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Journalism of Courage
POLITICAL acumen is about setting the political agenda. Going by this token, the Congress has lost in Gujarat, whatever the outcome of the December 12 election in that state. It has allowed the vituperative eloquence of Narendra Modi and Company to seep into its consciousness and cause it to second-guess its opponent, tread warily, speak in whispers. It has allowed itself to be spooked into submission, into donning elaborate masks and disguises. This is obvious in the public pronouncements of its leaders, in the poll strategies of its candidates, and 8212; most of all 8212; in the election manifesto the party released last week.
As this newspaper had pointed out in its review of that document, the manifesto is remarkably mealy-mouthed about expressing the core-values of the party, its antipathy to the politics of hate, its commitment to a secular society and polity. What is worse, even a cursory attempt to state the right things in the English version of the manifesto is missing from the Gujarati one. It is not the dodge that disturbs as much as the fear inherent in that dodge. This is quite obviously a party that is running scared of Gujarat8217;s voters and believes that the only way to woo them is to pretend to be a gentler, kinder version of the BJP. This approach may have been justified on the grounds of pragmatism. Since the state has been so obviously polarised along lines of religion, or so the argument must have gone, it made sense to woo 8212; by mounting all manner of subterfuge 8212; voters in the majority camp since those in the minority camp are already with you. But such simplistic reasoning does not reckon with the fact that political integrity has invariably been rewarded by the voter. Also, it may be premature to conclude that Gujarat8217;s citizens are unduly enamoured of Modi8217;s brand of hate politics. In any case, even if this was indeed the case, why would they wish to embrace a B-team of the BJP when they can get the real thing?
