Assembly Polls Endorse Rahul Gandhi’s pro-Common Man Stance | Arun Srivastava

USUALLY RESULTS OF byelections are not taken seriously, especially if they are assembly seats. The common perception is, the candidate of the party ruling the State normally wins the election as the voters do not intend to antagonise their political bosses. But the results of the recent byelections to the 13 seats in seven States, of which 10 were won by the INDIA bloc, convey a quite different message: India is witnessing a new type of social and political polarisation based on ideological positions.  

Though the results for the general elections, announced on 5 June, had furnished enough insight into the changing dimension and dynamics of the polity and polarisation of the political contour on ideological and class lines, the results of the byelections which took place just after a month of the general elections show people dumping the rightist political philosophy of hatred and violence. The assembly byelection results also made it abundantly clear that future elections are going to be fought on class lines perhaps. People are not willing to accept neoliberal policies which have led to a plethora of harmful socioeconomic consequences, including increased poverty, unemployment,  deterioration of income distribution and denial of share in decision-making process.

The Trinamool Congress won all the four seats it contested.The Aam Admi Party, cornered badly before the Lok Sabha elections, won its assembly seat in Punjab. The Congress won four seats, two in Himachal Pradesh, its home turf and two in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand. An independent candidate won the assembly seat in Bihar. Leaders of INDIA bloc have every reason to feel elated at the result. However, for Rahul Gandhi, as Leader of the Opposition, it is time to think about making good his promise to ninety per cent of the poor and deprived people of India to give them a share of power in decision-making.

The results are a lesson for third-time Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has miserably failed to create a ‘Congress-mukta Bharat’. The results also endorse Rahul’s efforts rid the Congress of the feudal vices and project it as a party for the poor and Dalit aspiration and politics.          

Of the INDIA bloc, besides the Congress, Mamata Banerjee’s TMC has performed well. TMC’s Krishna Kalyani defeated BJP leader Manas Kumar Ghosh by over 50,000 votes. Madhupurna Thakur of TMC defeated Binay Biswas of BJP by about 33,000 votes in the Bagda seat. Mukut Adhikari of the TMC won the Ranaghat Dakshin seat by about 39,000 votes while another TMC candidate, Supti Pandey defeated BJP leader Kayan Chaubey by a margin of about 62,000 votes in the Maniktala Assembly bypoll. One very noticeably significant aspect of the polling has been the reluctance of the supporters of the Congress and the Left parties in Bengal to vote for their respective candidates. They knew that it would eventually help the BJP. Obviously, they voted for the TMC so as not to split the anti- BJP vote.  

Congress succeeding in four seats also underlines that today’s Congress is not a screenshot of the old Congress which got its sustenance from feudal norms and values. The people extended their support to Rahul for giving a concrete shape to the party’s ideology, making the Congress party the voice of the Dalits and proletariats.       

Rahul did not attend the super-hyped wedding of Anant Ambani. Rahul  could have gone and shaken hands with Mukesh Ambani as Narendra Modi did and so did other politician like Lalu Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, AlkhileshYadav, Sharad Pawar, all strong promoters of the backward caste politics and who claim to oppose communal and rightist politics and are all in the INDIA bloc.

During the Lok Sabha election, Modi had publicly accused Ambani and Adani of giving tempo-loads of black money to the Congress and post elections, he was seen bending over backwards to greet Nita Ambani. Lalu’s entire family flew to Mumbai from Patna in a chartered plane provided by Ambani. This prompted a top BJP leader to quip that their participation implied there was a contradiction in the RJD’s public stance and their action

But Rahul’s boycott sends the message that he is determined to fight crony capitalism and launch a crusade for protecting the rights of the Dalits and the poor. Obviously, for Rahul to attend the event – which in the words of author Sobha De was ‘nothing short of a royal wedding and billionaires were the new Maharajahs’ – would have eroded his political and personal credibility.

Some experts and political pundits hold the view that Mukesh Ambani calling on Sonia Gandhi and extending a personal invitation to attend the celebrations, put the Congress in a dilemma. The Gandhis, especially Sonia and her son Rahul, know that if at all they have to spearhead a sustained struggle against the RSS and the rightwing forces represented by it, then they would have to reposition the Congress.

It is worth recalling Rahul’s words sometime ago. ‘The system is heavily aligned against the lower castes and I know the system from inside, as my grandmother and father were prime minister. And later, I used to visit the PM’s house when Manmohan Singh lived there.’ He emphasized on that occasion that 90 per cent of the country’s population, including the Dalits, OBCs, tribal communities and the minorities do not have representation in the country’s narrative and power structure. ‘I have been inside the system. I understand the system from inside. You cannot hide the system from me’, he said.

He rightly pointed out that in the corporate, media, bureaucracy, education, judiciary, military and most other sectors, there is no participation of these ninety per cent people. He was candid in his assertion that these people do not have voice in India’s narrative and power structure, be it the corporate structure or friends in the media, be it bureaucratic structure. As Rahul is aware of the fact that the rightist upsurge in India can only be checked by the massive resurgence of the Dalits and deprived, he poses a danger to the rightwing. Modi’s recent jibe at Rahul, ‘balak buddhi’ is a clever attempt to make people not to take Rahul seriously and treat him as immature. But the byelection results have made it abundantly clear that Rahul has graduated and he knows the poor and Dalits better than other centrist or even many progressive leaders.

A resolute attempt is being made by the saffron ecosystem and rightist forces to paint Rahul as a non-serious or part-time politician who has of late been consciously working to transform his image that would help him to identify with the common man. Recall his tearing the ordinance providing relief to the guilty politicians. If Rahul had not protested, probably Lalu would not have suffered imprisonment. During his early years in politics, Rahul had identified with the poor. He has systematically pursued his political vision of a more democratic, prosperous, egalitarian, and just India and empowerment of the Dalits and proletariat. Among the key issues that he has consistently championed is the cause of social harmony and social justice for all of India’s people, regardless of their race, caste, class, ethnicity, gender or religion.

The Rahul-led coalition winning ten seats out of 13 underlines that people are desirous to see the Congress return to rule. It also sends a vibrant message that Indians, basically the Hindus, are not communal and they are against the ‘RSS and BJP’ type of Hindutva politics dictating their lives, telling them who to kill and when. The win also underscores that people of India refused to believe Modi’s accusation that Rahul was maligning the entire Hindu community. On the contrary, Hindu voters, especially of Uttarakhand and Himachal, who till the Lok Sabha elections were with BJP, shifted their loyalty and endorsed Rahul’s point of view that the BJP’s brand of Hinduism is based on ‘fear’ and ‘terror’.

Interestingly, the BJP leadership was hopeful of winning these seats, as it has engineered crossovers and made sitting members resign in the hope that they would win. The AAP victory in Punjab is the example. The previous AAP MLA, Sheetal Agrawal defected to BJP and resigned. Eventually he was defeated by the rival AAP candidate.

In a post on X, Rahul said: ‘The results of the by-elections in 7 States have made it clear that the web of “fear and confusion†woven by the BJP has been broken. Every class including farmers, youth, labourers, businessmen and employed people want to completely destroy dictatorship and establish the rule of justice. The public is now completely standing with the INDIA for the betterment of their lives and protection of the Constitution. Hail India, Hail the Constitution.’

The Opposition wins have also made senior BJP leaders express their views in public. The day the bypoll results were pouring in, veteran BJP leader and union minister Nitin Gadkari told the members of the Goa State executive: ‘If we continue doing what the Congress used to do, there is no use of their exit and our entry. Advaniji used to say that we are a party with a difference. We have to understand how different we are from other parties.’

Rahul realises that the umbilical cord with the grand old party has to be cut. If at all the Congress desires to survive and effectively intervene in the political and economic development and steer changes in the country, then it  must liberate itself from the grip of the feudal and rich people and identify it with the aspirations and dreams of the poor, Dalits and proletariats. Neoliberal politics and globalisation have widened the chasm among people and sharpened the social conflict. At a time when the rightist forces and philosophy are making a serious attempt to dictate global politics and economics, it would be naive to expect that the Indian polity and its political institutions will not be affected.

The historic Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022 ought to be seen in this perspective. Rahul had realised that the aging Congress leadership was not strong enough to challenge the rightwing  head on and the leadership had to bring the younger people together. The RSS, understood well what Rahul was doing and the seriousness of his move, which was why Modi started calling Rahul Pappu and Shahzada in his sad attempt to derail him. It was Modi who had even encouraged some senior Congress leaders to float the G-23 and oppose Rahul. The G-23 was a group of 23 Indian members of parliament that were in the Indian National Congress party and that wrote a letter asking for stronger leadership.Negating the political line of the Opponent is the best strategy to discredit him in the public.

Most unfortunate was the fact that India’s Left Front did not comprehend the situation and the rightwing challenge. They were busy indulging in polemics which is the best way to abdicate responsibility. They had enough scope but did not reach out to even their traditional supporters and sustenance base nor motivate them to raise their voice against the onslaught of the rightist forces.    Lynching of Muslims has been a chronic part of the rightist assault on the secular forces. The Left did not emphatically protest this act of rightwing onslaught. The Left was even found wanting in identifying with the labourers when they were faced with the worst threat to their survival during the Covid-19 pandemic. The only exception was the CPI(ML) Liberation.   
 
Through his Bharat Jodo Yatra Rahul tried to counter Modi’s and RSS’s narrative through his narrative of tolerance, unity, compassion and love directly for the people. While it encompassed the people neglected and exploited by Modi and the RSS’s politics, it also obliterated the impression created by them that he was Shahzada and Pappu. His colossal padyatra of 4,080 km ignited peoples’imagination; it also put Modi and the RSS on the defensive. This also witnessed the resurrection of the Congress as a new force representing the voice and aspiration of the poor.

Rahul Gandhi’s most admirable strengths, honed during the Yatra, has been his art of listening, diagonally apart from Modi’s ‘Man Ki Baat’, where he is the only speaker. Rahul’s second Yatra, the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which he took out in January 2024 simply reinforced this belief in the minds of deprived Indians, that he is for the common Indian. The 6,700 km long yatra which focused on bringing comprehensive social, economic, and political justice to the people of India, made the poor, dalit and adivasis  to respond to his call. His ‘Paanch Nyay’, five pillars of justice, Yuva Nyay, Nari Nyay, Kisan Nyay, Shramik Nyay and Hissedari Nyay caught the imagination of the people. It was a major step towards reconstructing the Congress as the future of India.

The assembly wins have outright rejected Modi’s claim that the people have voted for him to rule the country. This also boosted the morale of the Congress party and has inspired the rank and file to take the challenge head on.