Rahul shines on earnestness, lacks political prowess

New Delhi: When Rahul Gandhi said “I am not a hard-nosed politician” at a CII event earlier today, there probably was nobody in the audience who disagreed with him.

Unlike a seasoned politician, he clearly hasn’t mastered the art of diplomacy (by making statements like “If you are expecting Manmohan Singhji or someone else to solve our problems, you are going to keep expecting” and “The system (political) is closed”). His oratory skills are not sharp either as he lost his train of thought at least twice during his speech. The Gandhi scion was not careful enough as well to stick to the plan and avoid the tricky issue plan of India-China comparison. But if there’s one thing he does have, it is earnestness.

When he spoke of his belief that the citizens of the country must have a say, a voice and be heard – his earnestness rang loud.

“People talk about Rahul Gandhi, about individuals - I’m irrelevant. I’m one of a billion. It can’t be about one person. It’s got to be about - what is the structure we are building, what are the machines we are putting into place - how are we going to bring voices into the system. No one talks about issues like this (opening up of the system),” Rahul said, during his speech at CII’s Annual General Meeting and National Conference 2013 - whose theme was ‘India of Tomorrow: Imperatives of growth, Security and Governance’.

For many, Rahul still looms under the shadow of his father-former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi-and nobody knows it better than him. In fact, he was addressed as Rajiv Gandhi at least twice during the session – once during the announcement of his arrival and later in the session by S Gopalkrishnan, executive co-chairman, Infosys.

Clad in a white kurta pyjama, Rahul strolled across the dais casually talking of his lineage - perhaps a dig at all those who think of him as a political misfit and those who dismiss him as not a shade on his father or grandmother. He said, “It is an accident of fate that I happen to come from a chain of people (who have been politicians) and I can’t do anything. I have been put in this situation. I have been told ‘Boss, here you are. Ok.’”

In his maiden address to the industry’s bigwigs today, Rahul made it clear that his heart was in the right place.

“I have one aim in life. I want to help Indian people get their voice, so we can move forward. What I feel threatens our movement forward, most of all, is excluding people like minorities, tribal, women, poor. We all have to-poor, businesses, middle class-work together towards that,” Rahul said.

“When I talk of partnerships, I don’t mean my individual view of something. There are a billion people in this country. And it’s not important who Rahul Gandhi is. It’s important what the billion people think and that mechanism is not there, it’s not working,” he said.

While citing a lack of infrastructure and a lack of knowledge infrastructure, Rahul said that all our systems-political, educational, social-are silos and need to be opened. University structures need to be connected to a larger network, ideas need to move fast and we need to build a system which encourages structural conversation.

“Grassroots are disconnected and don’t have anything to do with the political party. Political parties are not designed for panchayat pradhans. It is only designed for MPs. There must be a way to build a better structure for bridging this and improving conversation,” he said.

Another of our problems, said Rahul, is that we all have this model where we want one person-who “comes on a horse, sound of music in the background, a billion people waiting. He’s coming in and everything is going to be fine”-who solve all of our problems.

“We have to move away from this idea of the guy on this horse,” Rahul said, adding, “It’s frustrating because it’s always about a person - it’s never about the voice of the people.”

He said, it was more important to give people a voice. “Give me all the power you want, give one individual all the power you want, but he cannot solve the problems of a billion people. Give a billion people the power to solve their problems and it will be done immediately.”

While he did talk of the Congress trying to smooth out India’s problems and being the most inclusive by design, he didn’t shy away from categorically stating that it cannot work in isolation. “The government cannot work alone, everyone has to work with it and India will only move forward if it embraces inclusive growth,” he said.

“There are a lot of things that we need to fix - structural things, highways, roads. So, it’s not good enough to say, ‘Congress hai toh bhaiya khushi karo’. This country cannot move forward without you,” Rahul emphatically stated.

Citing the idiom-“A rising tide lifts all boats”-attributed to John F Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States-Rahul said that “the beehive”, India’s energy needed to be channelised well to create that energy. However, he said that we must also remember that “a rising tide doesn’t help people with no boats” and it is our collective effort to make sure that all Indian’s have a boat to ride the tide.

He may not be a Narendra Modi, but, it seems like Rahul Gandhi has his heart in the right place - something which may make him a bad politician, but, hopefully, a good statesman.

And, so when Rahul says, “I don’t want to be a hard-nosed politician, I think it’s sad”, we should probably rejoice. For a good politician, a good orator and a good diplomat is not good for a country, unless accompanied by good intentions.

On this front, I’ll wager my bet on Rahul Gandhi.