Priyanka Gandhi: Cometh the hour, cometh the lady

As Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joins her brother Rahul Gandhi to steer the Indian National Congress, the grand old party’s rank and file have been seriously galvanised

Priyanka Gandhi: Cometh the hour, cometh the lady
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Pramod Kumar

A quarter of a century ago in March 1993, an English weekly, published from Delhi, predicted the possibility of Priyanka Gandhi entering active politics after completion of her postgraduate studies. The prediction at the time proved wrong but the message it held was axiomatic. The long wait has finally ended with her appointment as General Secretary of Indian National Congress and in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Since then, an age has passed, entire generations of Indian voters and politicians have disappeared from the political scene, and an era of hopelessness has dawned over the bleakness of India’s future.

Reeling under the daily news of suicides of farmers and the alarm of growing unemployment, demolition of institutions like the CBI and other constitutional pillars of the Indian democracy, Indian ethos are eventually in want of a ray of hope necessary for keeping optimism alive for smooth functioning of a democratic society. Indeed, the present is living under an illusion of a fabricated charismatic factor of Narendra Modi, mostly popular in a newly-emerged, voluminous middle class, a product of globalisation, but the recent victories of the Congress in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh under the leadership of party president Rahul Gandhi have also created a considerable rupture in realisation of a theocratic dream.

Obviously, a niche has been created in requirement of a filler to deviate from the falsities of a lack of alternatives.

Now, the million-dollar question is whether the Priyanka factor will actually work. Will the daughter of Rajiv Gandhi, granddaughter of Indira Gandhi and great granddaughter of Jawaharlal Nehru sail smooth in the waters of the caste-ridden politics of north India in general and eastern Uttar Pradesh in particular? How will the newly emerged, the upper caste, Hindu middle class reconcile with the possible demolition of its dream of a theocratic state?

Undoubtedly, she has to face mountains of challenges from innumerable quarters, including division of voters along lines of caste and religious communities, a highly communalised middle-class living in an illusion of a so-called Hindu state, a problem-ridden party structure since almost three decades. The fact that her husband Robert Vadra is being grilled by the Enforcement Directorate on a regular basis also adds to the box of challenges.

What is there in store for Priyanka is hidden behind the substantial and peculiar nature of the Indian people, which though is not absolutely monolithic but which acted, not in so remotest as past, as a monolithic entity. The voting pattern of postcolonial India as depicted in the parliamentary elections of 1971, 1977 and 1984 are examples in which Indian voters voted without consideration of caste, community or region and decimated all kinds of predictions made by so-called experts. Even in the nearest past, the parliamentary elections of 2014, a similar pattern was repeated.

In the Assembly elections of deeply caste-ridden Uttar Pradesh too, the voters rewarded absolute majority to Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav in the past. It would not be a great surprise if Indian voters decide en masse in favour of the brother-sister duo in the coming parliamentary elections of 2019. In spite of great challenges of caste, community and regionalism, there are many favourable factors working for the duo in general and Priyanka Gandhi in particular.

The basic icon-loving nature of Indian masses may surprise political analysts again in the coming elections. It first came to light when Jawaharlal Nehru, the great grandfather of Priyanka and Rahul, was campaigning in 1937 for the pre-colonial provincial elections in accordance with the Act of 1935. His speeches against Indian Civil Service officials perturbed Lord Linlithgow, the then Viceroy of India.

When the alarmed Viceroy informed the Secretary of State for India in London about the speeches of Nehru pointing out the inefficiency, insensitiveness and corruption among the ranks of civil servants, the Secretary of State comforted the Viceroy and telegrammed back from London that he should not be worried by the electoral speeches of Nehru as the great number of people coming to listen to him would not be able to comprehend what Nehru was telling them. They were not coming to listen to him but to see him as a royalty, the Secretary inferred.

Indeed, Nehru was a darling of the masses, next to none other than Mahatma Gandhi, until his demise in 1964. Even, immediately after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, her son Rajiv Gandhi was voted to power with massive majority without giving consideration to his non-political background. Definitely, Rajiv Gandhi proved himself to be a true builder of modern India by adopting a policy of liberalism and opening the way for a liberal Indian economy. In this regard, his great granddaughter Priyanka is also not an exception. Since the assassination of her father Rajiv Gandhi during the electoral campaign in 1991, Priyanka Gandhi has been looked upon as a probable Indira Gandhi in the making. Her physical resemblance with her grandmother has always been a subject of adoration and awe.

The sea of people crowding her first roadshow in Lucknow may be seen by the icon-loving people of India as the final return of royalty after three decades. It may not be a great surprise. Her very timely entry into politics, in a state of confusion created by unwanted alliances, may provide a timely and viable alternative. The way veteran Congressmen and Congresswomen are excited, the sea of unemployed, enraged youth wandering on the roads and streets, may act as a great army of political workers for the Congress.

Indian masses are not bothered about political dynasties, irrespective of their caste and other identities. Indian scholars probably do not understand the difference between caste and casteism. Caste is a fundamental entity of Hinduism. It is not possible to find a Hindu without a caste. And this goes for all religious communities of India too.

As against this, casteism is not a product of caste but the existing political, administrative and educational system. The way elections are held and appointments are made, casteism becomes rampant. Otherwise, the decisions of Indian people, in fact, are not in accordance with caste and community in their daily life. Probably only Mahatma Gandhi understood it; and we modern scholars fail to understand the voting pattern of the Indian people during different local bodies, state and central elections. We criticise the illiterate Indian voters and fail to realise that how much prudent their past decisions were in critical situations.

In the eventuality that the brother-sister duo emerges victorious in the coming general elections of 2019, it will mark a turning point in the current mode of Indian politics. The image-tarnishing kind of politics that has emerged since the last few years reminds us of the way the Janta Party adopted a vindictive policy against Indira Gandhi after the elections of 1977 and creation of the Shah Commission. It backfired and helped Indira Gandhi to return to power in 1980, only after two and half years. 2019 may well be a re-enactment of 1980. To combat the image of Priyanka Gandhi, the administration may also take vindictive steps against her husband. That will most likely boomerang.

People of Uttar Pradesh are now witnessing the Yogi Adityanath government rule after having experienced those of Mayawati and Akhilesh, both of whom were very badly treated by voters in 2017. Prior to the appearance of Priyanka Gandhi on the political scene, there was no option before the voters and all was set in favour of a BSP-SP alliance. But, now the situation is altogether different. So far, the present regime was concerned about unemployment of youth and farmer’s distress that had forced them to take refuge in the temple and mosque issue immediately after the announcement of a pre-electoral alliance between the BSP and the SP. In UP, every village has temples and mosques but not schools and dispensaries. How effective will be the temple-mosque issue in such a situation? It is a million-dollar question. Priyanka’s appearance on the scene has given birth to the probability of the UP voters casting a decisive mandate.

The current politics of hatred, widespread propaganda against the Nehru-Gandhi family, and an attempt of religious polarisation may not succeed in a society of believers in communal harmony and cooperation since centuries, especially in the presence of a viable alternative. The way Indian voters have voted en masse in the past and nearest past in certain elections in favour of one person with a clean image, it would not be surprising if Priyanka’s clean image and her physical resemblance with Indira Gandhi prove game changers. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 was in fact seen by many as murder of a political party but with the appearance of Priyanka, the sister, and Rahul, the brother, they see this as a rebirth of the grand old party.


(The writer is retired head of History department at University of Lucknow)

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