Author: Tavleen Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 16, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/284877.html
Introduction: He needs to understand that
instead of silly gimmicks, politicians need to think seriously about improving
education and healthcare
Do you know what? If Rahul Gandhi were a teenager,
I think I might understand this mad quest to discover India. I remember reading
great grand-daddy's Discovery of India when I was an impressionable young
schoolgirl, cocooned in a privileged boarding school in the foothills of the
Himalayas. I remember being mesmerised by Panditji's prose and his tribute
to this broken-down country of ours that seemed so romantic when seen through
the prism of my cocoon. It was years later, when I read the book again, that
I puzzled over why an Indian should need to discover India at all. Isn't that
what foreigners do? Is the Congress Party's heir apparent foreign to India?
To its cruel realities and evil ways? Is he not old enough at nearly 40 to
understand the dangers of wandering about Naxalite-infested villages in the
middle of the night?
In an honest attempt to understand why Rahul
risked his life to tour villages in the heart of Orissan darkness I made inquiries
in Delhi's political circles and discovered to my amazement that the escapade
was devised by an event management company. So the man who pays their bills
was sent off to a remote village with only his SPG bodyguards for protection.
I hear from impeccable sources that suspicious villagers mistook them for
bandits and it was only when they were assured that it was Rahul Gandhi they
had in tow that a degree of bonhomie was restored. Cruel people in Delhi's
heartless corridors of power now make sneering comments about why he did not
just read his great-grandfather's book and discover India ensconced in the
safety of 10 Janpath.
Speaking of which, Sonia Gandhi completed
10 years as president of our oldest political party last week making her the
longest-serving person in this job ever. As someone who has used this column
to passionately oppose an Italian prime minister of India, I feel the need
to make a small diversion from analysing Rahul's political travels to discuss
Mummy for a moment. What has Sonia Gandhi achieved in ten years? She saved
the Congress from certain disintegration, she proved that the tallest of our
opposition leaders was no match for an apolitical housewife, and most importantly,
she taught us how it is possible to control the levers of power in India without
being prime minister. Not minor achievements for a woman who could not even
speak a native language 10 years ago.
It could be time, though, to call Rahul-baba
in for a little chat. Not only is he endangering his life for no reason, but
he seems very confused about political realities. What was he thinking when
he said there was no internal democracy in the Congress? Who was he pointing
his finger at? So first he needs a short lesson in the history of the Congress
that explains that, since the time of his grandmother, people who made a noise
about inner-party democracy have been booted out of the party without a second
thought. This is why, after his father's tragic murder, the party's senior
leaders had nobody to turn to but Mummy to 'save' the party.
Lesson No 2 has to be about India's changed
realities. There was a time when the Nehru-Gandhi name was a magic mantra
that could make millions of desperately poor, hopelessly illiterate Indians
rush off at election time and vote for Congress. That time is gone. A few
more village tours, hopefully in less dangerous districts, should make it
clear that today, the aam aadmi has middle-class aspirations. He wants schools,
roads, jobs and a standard of living. This means he want to earn enough to
build a nice little house with running water and electricity, send his children
to a private school, have a colour television in the living room and a Nano
parked in the drive. Charisma no longer works like it used to.
Lesson No 3 is the most difficult of all,
since it involves acknowledging that Mummy's attempts in the past four years
to woo back the old Congress vote banks have failed. Massive schemes to 'alleviate'
poverty rather than end it have served mostly to keep poor people in poverty.
Attempts to bring the Muslim vote bank back by doling out charity have so
far shown no signs of working either.
These are old-fashioned ideas in an India
that has changed immeasurably even if our political class has not.
Unless young politicians of Rahul Gandhi's
generation realise that instead of silly gimmicks they need to be thinking
seriously about how we can improve education and healthcare and our hopelessly
outdated systems of governance, there is no hope. You do not need to discover
India to discover this.
