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The Rahul Gandhi era seems to have started in the 129-year-old Congress as it prepares itself for the decisive electoral battle of 2014.
Unveiling the party’s road map before Congress delegates from across the country at the All-India Congress Committee meeting at the Talkatora stadium here on Friday, Gandhi promised that the party would reach out to every section of society. He promised to uplift the 700-million-strong lower middle class in five years, bring in at least 50 per cent representation for women within the party, have more women chief ministers and give voice to the “aam” (common) Congress worker by ensuring that candidates in 15 constituencies are selected solely on the basis of their choice.
There was little doubt the Congress scion, who would lead the party in the electoral battle, was its prime ministerial candidate, should there be a UPA-III.
In a daylong session, which saw cries from delegates that Gandhi be named the prime ministerial candidate, the Congress vice-president, in his most rousing speech till date, exhorted party men for the “ideological battle of 2014” — of the secular agenda pitted against the divisive communal agenda (of the BJP).
Highlighting the party’s agenda for the next five years, should it come to power, Gandhi said the party would work on providing better education, housing and health facilities for the lower middle class — those who were just above the Below-Poverty-Line category, yet were economically insecure.
Looking around the venue, where men outnumbered women, Gandhi said he wanted at least 50 per cent representation for women in the party. There should also be more women chief ministers, he said to loud applause. Gandhi urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to increase the annual cap on domestic cooking gas cylinders from nine to 12 to help women in households.
The speech had Congress workers rooting for Gandhi and on their feet throughout the 45-minute speech.
He aggressively spoke of his intent to “make heard the voice of the aam party worker” and, therefore, to have a pilot project in 15 parliamentary constituencies where candidates would be selected solely on the basis of the workers’ choice. If successful, this would be replicated in later polls.
Gandhi also took the opportunity to lash out at the Opposition as driven by the agenda of “one man” (an apparent reference to BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi). Lambasting Modi for giving a call for “Congress mukt Bharat” (Congress-free India), Gandhi said the Opposition had not “read its history books”. The Congress, he said, has reflected the harmonious multifarious fabric of the Indian nation for the past 129 years and was the inheritor of the “inclusive” ideology of the party that dated back to British India of 1885. Adroitly snuffing the demand among the workers for naming him PM candidate, Gandhi said constitutionally, the prime minister was always chosen by elected members of Parliament and the party would not deviate from that norm.
Touching on the “embarrassing” factors that had defeated the party in the recent Assembly elections — corruption and inflation — Gandhi urged Congress MPs to ensure that the UPA’s remaining agenda, of anti-corruption Bills, was pushed through in the coming Parliament session.
He exhorted party men to spread the word of the good work done by the UPA in its decade-long rule since 2004, which he described as the most done by any government in power. Earlier in the day, in a hard-hitting address targetting the Opposition, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said, “The biggest threat before the country is from communal forces and ideologies. Congress stands for uniting the people... But what is the approach of our main political opponent? I will tell you. You know it yourself. It is to divide the society on communal lines and spread hatred in the name of unity to impose a single identity. They hide their real face behind the mask of moderate pretensions.”
She urged party men not to lose heart with the recent electoral drubbing but to be resilient in the Congress ideology of secularism and inclusiveness.
The prime minister said in his address economic growth rate had slowed because clearances were not granted to infrastructure projects for the fear of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Vigilance Commission. He urged the people to judge the record of his government while closely scrutinising that of opposition governments. He rued that his government was not getting the “credit it deserves” though the country has seen an average growth of 7.9 per cent in the previous nine years despite two bouts of global recession.
That the voices of the youth will carry weight within the Congress was indicative when senior leader and Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his speech proposed a “radical idea”. He proposed that tickets for half of the total 543 seats in Parliament be given to “candidates under 35 years”. His rationale for booking those 272 seats for the youth: Sixty-eight per cent of India’s population was below 35.
