The message is the dialogue: We crash together, and the first family is in charge
Dialogue without direction is as meaningless as a debate without debaters.
However, if dialogue is an excuse to get warring, egoistic individuals to break
bread together, it can yield dividends. When 66 honchos—small and big, young and
old with mini and mega mindsets—assembled last week in the salubrious
environment created by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in
Surajkund, Haryana, it didn’t turn out to be either a clash of the titans or
intellectual gymnastics. It wasn’t meant to be, as the aroma of the delicious
five-course lunch served amid the strains of piano music made it clear. The
rendezvous was only a move to prove that the Gandhi Parivar was fully in control
of both government and the party. Congress President Sonia Gandhi was full of
confidence, and Rahul Gandhi symbolised the vital paradigm shift in the ruling
establishment.
The assembly was appropriately titled ‘Samvad Baithak’, in which those who
draw political lines and agendas, and those who execute them were present. The
samvad (dialogue), however, was confined to only a select few. Officially, the
meeting was expected to review the implementation of the 2009 Congress election
manifesto. But it turned out to be more of a six-and-a-half hour seminar in
which speeches were made, but no critical questions were raised or answered.
Instead of going through the structured dialogue in three sessions—on the
manifesto, politics and economics—the meeting became a platform for senior
leaders to display their ignorance. However, the Samvad Baithak—the
first-of-its-kind in recent Congress history—proved beyond doubt that when other
political parties were engulfed in mismanagement, the Congress was walking
united, cohesively and purposefully. The baithak (a favourite RSS term) has all
the ingredients of a strong organisation. It has the right soochi (list),
perfect soochna ( information) and meaningful soch ( thought). The Surajkund
baithak may have failed to make any impact on voters, but it reduced the gap
between the government and the party. The Congress may have lost the battle of
perception but it has won the hearts of its demoralised middle-level leaders and
directionless workers. The tone, tenor and content of the speeches made it clear
that it wasn’t meant only to bring the government closer to the party.
As Sonia made it clear that it is the party that wins an election and forms
the government, the baithak generated powerful signals for an early election.
For those who ceremoniously drove to the venue in a tourist bus, the message was
clear—they have to drive or crash together. But if the Samvad was meant to give
voice and stature to Congress GenNext, it hardly served its purpose. Rahul was
the only person who made a purposeful intervention, when his speech exceeded the
allotted time of five minutes. The half-a-dozen young ministers with independent
charge or Cabinet rank were more conspicuous by their mandatory presence. The
recently promoted Sachin Pilot, Jitender Singh, Ajay Maken and Jyotiraditya
Scindia were hardly called upon. Maybe they were under the impression that the
baithak was just another Cabinet meeting where only elders speak. With the
average age of the Cabinet 65 years, these future leaders were more than elated
with the place of pride their leader Rahul got. One said, “Where was the need
for us to add anything when he was speaking for all of us?” Another explained:
“We have been brought up in an environment in which young members of the family
are advised to respect and hear the elders out, even if they are not in tune
with your thinking.” Even aggressive interventionists like Jairam Ramesh, Salman
Khurshid and Ambika Soni played the role of fence-sitters, not ministers.
Contrary to the current perception, Rahul did set the tone and made the
ministers listen to his discovery of a paradigm shift in the Indian political
and administrative system. He wondered how the RTI Act, gifted by the UPA
government, could be used effectively by its opponents and the judiciary to
enforce transparency. Rahul wondered why the system can’t be made more
responsive by eliminating excess bureaucratic intervention. Finance Minister P
Chidambaram revealed that he was initiating action against an official who had
sat on a file for over 50 days. Surprisingly, his powerful presentation on the
economy went over the heads of many, including senior colleagues.
But the participants were riled over the beating that the party and the
government is getting from social media and civil society. Over a dozen
participants, including senior ministers and leaders like Kapil Sibal, Veerappa
Moily, Ashwani kumar, Manish Tewari, Digvijaya Singh, and Jagdish Tytler felt
that the party hasn’t been able to use social media effectively to counter its
opponents. Moily was insistent that the cadres should be instructed to mark
their presence on all social media platforms and make them a political
propaganda vehicle. He revealed that over 30 per cent of the sitting Congress
MPS have won from rich and urban constituencies, where social media is
important. When it comes to discussing the media, most meetings end abruptly
without a consensus. So did the baithak. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was told
to take the copter back ‘before 4.30 pm, since the weather wouldn’t be conducive
afterwards’. He happily flew away, to host another dinner to bring allies like
the Samajawadi Party and the National Conference closer, even if his own party
was not able to close the distance between dialogue and perception.
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