<b>Aditi Phadnis:</b> A missed opportunity, to say the least

If you had been the unquestioned leader of an Opposition party like the Congress, what would you have done to oppose demonetisation? What did party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi do?

Yes, the Congress is arguably at a low ebb — maybe its lowest ever. But that has not prevented a section of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha from suggesting that it should enter into an alliance with the Congress to prevent the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. In pockets across the country, the Congress is still seen as the only credible Opposition party (even though those pockets are becoming smaller and fewer with every passing day). 

 

The party also benefits from having a young leader whose authority is unquestioned despite a string of electoral setbacks. At its last meeting, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) unanimously passed a resolution asking Rahul Gandhi to take over, although some voices did say haltingly that doing it this way would not look good and that Sonia Gandhi’s contribution to the party should be put on record.

And ultimately, at the end of the day, a political party is only as good as the people who make it. In 2009, when the world was reeling from the aftermath of the global slowdown, Manmohan Singh’s masterly analysis of the reasons for the slowdown and the action that needed to be taken had G20 leaders meeting for a summit erupt into spontaneous applause. US President Barack Obama told an Indian gaggle: “I can tell you that here at G20, when the prime minister speaks, people listen.” 

Despite the wooden delivery and the lack of flourishes, Singh’s “loot and organised plunder” speech after the demonetisation (the only time this year that he made a speech in the Rajya Sabha) forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cross to the Opposition side and shake Singh by the hand.

If you had been Rahul Gandhi, what would you have done? You would have gone to town, telling people that an economist whom the entire world respects and who is revered for his understanding of practical economics, is saying demonetisation is nothing more than a fraud. You would have asked party cadres to prepare video messages, flooded the Twitter airwaves with messages highlighting the facts cited by Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram to show how demonetisation is a really, really bad idea. 

You would have told the world: “we may not be in power, but we are a team that is a thousand times more capable, wise and experienced than those who are in power”. If you had nothing to sell, you would have opted to take a place in the back, being generous enough to let the spotlight rest and linger on those whose voices have the ring of learning and credibility.That would have been leadership.

And then, the Congress sets great store by its presence among youth and students. But where were the young people holding morchas, public meetings, and demonstrations against the inconvenience caused by “notebandi”? Were they there to hold the hand of farmers and traders? The mahila morcha of the BJP took out at least one or two marches in the urban areas where it has a presence to support demonetisation.

Where was the Congress? The party seemed to be in apology mode throughout, letting Mamata Banerjee take the street protest mantle, and clarifying that it would not take part in the bandh, only in protest marches. And, let’s face it, there were no protest marches that the Congress led, not even in  Karnataka, the state where it is supposed to have a presence. 

Even in Parliament, the party was defensive, barring Anand Sharma’s speech, objecting to the fact that the PM had referred to them as endorsing black money and disrupting Parliament on those grounds — rather than tearing into the government for its adventurism and lack of preparedness. 

The Congress opted to stay out of the by-elections for the Tamil Nadu Assembly altogether and made no reference to the fact that the BJP’s margin of victory in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol Lok Sabha seat went down from nearly 250,000 in 2014 to 60,000 now despite a five per cent increase in voter turnout. Both sets of elections were held post-demonetisation. 

Indira Gandhi’s centenary celebrations began on November 19. President Pranab Mukherjee delivered a lecture. Congressmen said the Vigyan Bhavan hall was empty and even Congress chief ministers were not present.

Most armies suffer defeat because its generals and brigadiers are incompetent or reluctant to fight; or because the people and lands they conquer refuse to accept them. In leaders like Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram, the Congress has some of the best brains. And they are ready to engage. A carefully thought-out campaign against demonetisation featuring its top generals could have resulted in occupying some mindspace. But for that the Congress has to see itself as an army.