Opinion: Monsoon wrap - Caste is back, Rahul Gandhi yet to arrive

With just three days to go before the last Monsoon Session of NDA rule gets over, it is hard to decisively say who has emerged as the winner. Early on in the session, on July 20, Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s hug had caused a disruption in public discourse, which had allowed him to hog media headlines and attention on social media. In fact, leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi and JD(S)’s H Vishwanath continue to talk about it.

However, it’s difficult to say if that hug has achieved what it was meant to. Rahul Gandhi himself scuttled this one act of political astuteness by winking to a colleague, soon after he returned to his seat from the PM’s chair. And, herein lies a key concern for the Congress - Rahul is prone to scoring own goals.

His image as a carefree dynast who dotes over his dog does not do much to endear him to India’s common people. It has to be said though that Rahul’s public perception is largely created and sustained by ceaseless and organised trolling, which the Gandhi scion himself referred to in his speech. Acknowledging that he is called unflattering names like ‘Pappu’ by a wide section of people (not just by BJP supporters), Rahul sounded sincere and serious. It was a genuine moment of reflection by a public leader who wants to pit ‘love’ against ‘hate’, and ‘tolerance’ against aggression. And even with the wink, he has been able to affect a slight change in his public image. For one, in the absence of leaders like Mamata Bannerjee and Mayawati, Rahul has been able to emerge as one of the prime challengers to the government inside Parliament.

But, the Congress knows very well that this is not enough. Rahul’s image is not changing fast enough, and with the possibility of early -snap elections still real, it is the Rahul-factor that is giving the grand old party’s leaders sleepless nights.

For the Congress to survive, Rahul’s makeover needs to be completed ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. Along with him and Congress, on trial in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, will be the entire Opposition’s chances of posing a serious challenge to the BJP in 2019 General Elections. In these states, the Congress’s state units are yet to fully resolve their internal differences. In MP Congress’s position has weakened in the wake of a slew of sops announced by the Shivraj Singh Chauahan led BJP government. In Chattisgarh, the state unit looks insipid in the absence of a single credible leader.

In Rajasthan, state Congress president Sachin Pilot and former Chief Minister Ashok Gahlot have so far managed to strike a picture of ‘all is well’. But will this façade hold as election draws nearer is anybody’s guess.

Several Caste-related bills cleared

The Monsoon Session had begun with a No-Trust vote against the government, but it is ending with parties reaffirming that in the next elections, once again caste will be a major decider of political fortunes.

Congress, which still wields considerable veto power in the Rajya Sabha allowed the passage of the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, which is also known as the OBC Bill. It also assented to the Bill to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), a pet project of the BJP.

Under pressure from its own dalit groups as well as parties like the BSP and Congress, the BJP-majority Lok Sabha finally passed the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment bill, 2018. The Bill overturns an order by the Supreme Court that had included certain safeguards against arrest under this law.

Congressleader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, was quick to apportion credit for the amendment by saying, "In recent times, the government has brought as many six Ordinances, they could have brought the 7th Ordinance as well. If there was no public pressure, then the government would not have brought this bill”.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)