It’s not 1992

When Rahul Gandhi speaks amid the political thicket of Uttar Pradesh, it seems befitting, and not at all because he is a Nehru-Gandhi. For too long, India’s politics has been dominated by the same set of people and agendas. These columns have argued for a gracious handing over to the young, or at least more space for the young politician in the decision-making echelons, in every party. That Rahul Gandhi has now been entrusted with a key role in the Congress’s campaign for a crucial state is a heartening development. But having said that, there’s disappointment too, at the young leader’s political articulation in UP. We celebrate the young politician not merely because he or she is young. Politics, we say, must be opened up to those who have not yet graduated to dotage because in that lies a little hope and some possibilities — of a forward-looking political programme, educated about the past but one that shrugs away its closures. Rahul Gandhi’s statements harking back to the tragic demolition of the Babri Masjid more than a decade ago don’t live up to this standard.

There are at least two reasons why. One, even if the Congress wants to win back the Muslim vote in UP, revisiting old resentments is not the way to do it. Nobody can deny that there has been a communication gap between the party and the community since that longago time when the community voted for the party en bloc. But it is also true that politics in UP may be ready to take a new turn. The political polarisation of the nineties has touched its limits and all players are reaching out to broader constituencies. For the Congress in particular, there have been stray signs of a revival at the end of the nineties in UP. But it cannot profit from those stirrings by turning back the clock.

Which brings us to the second reason. The only way forward for the Congress is to talk and practice a new political agenda in UP — a mainstream agenda. This agenda must present an alternative programme of governance. Translated into vote politics, this means Rahul Gandhi should be telling UP voters how the Congress can do what — as the party sees it — Mulayam Singh Yadav hasn’t been able to. Telling voters what the Congress could have done had the party not had a certain prime minister 15 years back is no substitute. Incidentally, it also opens a lot of cans and the worms take a lot of political energy to deal with. This is utterly wasted energy. Congress political strategists should know they can’t afford to waste their energy in UP.