By Nitya Chakraborty
Rahul Gandhi completed nine months in office as the Congress President on September 16.This was a period of big challenges for the Congress and despite some small mistakes and a few wrong assessments, Rahul has come out as a stronger leader who can lead the opposition against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi by uniting all the anti-BJP forces who are ready to unseat the NDA government from power at the centre in the Lok Sabha elections in April/May 2019.
As of now, the political scenario in the country is conducive for the Congress President in vigorously pursuing the unity of opposition parties for the coming assembly elections in five states- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana by November/December this year. That means that Rahul Gandhi who will be completing one year in office on December 16 this year, will be facing his toughest task during this period in sustaining and expanding the base of opposition unity against the BJP so that the saffron forces are decisively defeated in all the five states. Out of the five, the Congress is the major political Party fighting against the BJP in MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram and in Telangana, Congress is one of the major opposition parties fighting the ruling TRS which has declared the Congress as its biggest enemy and might help the BJP in the post elections scenario after Lok Sabha poll if there is a hung Parliament.
Already, there has been an understanding for assembly poll in Telangana between the TDP, Congress and CPI for seat sharing and this is a positive development in fighting both the TRS and the BJP. This process can be extended to the Lok Sabha poll also but right now, the task is to ensure that the talks for poll understanding between these three parties make a success and if possible, CPI(M) also can be included in this alliance. Starting with this positive, Rahul should ensure success in the talks on alliance with BSP in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The state Congress bosses might be over confident about their party’s success possibilities in view of the by election results and overall anti-incumbency mood in the states, but the fact remains that if BSP is allowed to fight separately, that will affect the Congress prospects in the marginal seats and the Congress’s central leadership should not let this happen.
The Congress high command has to look at the state assembly elections by year end as the essential part of the national battle against the BJP for the Lok Sabha poll and any setback in the assembly polls will have its impact on the mood of the party workers as also the support base of the opposition on the eve of the Lok Sabha poll. The primary task of Rahul Gandhi right now is to ensure the emergence of a stable alliance in all four states MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. In Telangana, the process has started in a positive manner in consultations with the TDP and the CPI, now this has to be ensured in the other three states where the Congress is the principal opponent against the BJP. If the Congress is able to build this alliance with BSP and other smaller parties in the three states, that will ensure such a momentum in the election campaign that there is every possibility of the BJP losing all the three states ruled by them now, in a convincing manner. That will also mean that half the battle for the Lok Sabha poll will be won by the opposition.
Rahul Gandhi’s another major task is to draft the Party’s election manifesto in such a manner that it reflects the aspirations of the youth, farmers and workers of the country at the moment and it can become the basis for the drafting of the Common Minimum Programme of the opposition. Congress must redefine communalism in terms of economic consequences while expanding on the socio cultural costs of disharmony. Rahul’s manifesto must convey how socio political rifts translate into economic barriers and why the economics of tolerance, just like what the former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan underlined, builds new cultural and social bridges, ties together communities and soothes the jangled nerves of the youths. The Congress manifesto has to offer the secular economic alternative as the embodiment of the true Indian entrepreneurial spirit in contrast to the economic price of bigotry that the country is paying for Modi’s policies. The Congress has to demarcate itself to a great extent from some of the neo liberal policies perused by the UPA government during its tenure from 2004 to 2014.
Rahul has spoken repeatedly against the crony capitalists. He even has been naming those industrialists. This should not just be limited as a popular gimmick. Rahul has to prove that he means what he says. The election manifesto must reflect a fresh economic programme which strengthens the public sector, gives big scope to the MSMEs to create millions of jobs and helps in producing real young entrepreneurs who will be working for generating jobs not just for extracting quick money. The industrial policy has to be drastically changed to meet the aspirations of the jobless youth including those from the rural areas. As the US leader Bernie Sanders said in his recent piece in The Guardian “Our job is to fight for a future in which new technology and innovation work to benefit all people, not just a few. It is not acceptable that the top 1 per cent of the world’s population owns half the planets wealth while the bottom 70 per cent of the working age population accounts for just 2.7 per cent of global wealth.”
For India, the challenge is far greater. With such low level of per capita income, the jobless growth widens the inequalities and that happened in both UPA and NDA regimes. Rahul must know that to effectively fight rightwing authoritarian represented by Narendra Modi, the Congress simply can not go back to the policies and doses of Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram. The people want a new deal, not Just change of government. If Rahul wants to build a new India as against Modi’s so called new India promised by RSS in 2022, Rahul has to completely transform his agenda. He has to act as the game changer for the Congress as also the country. Has he the spine and the vision to take up this challenge? (IPA Service)
The picture is taken from the Internet.
The post Rahul Gadhi Must Have Spine And Vision To Fight Narendra Modi appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
