Rahul Gandhi vs. G-23: The Broader Significance: A Remarkably Perceptive Comment

[Sukla Sen]

Manmohan Singh - who, as the Governor of the RBI, had once been considered as Left-of-Centre, did the maximum damage.

Few would recall today that his first "interview" to the media after having become the PM was granted to the 'Panchajanya' - the Hindi organ of the RSS.

Not because he was an undercover agent of that fiendish gang - which he was definitely not, but because of his right-wing proclivity that's how he'd be thinking of neutralising the pressures of Sonia Gandhi who had pitchforked him into that coveted seat. 

Singh had picked up Sanjay Baru - a diehard economic neoliberal and right-winger, as his first media advisor.

His usefulness did lie in gaining the "confidence" of the corporates for the regime without which the "economy" would tank and, along with that, the regime.

But, a very high price had to be paid.

He'd keep doing his best to torpedo all the positive proposals formulated and proposed by the National Advisory Council (NAC) - instituted by her, with varying degrees of success.

As regards the final deal-breaking comment (referred to in the attached writeup) - in the context of the ongoing tussle with the Left over the Indo-US nuclear deal, he had made it in a press conference held in an aircraft, after taking off from Indian soil, on a foreign visit - conceivably, so as to avert being pressurised to retrace.

The break-up, in due course, would prove pretty costly for both the Congress and the Left - way more visible and almost instantaneous in case of the latter.

But, it's the decline of the Congress that, obviously, has a far greater impact.

(To put the record straight, Sonia Gandhi had very limited options before her.

In spite of rather heroically pulling the Congress out of the rut where it had managed to land in under Narasimha Rao and, then, Sitaram Keshri, she, in her own sagacity, decided not to occupy the post herself given the hysteric reaction that the Hindutva gang was trying to work up capitalising on her Italian origin - as captured in Sushma Swaraj's threat to shave off her head.

Of the two options - Mukherjee and Singh, she picked up (decidedly) the lesser evil.

Mukherjee, though much later, would amply demonstrate it by visiting Nagpur in his quest to emerge as an acceptable compromise candidate in case of an anticipated hung parliament after the 2019 poll. It's another matter that to his utter dismay Pulwama-Balakot happened in between and the things would turn out to be very different.)

<<...Rahul is trying to build a new alliance by promoting a second-rung of leaders who have emerged from outside the English-speaking elite and their cohorts. He is gradually positioning street-savvy young leaders who have a vernacular connect. We saw one such person emerge during the second wave of COVID: the 40-year old former cricketer from Shimoga, Srinivas BV, who became a household name by arranging emergency services for COVID patients. Rahul has made him head of the Youth Congress.

Then there are Jignesh Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar. Mevani, a Dalit activist and independent MLA from Gujarat, has often been criticised by other Dalit leaders for being too close to the Left. Kanhaiya Kumar, the poster boy of radical student politics, is the son of an Anganwadi worker. Even in 2019, there were rumours that he would get a Congress ticket from Bihar, but things didn't work out and Kanhaiya fought as a CPI candidate. He joins the Congress directly from being a national executive member of the CPI. Both these young firebrands have demonstrated that they have big political ambitions. Yet, their youth (Mevani is 40 and Kanhaiya 34) will allow them to think of the long term. They will not mind listening to Rahul, who is in his early 50s, or playing a supporting role in alliances with strong regional parties. They also represent a strand within India's poor who are sympathetic to backward caste and Dalit politics, but do not identify with caste parties.

This strategic shift is a result of pure necessity. The Congress cannot compete with the BJP either in the space of getting support from the ruling elites or in building a political consensus based on a religious identity. Neither can it compete with regional parties controlled by key dominant castes - SP, BSP, RJD, JD(U) or JD(S). Rahul Gandhi's only hope is to build a ground level network of young activists and leaders who see class as the key driver of politics.

This is what is pushing Rahul to the left, and increasing the distance between him and the G-23. The leaders who emerged in the 2000s are still stuck within the power networks, where the BJP rules supreme. They cannot escape it. For now, Rahul has no use for them. They will only become relevant again, if a large section of India Inc, who ultimately finance the game of fighting elections, lose faith in the Modi Government. It is then that the prominent faces of the G-23 will again be needed.>>

(Excerpted from: <https://www.ndtv.com/blog/blog-rahul-gandhi-is-right-to-ignore-g-23-for-now-2563478>.)