Rahul Singh :
It is a huge irony that India is celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of its first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, when the political fortunes of the Nehru/Gandhi family are at an all-time low.
The only other period when this dynastic family was touching rock bottom was just after the 1977 General Election, following the lifting of Indira Gandhi’s despotic and much-hated “Emergency” rule. Both she and her son, Sanjay, lost their parliamentary seats and the Congress Party was routed in most of north India. But even then the Congress got more seats than it did a few months ago, under the leadership of the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi (widow of the assassinated Rajiv Gandhi) and her son, Rahul.
The difference is that the feisty and combative Indira Gandhi bounced back two years after her humiliating defeat, whereas there seems little indication that Sonia and Rahul will do so in a similar fashion. In all fairness, Indira Gandhi had an easier task. She was defeated by a motley group, who kept on shooting themselves in the foot, when they were not conniving against each other.
Sonia and Rahul, on the other hand, are confronted by a rejuvenated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has an undisputed – some would say authoritarian – leader, in the person of the charismatic Narendra Modi. The Congress Party simply has no answer to him, as was shown recently in the BJP’s sweeping victory in the key states of Maharashtra and Haryana, earlier Congress strongholds. Modi is a mesmerising orator in Hindi (Sonia and Rahul’s Hindi is faltering at best) and, what’s more, he has been pressing all the right buttons.
“Less government and better governance” has become a slogan that has caught the Indian public imagination – never mind that the UK’s Margaret Thatcher put it into practice decades ago – and his “Make in India” has resonated with India’s entrepreneurs and businessmen. The booming Indian stock market has also made investors happy.
Though nothing substantial may come out of it, his move to disclose the names of those Indians who have illegal bank accounts abroad has sent a signal that he is serious about curbing the menace of “black” money, which reportedly runs into tens of billions of dollars, both here in India and in foreign tax havens like Switzerland, Luxembourg and Mauritius.
One of the main factors that led to the Congress defeat and the BJP victory was the perception that the earlier Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, though himself a man of great integrity, had haplessly presided over an administration that saw scam after scan in its last four or five years, whether it was over the holding of the Commonwealth Games, allocation of spectrum, or the auction of coal mines. Favoured parties were given the contracts and licences, for a price, needless to say. The losers were the Indian taxpayers.
Modi, on the contrary, ran an administration that was both largely clean and efficient. There may have been an element of “crony capitalism” in it, but so what? Better to have economic development than little or no development.
By giving him and the BJP such a huge endorsement, the Indian public clearly feels he will be able to carry his Gujarat experience to the national level. Only time will tell whether he will be able to do so or not.
Suffice it to say that an aspirational generation that was disappointed with the Congress seems to be with him. They see in his success, from a humble and not highly educated tea-seller, to becoming chief minister of a major state and then prime minister, a model to be emulated.
Dr Singh has removed himself from the political scene altogether, unlamented by most Indians.
Sonia and Rahul have yet to formulate some kind of political and economic agenda that could mount a credible challenge to Modi. Rahul’s sister, Priyanka, who bears a striking resemblance to her grandmother, Indira, and seems to have some of her charisma, has a huge handicap: her husband, Robert Vadra, who from small beginnings has made himself a multi-billionaire, thanks to favours extended by politicians and businessmen out to get in the good books of the then ruling family.
But there are a few disturbing signs in the Modi administration that the Congress Party could capitalise on. Though 18 per cent of Indians are Muslim, there are relatively few of them in Modi’s administration, showing a bias against the community. Then, there is the Hindutva agenda, which is being aggressively promoted, sometimes to a laughable extent.
That would not have been possible under Nehru, a rationalist debunker of superstition and ritual and a true secularist at heard. The Nehru/Gandhi family needs to reinvent itself, perhaps taking inspiration from the ideals and values of India’s first prime minister. Otherwise, it will be consigned to the garbage bin of history.
It is a huge irony that India is celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of its first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, when the political fortunes of the Nehru/Gandhi family are at an all-time low.
The only other period when this dynastic family was touching rock bottom was just after the 1977 General Election, following the lifting of Indira Gandhi’s despotic and much-hated “Emergency” rule. Both she and her son, Sanjay, lost their parliamentary seats and the Congress Party was routed in most of north India. But even then the Congress got more seats than it did a few months ago, under the leadership of the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi (widow of the assassinated Rajiv Gandhi) and her son, Rahul.
The difference is that the feisty and combative Indira Gandhi bounced back two years after her humiliating defeat, whereas there seems little indication that Sonia and Rahul will do so in a similar fashion. In all fairness, Indira Gandhi had an easier task. She was defeated by a motley group, who kept on shooting themselves in the foot, when they were not conniving against each other.
Sonia and Rahul, on the other hand, are confronted by a rejuvenated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has an undisputed – some would say authoritarian – leader, in the person of the charismatic Narendra Modi. The Congress Party simply has no answer to him, as was shown recently in the BJP’s sweeping victory in the key states of Maharashtra and Haryana, earlier Congress strongholds. Modi is a mesmerising orator in Hindi (Sonia and Rahul’s Hindi is faltering at best) and, what’s more, he has been pressing all the right buttons.
“Less government and better governance” has become a slogan that has caught the Indian public imagination – never mind that the UK’s Margaret Thatcher put it into practice decades ago – and his “Make in India” has resonated with India’s entrepreneurs and businessmen. The booming Indian stock market has also made investors happy.
Though nothing substantial may come out of it, his move to disclose the names of those Indians who have illegal bank accounts abroad has sent a signal that he is serious about curbing the menace of “black” money, which reportedly runs into tens of billions of dollars, both here in India and in foreign tax havens like Switzerland, Luxembourg and Mauritius.
One of the main factors that led to the Congress defeat and the BJP victory was the perception that the earlier Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, though himself a man of great integrity, had haplessly presided over an administration that saw scam after scan in its last four or five years, whether it was over the holding of the Commonwealth Games, allocation of spectrum, or the auction of coal mines. Favoured parties were given the contracts and licences, for a price, needless to say. The losers were the Indian taxpayers.
Modi, on the contrary, ran an administration that was both largely clean and efficient. There may have been an element of “crony capitalism” in it, but so what? Better to have economic development than little or no development.
By giving him and the BJP such a huge endorsement, the Indian public clearly feels he will be able to carry his Gujarat experience to the national level. Only time will tell whether he will be able to do so or not.
Suffice it to say that an aspirational generation that was disappointed with the Congress seems to be with him. They see in his success, from a humble and not highly educated tea-seller, to becoming chief minister of a major state and then prime minister, a model to be emulated.
Dr Singh has removed himself from the political scene altogether, unlamented by most Indians.
Sonia and Rahul have yet to formulate some kind of political and economic agenda that could mount a credible challenge to Modi. Rahul’s sister, Priyanka, who bears a striking resemblance to her grandmother, Indira, and seems to have some of her charisma, has a huge handicap: her husband, Robert Vadra, who from small beginnings has made himself a multi-billionaire, thanks to favours extended by politicians and businessmen out to get in the good books of the then ruling family.
But there are a few disturbing signs in the Modi administration that the Congress Party could capitalise on. Though 18 per cent of Indians are Muslim, there are relatively few of them in Modi’s administration, showing a bias against the community. Then, there is the Hindutva agenda, which is being aggressively promoted, sometimes to a laughable extent.
That would not have been possible under Nehru, a rationalist debunker of superstition and ritual and a true secularist at heard. The Nehru/Gandhi family needs to reinvent itself, perhaps taking inspiration from the ideals and values of India’s first prime minister. Otherwise, it will be consigned to the garbage bin of history.
(Rahul Singh is the former editor of Indian Express, Reader’s Digest and Khaleej Times)
