Rahul Gandhi's made an attractive and compassionate speech, he struck the right note through his emphasis on harmony and participation. He spoke with a sense of responsibility: towards the country, towards its people. He spoke of systemic changes relating to deepening participation of the people and giving greater voice to people in decision-making that affects the lives of ordinary people. He offered a critique of the political system and political parties.
But some hard questions needed to be answered: How does he plan to give voice and facilitate participation in the political system?
It is clear Gandhi for now is focused on the relationship between party and people and not government and people and tried to address the disconnect between political parties and the people. He is trying to establish a niche for himself through his constant focus on party and political reform. Sonia Gandhi established a niche through an emphasis on social policies and social agenda during UPA 1 and 2. The political route he has chosen is interesting but a political leader needs to articulate his views on political economy and public policy. This time, too, he did not offer an economic vision to tackle the country's socioeconomic crisis.
His CII speech, like his Jaipur speech, offers a generic diagnosis of India's problems but he did not touch on the deep structures and policy regimes that exclude the economic majority, and what he will do to change the 'closed system' that benefits the top 20-25 per cent of people. There was little mention of policy issues, especially employment and how education will help to turn young Indians into an employable work force.
On the other hand, Gandhi has deliberately distanced himself from governance and grand policy issues. Can he really say anything that contradicts the party and the government? He can only be expected to be slightly more radical and sound slightly more impatient, which he did.
Sonia Gandhi's 2003 speech at CII was a virtual manifesto of what the government was going to do in 2004. But she could do so because she was the undisputed leader of the party. Here, Rahul Gandhi is constrained by the leadership structure of the Congress which is a threesome now. If industry and India was expecting a manifesto for the Congress party to be rolled out in the speech, they were making a mistake. True, there wasn't enough attention given to governance despite a strong managerial dimension in his speech. But the speech indicates a man who is an idealist, and wants India to move forward through greater inclusiveness.
The author is professor of Political Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
