Opinion OPINION: Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury

On Sunday, Narendra Modi addressed BJP MPs, exhorting them to better communicate the government’s achievements to the people but mostly directing them to combat the perception or propaganda that it is anti-poor. In a combative speech, the PM emphasised his government’s “pro-poor” initiatives, from housing to financial inclusion. On the same day, Rahul Gandhi addressed a farmers’ rally at Ramlila Maidan, billed as his comeback show after a long sabbatical, and accused the government of batting for big industry and against the interests of farmers and the poor. Also on Sunday, Sitaram Yechury was appointed CPM general secretary, inaugurating a new chapter in the party’s career at a time when the official Left’s credibility in politically and electorally anchoring the Left agenda is severely under question. The three events are connected, it is possible to join the dots.

Certainly, neither the politics nor the rhetoric of “rich versus poor” is new in India. But on Sunday, the war of the speeches between Modi and Rahul framed the new attempt in the political mainstream to draw an old faultline, while Yechury’s anointment promises to make the fight more lively. To an extent, the AAP’s recent victory in Delhi also drew on a renewed mobilisation of the class divide. But now, ironically amid government programmes promoting financial inclusion and better targeting of subsidies, this is sought to be done at the national level, with the land acquisition issue as centrepiece and trigger. This could be viewed as setting the stage for a delayed political and ideological conflict to play out — the economic liberalisation set in motion in the 1990s was mostly promoted in stealth by its proponents while its opponents have remained fragmented and unimaginative. So could this be the moment for the long-delayed debate on the economic direction — that has been averted so far, earlier by the upswing in the global and Indian economies and then by the scams and scandals that set up corruption as the larger issue — to get its due?

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Not really. In the way it is being framed, the debate promises or threatens to go back in time, trade on populist oppositions that, on the ground, are no longer neat and tidy. It could also lead to distorted portrayals of the choices and trade-offs, and disincentivise and endanger hard-won reforms. Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to draw the line as one that divides the farmers/ poor from the industry, for instance, is not only contrived but also vaults over the burgeoning middle classes — a recognition of the aspirational middle had led to the Congress replacing “gareeb” with the “aam aadmi” in its slogan, but now that enlargement of approach is at risk of a reversal. For Modi, Rahul and Yechury, the challenge will be to talk about the rich and the poor while remaining sensitive to the complexity of constantly evolving ground realities that blur the old cleavages while creating new bridges and possibilities.