Rafale didn’t fly, NYAY got no public hearing

NEW DELHI: In the end, it could have been Congress’ hammering away at Prime Minister Narendra Modi with allegations of graft in the Rafale deal that led to the undoing of its election campaign.

Only a few months ago, an upbeat Congress had won elections in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh with agrarian crises, price rise and unemployment as the bedrock of its campaign against the incumbent BJP governments.

Come Lok Sabha, however, Congress’ focus appeared to shift, and it seemed that the common man’s concerns were put on the back burner, while the emphasis on corruption in a multi-crore defense deal that few understood and even fewer cared for took centrestage.

For a party that claims pan-India appeal, it remained largely unclear who the Congress sought to represent. It lost connect with the middle and aspirational classes who began to doubt its ability to deliver, as well as with the Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis, who seemed to favour regional forces instead. In the face of BJP’s muscular Hindutva too, Congress seemed to flounder on what it wanted to be.

In a run up to polls in Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhatisgarh, for instance, Congress president Rahul Gandhi wore the Hindu Brahmin tag on his sleeve, hopping from temple to temple, praying at the banks of the Narmada, standing in the Mahakal temple in Ujjain, and scaling Mount Kailash to show the World he was a Shiv Bhakt. He blunted, as a result, BJP’s attack on Congress’ alleged “Muslim love”. Rahul’s temple run in Gujarat even delivered unexpected results, with Congress stopping short of a three-figure finish. The same happened in Karnataka.

The seemingly successful soft-Hindutva model, however, was abandoned in Congress’ Lok Sabha campaign with both Kailash Mansarovar and the Kumbh mela, forgotten in the heat of electioneering. "The main problem with parties that call themselves secular is that they want to fight Hindutva but don't know how to separate

Hinduism

from Hindutva and end up the Hindu sentiment in the process. If Rahul Gandhi must go to a temple, he must go around the year, not only during election season," said, JP Shukla, political analyst.

If its religious pitch was confused, Congress also slipped up on its manifesto promises. Pollsters say it was a snazzy manifesto — perhaps the slickest yet — that the party failed to sell.

Its flagship NYAY scheme, backed by the slogan of ‘Abki Baar Bahattar Hazaar’ to counter BJP’s ‘Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar’, remained a non-starter outside the Lutyens zone in the national capital. In states where agrarian distress was rampant, NYAY meant little more than a confused reference to judicial reforms and an elusive promise of justice. A dipstick test on the extant of NYAY’s reach and success was in Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s own parliamentary constituency, Amethi, which seemed unsure of how NYAY would transform lives.

Rahul Gandhi’s tireless campaign over the three months leading up to Lok Sabha polls also seemed to run in too many different directions. While the Modi-led BJP campaign was focused — harping on nationalism, strong leadership and ensuring last mile delivery of development schemes — the Congress campaign, in contrast, was fragmented, running from NYAY to corrupt governance, attacking ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ and demonetisation, and to targeting Modi government’s weak economic policies, and questioning the Balakot strikes.

Though Rahul’s approach may have appeared earnest, it was no match to Modi’s popularity, and Rahul’s claims of having “demolished Modi’s image”, in hindsight, only sealed the elections in BJP’s favour. "Congress campaign was essentially lacking in coherence. The shifting narrative meant that nothing resonated with people also largely because they did not see the possibility of Congress returning to power or being able to deliver on promises if they cobbled together a rag-rag alliance," said Sanjay Kumar, director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.