Rahul Gandhi Reappears

Back from a mysterious 56-day “sabbatical” abroad, Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Party’s reluctant leader, has seized on a political battle over India’s land legislation and the financial plight of poor farmers as subjects for re-establishing himself as a possibly credible politician.

In the past two days he has made two public appearances – at a public rally in Delhi on Sunday and in parliament yesterday. He has hit headlines with a series of sound bites, but has failed to get to grips with policy issues that stem from the Narendra Modi government’s proposed changes to land acquisition legalization passed by the Congress-led government in 2013.

Gandhi left for unknown destinations on what his party called a “sabbatical” just as the first part of the parliamentary budget session was starting on February 23. He has reappeared, nearly two months later, without any explanation of where he had been or what he was doing, nor any apparent concern for the controversy and speculation that he has caused. He flew in from Bangkok, which suggests he may have been in Myanmar, reportedly one of his regular secret retreats.

Apart from making a self-confident, combative and sometimes jokey speech in parliament, Gandhi has behaved no differently from the past. There is no sign that he has returned with more substance and gravitas from what was billed as a period of political self-examination.

At a large but not very energizing farmers’ rally on Sunday, he played second fiddle to his mother, Sonia Gandhi, who made a more substantial speech. He did his usual quick energetic waves of his hand to people he apparently had spotted in the crowd, flashing his dimpled smile, and fiddled with his mobile phone.

In parliament yesterday as the budget session resumed, he played to the gallery. He taunted what he called Modi’s “suit-boot ki sarkar”, or suited and booted government, pausing on the word suit to show he was referring to the rather ridiculous suit with “Narendra Modi” named pin stripes that the prime minister wore when President Obama visited India in January.

This was only the fourth speech that Gandhi has made in parliament since he became an MP in 2004. The earlier ones (one on nuclear power and two on anti-corruption measures) demonstrated both a lack of parliamentary confidence and the supreme confidence of being heir apparent to the ruling dynasty. Now that the dynasty is no longer ruling, Gandhi seemed to enjoy himself skirting details and making jibes at Modi and the government, for which he drew roars of applause from Congress MPs who enjoyed the theatre.

He accused Modi of rewarding industrialists who had helped to finance last year’s general election campaign with favourable legislation on the land issue and he mocked Modi’s achche din (good times) general election promises. And he dwelt on the current plight of farmers whose crops have been hit by unseasonal heavy rains at harvest time after an earlier poor monsoon. Taken together with falls in prices and reduced government support, this has hit rural incomes and led to a spate of suicides by destitute farmers.

Gandhi used these problems to spice up his speech during a debate on the government’s land legislation, but he failed to tackle the primary issue of how to frame laws and regulations that protect poor people moved from their land for infrastructure and industrial projects, while making sure that the regulations are not so tough that they seriously impede economic development.

The Modi government has drawn up amendments to the last government’s land acquisition legislation that proved far too rigid in terms of prior approvals, including the need for projects to obtain the consent of at least 70 percent of affected owners and pass a social-impact test.

The amendments exempt five types of public sector development from the provisions of the act – defence projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors, and infrastructure projects – which critics understandably say is far too wide-ranging. They passed through the Lok Sabha, where the government has a majority, but have been blocked in the upper house, the Rajya Sabha, which is dominated by Congress and other opposition parties. This has led to the government introducing the amendments through an ordinance, which is now being renewed and was the subject of yesterday’s parliamentary debate.

Congress is using the land legislation to portray the Modi government as an administration that has little concern for the poor and is mainly concerned with helping companies make profits. That is unfair because Modi needs to get the economy moving, but he is developing a crony capitalist image and his egotistical style does nothing to boost his image at home – even though he is a success on his trips abroad.

It is now up to Rahul Gandhi to capitalise on the government’s problems and show that he is a worthy potential successor to his mother who has bound Congress together for over 15 years. She is ready for him to take over her party president’s post, but he has delayed making a decision on this, though he was expected to be anointed maybe this month or later in the year.

While he was away however, Sonia re-emerged as an effective party president, and this led several older party leaders publicly to state that she should remain. Most of them are worried that they will be pushed aside by Rahul in a generational change of top posts, but they also have a valid point since Rahul has not proved himself.

He now needs to appear in public regularly and stop vanishing on unexplained trips (which he has done for years). He also needs to show that he has a grasp of policy issues and can contribute to debates. But above all he needs to turn his charm and public speaking ability into the sort of soundly based political leadership that the party needs if it is to recover from last year’s devastating general election defeat.

John Elliott is Asia Sentinel’s New Delhi correspondent. His blog, Riding the Elephant, appears at the bottom right corner of Asia Sentinel’s home page.