Growing hostility on the western border is threatening toovershadow the Congress chintan shivir, to be held in Jaipur this weekend. Theconclave's significance lies not just in determining the Congress strategy forthe 2014 general elections but also in influencing the political and economicdirection taken by the government at this critical juncture.
On the face of it, the fundamental difference between theprevious shivirs, held at Pachmarhi in 1998 and Shimla in 2003, and the one inJaipur is that the Congress was then in opposition and is now in power. Insteadof a lean and hungry party focused on seizing power, it is now fat and lazy ”and on the defensive.
At Pachmarhi, the Congress decided to go it alone. AtShimla, it decided to go in for alliances. But these are short-term politicaldecisions, and ones, if taken, would be with the upcoming 11 assembly (if youinclude Jharkhand) and general elections in mind. But the shivir's importancewill be in reflecting the turmoil within the Congress about what the party standsfor, and who it represents.
The contradiction between Manmohan Singh's reformist pathand Sonia Gandhi's socialist instincts, clearly manifested in UPA-II, must beresolved.
In public mind, the prime minister stands for the super-rich.He and his coterie belong to the school of economists who believe thatprosperity for big business means prosperity for all. The “trickle-down effect”will ensure that wealth permeates from the top to the bottom of the economicheap, according to this economic thesis.
Singh is thus undisturbed by the growing inequalities indistribution of wealth. In his book, the rich getting richer is not justinevitable but desirable. The barons of industry must be given untramelledaccess to land and resources and protected from labour unrest and taxincreases. Public assets must be privatised and a policy environment thatfavours capital investment in infrastructure and manufacturing must be created,even if it is at the cost of ecology and human rights.
In this respect, there is no difference between ManmohanSingh and Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.
Sonia Gandhi, however, realises that the ‘aam aadmi’ is notmerely a slogan, but defines the very identity of the Congress. From itsinception until the economic liberalisation of the early 1990s, the Congressstood as the party of the poor. A dilution of its pro-poor image contributed toits exit from power. To a large extent, Sonia Gandhi restored the impulsetoward public welfare, resulting in formulation and implementation of theMahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), the Rightto Information, Forest Rights Act and the Right to Education ” all aimed atempowering the aam aadmi.
None of these would have materialised without the NationalAdvisory Council, set up directly under her aegis.
Given this track record, Gandhi's ready acquiescence to FDIin multi-brand retail, in effect opening up the country to the likes ofWal-Mart and Carrefour, came as a big surprise to Congressmen and Congressobservers.
In association with Governance Now
