Power centers in the corridors of power, Extra Con

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<!--emo&:ind--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /><!--endemo--> Congress ke paas apna kuch nahin hai, they say, as they all line up to watch Rahulji
<b>MANINI CHATTERJEE</b> Posted online: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email
MUZAFFARNAGAR, KHURJA, APRIL 9: Purely in terms of a visual experience, the spectacle is guaranteed to warm even the most despairing Congress heart. Men of all ages rush madly to catch a glimpse, women jostle with one another from the balconies of every house that lines the street, and rural boys and urban girls eagerly reach out for a handshake they will talk about for the rest of their lives.

Yes, Rahul Gandhi — interspersing his chopper rides with road shows in kasbas and interior villages of western Uttar Pradesh over the last two days — definitely has star appeal. And if body language is anything to go by, he has certainly come a long way since his first hesitant foray into public life exactly three years ago during the Lok Sabha elections in UP.

Sitting comfortably atop the carrier of his SUV (Captain Satish Sharma always at the wheel), Rahul reaches out to grasp a hand thrust his way, throw back garlands at the children running alongside, and smile and wave incessantly at the thronging crowds. Mesmerised by the sight of their leader being feted as though he were a 16th century Mughal prince or a 21st century film star (or both), Congress workers now believe that the party could win around 60 to 70 seats — and all thanks to “Rahulji”.

But if you stand a little away from the throng, or arrive earlier than Rahul and leave after his chopper has taken off, you soon discover that the reality is not quite as rosy. Sure, Rahul’s drawing enthusiastic crowds. But except where the Congress has a strong local contender, his meetings — like a summer shower — leave no lasting impact and are unlikely to change the fortunes of the Congress this time around. And there is no dearth of voices to explain just why.

At Meenakshi Chowk in Muzaffarnagar, a large group of Congress workers, waiting patiently in the sweltering sun for Rahul to arrive, start out insisting that the Congress candidate and former MP Saeeduzaman will win this time. But as the sun gets hotter and the wait begins to get tedious, some of them confess that it’s a tough call. Mohammad Taslim, a bystander, makes it clear that the crowds to greet Rahul should not be mistaken for voters. “He is a famous young man from a famous family. But the fight here is between the SP and the BJP,” he says, adding, “Tell me, why should Muslims vote for the Congress when it does not have any base vote of its own?”

It makes much more sense to vote for SP candidate Chittaranjan Swarup who will get his own caste’s vote plus the Muslim vote.

Zaheer Alam, the soft-spoken and erudite qazi of Muzaffarnagar, is a veteran Congressman of the old school. But he too admits that although the Congress candidate commands much respect of the community, most Muslims do not want to “waste” their vote.

In neighbouring Baghra, the Congress has a relatively strong Jat candidate, Pankaj Malik, and in the adjoining Khatauli seat, the Congress is backing Mahendra Singh Tikait’s son Rakesh Tikait. As Rahul’s chopper lands in Baghra on Sunday evening (from where he embarks on a road show to Tikait’s native village Sisouli), we catch up with an old wizened man who is running towards the helipad.

Does he know which leader is arriving, we ask. No, he replies hesitantly, but he knows it is a Congress leader. And who does he plan to vote for? Without thinking for a nanosecond, he replies: “Mayawati.”

It’s an answer that would not surprise old Congressmen in the region. Devendra Singh Thakur, once a prominent local leader in the Muzaffarnanagar district, says the best thing the Congress did was not ally with Ajit Singh. “But Rahul made a big mistake by joining hands with Tikait because the Jats are still the biggest oppressors in this region. Congress has already lost Dalits. It should now focus on the most backward castes. In western UP, Congress can revive only on the basis of anti-Jat politics,” he insists.

That may be tied to local politics, but the one recurring complaint — whether in the Muzaffarnagar sugarcane belt yesterday or in the towns of Dadri and Khurja where he received a splendid reception today — is that “Congress ke paas apna kuch nahin hai.” (Congress does not have anything of its own.)

Unlike the reigning wisdom in political circles in Delhi which attributes the Congress decline to organisational decay, the more earthy voices we hear blame it on the Congress’s outdated “umbrella” politics. Congress is still caught in the old mould of patronage politics, offering all things to all people, and has been unable to understand — leave alone contend — the post-Mandal politics of empowerment that has taken its place.

That is why Rahul Gandhi’s standard speech — extolling the virtues of the old Uttar Pradesh and bemoaning the “politics of divisions” over the last 15 years — is cutting little ice. “For many people, particularly the Jatavs, things are much better today than they were 15 years ago. Then they could not even meet us in the eye, now we dare not speak against them,” points out Tarseram Gujjar, a businessman in Sikandrabad.

At the end of two days, one thing becomes clear. There is no hostility to the Congress anymore and there is a certain goodwill for “Indira Gandhi’s grandson” in many pockets of UP.

But neither nostalgia nor charisma are quite enough to change the Congress’s fortunes in a polarised polity.