Opinion Losing face,finding some faces

In Andhra Pradesh,renegade Congressman Jaganmohan Reddy has been busy writing the ruling party’s epitaph since his father Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s death. The results of the Kadapa parliamentary and Pulivendula assembly by-polls have come as a big jolt to the Congress’s hope of winning back YSR’s political legacy. A final declaration,whenever it comes,against the bifurcation of the state is set to make it worse for the Congress in Andhra Pradesh.

There are other lessons for the Congress as it braces for a tougher battle next year,especially in Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand,Gujarat,and Himachal Pradesh — assuming that the party may have it easy in Punjab,Goa and Manipur. First,the party has to reconsider its stance against projecting a chief minister. As proven yet again by Tarun Gogoi,voters like to know who they are voting for. Gone are the days when they would close their eyes and vote for the Nehru-Gandhi family. While there is no denying the fact that the family still represents certain values and traditions to voters and have a certain electoral appeal — more than any other Congress leaders at the national level — they are no longer the only decisive factor. It would certainly make for more informed voting decisions if Rahul represents more than the Nehru-Gandhi family and the youth,and puts forth his views on burning issues like,say,Anna Hazare’s fast for the Lokpal Bill,Mamata Banerjee’s opposition to the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill,or India’s strategic engagement with Afghanistan.

There is certainly a need to change the Gandhi family’s speech-writers. Whoever scripted his ashamed-of-being-an-Indian remarks at Bhatta Parsaul or his constant regrets of being a “symptom” of everything that ails Indian politics — family,patronage and money — certainly thinks very poorly of Indian voters’ reasoning capacity. Similarly,the 2009 elections are over and harping on UPA 1’s flagship programmes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Act cannot pay electoral dividends all the time. They have also not taken any lessons from Bihar,and continue to harangue the opposition-led state governments for improper or non-utilisation of Central funds.

As for projecting a chief ministerial candidate,ask the Congress observers who had gone to Uttar Pradesh to do a survey of prospective party candidates for 2012 elections. All of them agree that the party’s biggest handicap in the Hindi heartland is the dearth of “faces” at the local level and having a clear chief ministerial candidate would address this problem. But as Digvijaya Singh clarified last week,Rahul belongs to the entire country and not to UP alone. But the Congress still thinks people will vote for an invisible man whose only qualification is expected to be his loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Last but not the least,as they take a fresh look at the council of ministers,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA chairperson should reconsider the old criteria of regional representation. While four ministers from Karnataka,including three in the cabinet,have made little impact on the Congress’s fortune in the state,the recent assembly elections have again proved that voters are not really swayed by these factors. There are quite a few heavyweights in the Union cabinet from Kerala and Tamil Nadu,and a minister of state in the prime minister’s office from Puducherry,but they made little difference to the electoral fortune of their respective parties. Faced with the task of reversing the drift in governance,the UPA leadership would do better to give priority to merit in the next cabinet rejig.

dk.singh@expressindia.com