Bad idea: Rahul stays mum during LS communal violence debate

“One-sided partiality,” Rahul Gandhi fumed last week, stumbling into a nonsensical turn-of-phrase soon after leading his party MPs into the parliamentary well, while  shouting: Tanashahi nahin chalegi, down with dictatorship . The source of his ire: his party’s demand for a discussion on communal violence in Uttar Pradesh had been turned down by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

After that impressive show of bluster, you’d think he’d be eager to participate in the discussion as soon as it is finally tabled. You’d think wrong. Rahul Gandhi did not speak during the debate on Wednesday

The Economic Times had reported that the Congress vice-president was not one of the four speakers whose names were forwarded by the Congress party for participation on the communal violence debate that took place on Wednesday and will continue on Thursday.

The four names the Congress Parliamentary Party had forwarded were Mallikarjun Kharge, MI Shanavas, Rajeev Satav (a known Rahul confidante) and Mohd Asrarul Haque.

A party source was quoted as saying that Rahul was not expected to participate in the communal violence bill discussion — but it remains  “subject to last minute changes”.

There are any number of reasons for Rahul to make that last minute change. The all-new, aggressive Rahul in Lok Sabha certainly got the BJP’s attention, and as this Firstpost article pointed out, “Key leaders from the ruling party practically fell over one another to tell an eager media that Rahul’s new aggressive avatar was merely the desperate strategy of a man witnessing the death throes of his political reputation.”

At the time, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claimed that Rahul’s behaviour was due to his fears of a ‘palace coup’ – i.e. the increasing demands for Priyanka to take charge of the party. Of course, all this in turn prompted Priyanka to once again emerge and once again deny that she would be replacing her brother. Rahul ducking the opportunity to speak up will only make Jaitley’s words ring truer than ever.

But family politics aside, here are three very good reasons why Rahul should speak up:

One,  he has a lot to prove when it comes to parliamentary performance.

“Those who don’t speak in the House accuse us of not allowing them to speak,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley pointed out after Rahul’s outburst. he’s right. As this report points out, Rahul Gandhi’s performance in Lok Sabha has been well below average. Long before the catnap that embarrassingly caught television cameras’ attention, rankings compiled by the India Today Group in partnership with two NGOs – the Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) – showed him to be languishing at the bottom.

In five years of the 15th Lok Sabha, Rahul’s attendance was only 42.61 per cent. His attendance at Standing Committee meetings was worse, at 13.64 per cent. “Rahul has spent only 53.68 per cent of the MPLADS funds allocated to him. Even the respondents who were polled by ADR in Amethi have a very poor impression of the development work that has been done in the constituency. The Amethi MP has a perception rating of only 5.58 out of 10,” the report said.

If he’s no longer the unwilling prince after the Lok Sabha elections, he can hardly be seen as backing off on an issue that he has passionately advocated.

Two, it’s about Uttar Pradesh.

The communal violence discussion is centred around the UP bypolls coming up later this year. No less than party president Sonia Gandhi acknowledged that when she launched into the BJP during her speech in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday evening. She held the BJP responsible for the rise of communalism.

Six hundred comunal incidents and counting since the NDA government came to power, she said, appearing to cite a series of investigative reports published by The Indian Express last week which pointed out damningly that sixty percent of these incidents were reported in areas around Assembly seats going to bypolls.

“More than 600 incidents of communal violence happened in Uttar Pradesh and, perhaps, as many in Maharashtra,” she said , adding that “during the UPA I and II rule hardly any such incident had happened.”

The Congress does not really stand a chance in the coming bypolls. Still, Rahul has a responsibility to the Congress’s state cadre and those who will be part of the election machinery when the polls are announced. He is one of just two MPs the Congress has in the Lok Sabha from the all-important state. Its candidates were roundly rejected by the electorate, finishing third or worse in as many as 72 out of UP’s 80 LS seats .

The SP’s battleplan is ready, in fact its footsoldiers are more or less in the thick of the action whether it is in Muzaffarnagar or in Kaanth or Saharanpur or Meerut. Just what is the Congress’s gameplan, especially if one of its two MPs fails to speak in Lok Sabha on what is arguably turning into UP’s biggest election issue now?

Three, he can’t risk being seen as playing politics with communalism.

Sonia told the Congress Parliamentary Party on Wednesday that the process of rebuilding and restoring the confidence of the public in the Congress Party has begun. “We have been reduced in numbers to an all time low in the Lok Sabha. But we have not been reduced in spirit,” PTI quoted Gandhi as saying. She said the work of the Congress party is “in Parliament, in public forums across the country, in our media and in the streets and homes of ordinary Indians everywhere”.

If communalism is more than just a convenient trope for Congress to shout itself hoarse about, then its top leaders should surely discuss their concerns on the matter and be seen doing so. Otherwise the main opposition party appears to be bereft of issues as it struggles to relocate its toehold in the national imagination.

Worse, the Congress runs the risk of being seen as turning communalism into little more than election-time point-scoring.