Indira Gandhi was out of power in 1977 when nine Dalits were killed at Belchi in Bihar. She flew to Patna, motored into the countryside and then, because the monsoons had made the roads impassable, reached Belchi on elephant back. It was late at night and she shone a torch on her face so the villagers could recognise her.
The next morning, a stark black and white picture of Indira Gandhi entering Belchi, alone but undaunted, frail but fearless, her strong profile silhouetted against the black night, was on all the front pages of newspapers.
Nearly four decades later, her grandson lacked the connect with the agitating farming community of Madhya Pradesh. This was not for the first time that Rahul had reached a farmers’ protest amid soaring tension. His high point was at Bhatta Parsaul — the twin villages near Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, in 2011 where farmers were protesting against land acquisition.
Much like Mandsaur today, Rahul was barred from entering Bhatta Parsaul, but he rode pillion on the motorcycle of a Congress worker, Thakur Dhirendra Singh
Last year, Dhirendra Singh joined the BJP and is currently a ruling party MLA from Jewar, Uttar Pradesh. By December 2016, Dhirendra could he heard saying, “Rahul helped us then, but forgot about us. Many of our villagers kept languishing in jail."
In the recently held Uttar Pradesh polls, Rahul had held impressive shows during his month-long Kisan Yatra in September-October 2016 when he covered a distance of over 3,500 km, touring 48 districts and 141 Assembly segments. A tie-up with the Samajwadi Party resulted in the Congress finishing with an all-time low figure of seven seats.
Congress insiders say Rahul’s commitment to farmers’ cause may be genuine but the party does not have a strong line of communication with the farming community. Rahul was recently seen hitting out at the Telangana Government over farmers’ suicide but like Bhatta Parsual, Sangareddy and Mandsaur are mere destinations than milestones like Indira’s Belchi.
The Congress under Rahul has a tendency to rush to an epicentre of sort each time Rahul ventures out instead of working out a sustainable “andolan” (movement) of their own to win over constituencies such as farmers, tribals, Dalits or urban poor.
A section of Congressmen feels Rahul needs to act as a catalyst, understand the challenges farmers are facing and offer some exemplary solutions in party ruled States such as Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. The UPA’s failure to implement the Swaminathan Commission's recommendations is a glaring example of the Congress’s callous attitude towards farmers.
It is worth recalling how an urban leader like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had provided leadership to Bardoli satyagrah of 1928, identifying a genuine issue of suffering, meticulously planning and executing an agitation. The result was farmers’ everlasting faith in Patel’s leadership. To a much lesser extent, the Dalits of Belchi too viewed Indira as their saviour and admired her moral courage.
For past few days, the Congress in Madhya Pradesh is hardly a part of the farmers agitation even though Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been trying to club them with "anti social elements."
Yesterday when Rahul entered Madhya Pradesh from Rajasthan, there were more Congressmen from Rajasthan accompanying Rahul than from Madhya Pradesh. State regional satraps like Kamal Nath, Jyotiradtiya Scindia, Digvijaya Singh have restricted themselves to tweets and sound-bytes than leading ground level protests.
On the political front, Rahul seems in little hurry to end the leadership crisis in Madhya Pradesh Congress. Aspirants Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath have been tirelessly vying for the MPCC chief's post.
The entire Congress unit in Madhya Pradesh is on standstill even as opportunities to corner Shivraj Singh Chouhan on corruption, sand mafia, atrocities against Dalits, women, tribals, farmers’ suicides, etc, keep getting frittered away. The State Assembly polls are due in November 2018 but a divided Congress in Madhya Pradesh is letting Chouhan get away with virtually anything and everything.
There are more opportunities knocking at Rahul’s door. The Congress Working Committee meeting held recently has cleared time-table for party’s organisational polls. It appears that Rahul will replace Sonia Gandhi as head of the AICC by October this year. For Rahul, becoming Congress president may be a mere formality but winning the confidence and respect of average Congressperson continues to be a challenge for him.
There is no word whether Rahul will step into Sonia’s shoes through the consensus or contest route. Sonia in 1999, had contested against Jitendra Prasada to bag the post of AICC chief. Her predecessor Sitaram Kesri too used to take pride in being an “elected Congress president.” Kesri had humbled both Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot in party polls that are perpetually tilted in favour of the official party nominee. Thus, the dice may be heavily loaded in favour of Rahul, a challenger from within the party would bring in a semblance of inner party democracy. The contest route would provide temporary reprieve to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Rahul needs to be careful about future role of Sonia in post-October 2017 Congress. The old guard in the party would not let her go in retirement mode simply because it would mean continuation of likes of Motilal Vora, Janardhan Dwivedi, A K Antony and dozens of other minions. In more practical terms, her presence in the party as a mentor would not let Team Rahul to function properly, experiment or experience failure.
If Rahul is indeed keen to utilise talent of old and wise within the Congress, he should revive the Congress Parliamentary Board and draft seasoned campaigners.
(Rasheed Kidwai is the Associate Editor with The Telegraph. His Twitter handle is: @rasheedkidwai)
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