GhoseSpot | A tale of two Shivirs: How BJP is setting agenda for 25 years, but Congress is busy sorting family issues

Speaking to the national executive of the BJP assembled at Jaipur over video, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the leaders not to deviate from the development agenda getting embroiled in the Opposition’s politics of distraction. “Some political parties keep looking for small incidents of tensions to inject poison for their selfish interests”, he cautioned the delegates. He also alluded to the language debate saying, in every Indian language, the BJP sees reflection of ‘Bharatiyata’. We respect every language and I trust every citizen of this country,” Modi added.

This is ironic because these are the very issues on which Opposition parties target the present BJP government. They accuse the BJP of dividing the country by the lines of caste and religion. The allegation of Hindi imposition has been revived and added to the list. Critics of the Modi government see these attempts as deflecting attention from more pressing issues of the economy, inflation and unemployment. Growing majoritarianism, going against the grain of pluralism that characterised India is a common refrain among sections of the intelligentsia. In a polarised polity, one would believe either version depending on which end of the spectrum the person stands.

Like the BJP, the Congress too just concluded a conclave of its senior leaders called “Chintan Shivir” — coincidentally also in Rajasthan, at Udaipur. The deliberations were on predictable lines as delineated above — with the singular objective of ousting the BJP from power. Though the ostensible purpose was to infuse new energy and a sense of direction among the rank and file, the apparent objective was to reassert the authority of the Gandhi family on the party and position Rahul Gandhi for re-election as Congress president later in the year. Again, no surprises there.

Rahul Gandhi announced a plan for undertaking a “Yatra” from Kashmir to Kanyakumari next year in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections of 2024 — but the problem lies in the absence of a road map for the party. Contrast it with the virtual address of the prime minister, when he talked of setting BJP’s goal for the next 25 years. This was not hollow rhetoric. As Prime Minister Modi himself recalled, from the time post dissolution of the Jan Sangh, when BJP was virtually relegated to political irrelevance it has come a long way to have more than 1,300 MLAs, 400 MPs and over 100 Rajya Sabha members.

During the same period, the Congress had no coherent long-term strategy except to keep the Gandhi family at the helm of affairs. To ensure that no trade-offs were off the table. So, be it having a PV Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister for an interim period to steer the party through troubled waters and unceremoniously jettisoning him later, stitching up alliances indiscriminately, striking deals (as with the Samajwadi Party for the Nuclear Deal) or turning a blind eye to scams everything was kosher. One may argue Congress as a party turned into a family enterprise and lost its larger sense of purpose, other than to cling on to power at any cost.

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To be realistic it is impossible to conceive of a Congress today without the Gandhis. Hence, talk of a leadership change is just “time-pass” to use a Mumbai expression. This was amply demonstrated by the deafening silence of the much-hyped G23 cohort in Udaipur. However, to ensure its long term future the Gandhis need to reinvent its raison d’etre going beyond the twin objective of dynastic control and dislodging the BJP.

The most trenchant critique of the Congress came from the two deserters of the party — Sunil Jakhar and Hardik Patel. While Jakhar talked of the imperious attitude of the high command and impulsive decisions based on incorrect advice, Patel questioned the absence of an alternate vision to fight the BJP instead of habitual criticism. However, the sharpest reaction came from HD Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular), who took umbrage at Rahul Gandhi’s remark about regional parties lacking the ideological moorings to take on the BJP. This comes as an unkind cut at a time when the Congress itself seems to have lost its way.

To be fair there may be some merit in the charge against the BJP for conflating a number of disparate causes strung together by the thread of Hindu resurgence. These range from wearing of hijab, selling of halal meat, Ram Navami processions, use of loudspeaker at mosques to the recent Gyanvapi mosque controversy. But with its ambivalent attitude towards Hindu sentiments the Congress walks into a minefield.

Even on matters of the economy, Rahul Gandhi tries to make his point through social media often using analogies that fail to capture the imagination of the common man. The most recent one being comparing India’s condition with Sri Lanka. Congress needs to understand that if indeed the situation on the ground is so dire then no amount of diversionary tactics can quell the resentment on the ground. It has to pick issues thoughtfully and communicate in a manner that resonates with the masses.

The BJP, on the other hand, is much more focused. In his address to the Jaipur gathering, the prime minister urged leaders to reach out to every beneficiary of government schemes. His clear message to them was there is no time to rest, “We need to work on spreading politics of development everywhere. Be it any political party, we need to pressure them to follow — willingly or unwillingly — the politics of development. We have brought it into the mainstream of politics. Everyone needs to talk of development in polls now”.

So at present – if anyone is distracted – it is the Congress for sure.

The author is a current affairs commentator, marketer, blogger and leadership coach, who tweets at @SandipGhose. Views expressed are personal.

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