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Journalism of Courage
Rahul Gandhi,vice-president of the Congress party,stepped on to the stage to address the Confederation of Indian Industry. It was a significant moment,because it was the first public and high-level engagement in the last nine years or so,for any one of the Congresss top two,with entrepreneurial India. The speech could be faulted on many counts for its hazy abstractions,for the several specifics he did not fill out,for his eliding the fact of the Congress-led governments active role in demoralising business. But what was new about the speech was the acknowledgement that Indias entrepreneurs are its ambassadors,that Indias ascendancy in the world came from the hard work and resourcefulness of its businesses,small and big. You are the cutting edge,he told his audience. They were the problem-solvers,he said,who contend with Indias formidable complexities and create value.
This address to business leaders was a remarkable departure because it could have hewed to a different,more familiar script. Gandhi,who has previously cast himself in the role of the peoples soldier in Delhi,could have again set up a facile opposition between corporate India and the unheard,unhappy poor and suggested that their interests clashed. He could have used the moment to underline that business leaders should be giving back more to a needy society. But instead of lapsing into the familiar taunt or complaint,he acknowledged the role entrepreneurs play: The difference between aspiration and empowerment is a job,and you are the job creators. Obvious as this is,at the CII forum on Thursday,it came as an acknowledgement by a Gandhi that is unprecedented in recent memory.
