appearing to forgo power and talking about the poor, rather than exercising power to really help them. We have a strange discourse where so-called bad politicians are seen as power hungry, and the way to prove that you are a good politician is to appear to critique power itself. But a sensible politics is about connecting the imperatives of power to rational policy; protesting against power is neither here nor there. But by emphasising solidarity over policy, palliatives that express his concern rather than broad structural changes, Rahul Gandhi is unlikely to make headway.

Indian voters are, in their own peculiar way, hard-headed. One of the messages they have been consistently sending through elections is that they like to punish politicians by voting them out. But equally, they are impatient with politicians who are merely nice and sincere, who rely on their personal virtues and good intentions to get them through. None of our effective chief ministers is likely to win a “nice person” contest. Gopal Gandhi’s voluntary forgoing of power for two hours is beside the point. It would be more interesting if he has a diagnosis of why there is a power shortage. Rahul Gandhi’s concern for the poor is neither here nor there. It will matter more if he has a diagnosis for why they don’t get reliable power, rational subsidies and all the things it is very much possible to provide them. It is absolutely astonishing that in the midst of this power crisis, not one politician has been able to stand up and explain clearly why there is a power shortage and how easy it might be to fix it. Politicians think it is more important to be seen to be doing something than actually doing something.

... contd.