New Congress Prepares For ‘09

The Congress has unleashed its young-and raring-to-go brigade. And the charge is being led from the front by Rahul Gandhi who has realised that the Congress’s fortunes lie not in the corridors of 24, Akbar Road, but in the hearts and minds of India’s
poor and the deprived

By Sanjeev Acharya

In one swift move, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has changed the face of the Congress party – quite literally.

With the induction of young ministers in the Union Cabinet and with Rahul Gandhi hitting the dusty village road, the stage is now set for the more than 150-year-old party to be run by young blood. The old guard will now play more of an advisory role while the party would be lead from the front by these new faces.

Consider this: The Congress today is perhaps the only party that has pushed several young leaders up the ladder. Jyotiraditya Scindia is now a minister. So is Jitin Prasad. Rahul is causing waves in India’s rural heartland. And still, there are more who are waiting: Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Sandip Dixit, Madhu Sakshi Gouda, Deepender Singh Hooda, Purandeshwari and Manish Tiwari. Another young leader, Ajay Maken, who’s already a minister, is set to play a larger political role.
It’s the “Gang of 10” – G-10, so to say. No other party has so many young, highly educated politicians who are elected MPs.

All these young politicians are already names to reckon with. And in the next few months, as the party gears up for the 2009 general election, these are the faces that would be used more and more to go out there and get the votes.

It’s been a long and rough ride but Sonia Gandhi has finally realised that with 40 percent of India comprising the young, she can no longer run the party with doddering politicians who have so far run the party like a fiefdom. The tone was set by Rahul Gandhi, who, during his 2007 Uttar Pradesh election road shows made the clarion call for India’s youth to back the party.
That was perhaps a testing ground for the young Gandhi to see how much of the young India supports him. The Congress bitterly lost the U.P. election but any journalist who travelled with Rahul on the road shows, would tell you that his charm and sincerity wooed thousands of young men and women.

Across cities, his cavalcade was led and followed by hundreds of motorcycle-born youth, some even walked and ran behind his car. Which other politician is able to spontaneously gather as many young people in any city of Uttar Pradesh? And this was in a state where the Congress is believed to have lost its base, lost its traditional voters, lost its committed young cadre, who was once willing to stake all for the grand old party. Rahul’s road shows proved one thing beyond doubt: that what the Congress lacked in UP was an organisation and not leadership or ideology.

The Uttar Pradesh exercise was quickly followed by Rahul’s formal entry into the Congress organisation when he was made a General Secretary. In charge of the party’s youth wing, Rahul has since hardly spent any time in Delhi as he criss-crosses the country’s Hindi heartland in what is called the “Discover India” tour. A recluse, shy mamma’s boy, who until recently never spoke in public and occasionally appeared by his mother’s side, is now the Congress’s main poster boy.
Rahul knows his job is cut out, and he doesn’t have much time on him. If he has to re-establish the Congress where it has lost its glory, he will have to eat with the poor, sleep with the poor and walk his talk with the poor.

So we had Rahul spending a night under a Dalit’s thatched roof; we had him leading a procession to the DM’s office in Jhansi; we had him travelling to the country’s dreaded Naxalite hinterland of Chhattisgarh; we had him with the tribals of Jabhua; and, in Bangalore, where he reprimanded the state leadership for the state of the party in the election-bound state.

He is hurting his opponents where it hurts: Mayawati in her Dalit heartland, and BJP among the youth and tribal. The fact that Rahul’s plans are beginning to show quick results was evident from the hugely personal attack made by Mayawati – the unchallenged queen of India’s dalits – for his visit to a Dalit’s home. “When Rahul Gandhi returns to Delhi after visiting Dalits, he is bathed with a special soap and purification ceremonies are held for him,” a visibly harried Mayawati said. Should the leader of a party which has changed the face of politics in northern India, who remains the undisputed leader of India’s backward castes, who has consistently surprised psephologists with her excellent showing in elections, be so worried by a night’s stay in a Dalit home by a young leader of a party which is more or less finished in her state?

The panic is already beginning to show. It is now for the Congress president to ensure this campaign does not lose steam or get hijacked by the machinations of those in her durbar who see their role getting increasingly diminished in the coming days.

There must be more such road shows, repeated ones, across the length and breath of Uttar Pradesh, more rallies and more demonstrations, untill the state gets a semplance of governmance.
A new hero is in the making in the Congress party. His army of young lieutenants is also getting ready. It remains to be seen whether the old guard would loosen their grip a bit or would once again, use the rope as another noose for India’s grand old party.