The Congress probably still clings to this myth, serial electoral reverses notwithstanding, that there is this magic wand called pro-people policies constructed in Delhi that is admired by voters across the country and that the party will benefit. To begin with, and as these columns have observed, politics is going local and the absence of strong state-level leaders and agendas cannot be compensated by big-ticket Central policies. Indeed, Central policies that work may be politically appropriated by effective state-level leaders. The rural jobs scheme that the Congress authored at the Centre can be a good example. Some of the states where the scheme is working well are not Congress-ruled. Come voting time, will beneficiaries remember that it was the Centre, and not the state chief minister, who is the immediate political interlocutor and associated with the scheme, that should be given the credit? But at least the jobs guarantee scheme had engendered some positives on the ground. What about the Congress’s other big policies?The farm loan waiver scheme will be implemented over the next few months. The economic impact — as happened after earlier waiver schemes, this loan write-off will produce a perverse politico-economic outcome, reducing credit to smaller agricultural producers — may be ignored by the Congress but the party needs to seriously reconsider whether the rural vote will get strongly influenced by the time the next round of state elections and the general election are due. The relationship between populism and election victory is far less clear than politicians think. In general, populist giveaways, in the absence of supporting electoral forces, are not attractive political investments. The Congress’s education policy, public sector policy, its policy on land for industry, or that on the retail sector, have all been populist. Are these all supposed to be major vote winners? Why doesn’t the Congress ask itself this question?Another related question: why didn’t the Congress push big programmes that produced genuine benefits and then fight to take political credit? The fight, for reasons mentioned earlier, would have been difficult, but there would have been something to fight about. The roads programme is an excellent example. Whoever is at fault, the fact is that the programme lost momentum under the Congress. And airport reform has been reclaimed by the Airports Authority of India. Blistering economic growth had created opportunities for the Congress to rework policy. But a false political construct made the party almost ashamed of good economic growth. Now growth is faltering but the aam aadmi remains unimpressed with the Congress even when the Sensex tanks. The Congress should start giving people a little more credit.
