The Congress needs a recipe to connect with the masses and revive its fortunes

“Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra has contributed to doing away with his ‘Pappu’ image. By any standards, it was an enormous feat of physical stamina and he stuck to his ideological message right through. It is difficult for his political rivals to call a person who has walked such a long distance as ‘Pappu.’ One can almost hear village elders and others who may be great admirers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi admit, “Chhora chala toh hai.” The fact that the Congress lost the Assembly elections in the Hindi heartland states has more to do with the great structural weaknesses in the party rather than Rahul’s image. Image matters in politics and, therefore, it is essential for Rahul not to convey that ultimately he is a ‘south Delhi’ boy — as the marmalade video does.”

I begin  with an admission. I like orange marmalade a lot ever since I got used to its bittersweet flavor. The New Year’s Eve video of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi making marmalade in their kitchen, obviously from Chinese oranges from their garden, brought back memories of the marmalade made by my late mother-in-law from kinnows and oranges. Well-known foreign brands of Seville orange marmalade could never compare with those made by her. Since there is no possibility that I will ever have the opportunity to spread on a toast the marmalade whose recipe was given by Priyanka Gandhi, I will continue to consider my mother-in-law’s marmalade as the best. Just one more word on marmalade: Rahul calls it a jam. That is a sacrilege of sorts as marmalades are essentially jellies.

Despite all the efforts being made by Opposition parties through the INDIA bloc, it is apparent that the BJP under Modi is ahead in the electoral race.

But the Sonia-Rahul video was much more than mother and son bonding over making marmalade. Anything that they post on social media has a political purpose. Their political adversaries will use the video to emphasize the elitist nature of the family. This is because most Indians would never have heard about marmalade, leave alone tasting it. It is, therefore, intriguing that Sonia and Rahul did not take this into account before posting the video. The fact that Sonia said she could not wait to have ‘arhar ki daal and chawal’ on returning from abroad will not detract from the elitism evident in the video.

It would have been a better communication strategy for the Gandhis to speak about marmalade in Hindi. Perhaps they could have said: “Yeh ek kism ka murabba hai jo ki narangi ya kinnow se banaya ja sakta hai.” And that farmers who grow oranges, kinnows and other suitable citrus fruit can try it out. That would have made the video less baffling to the ordinary Indian. However, there is a more fundamental issue.

Just when it appears that Rahul is making efforts to ‘jodo’ (connect) himself and his ideology with the vast majority of the Indian people, he does something which, howsoever small and inconsequential it may be in the larger scheme of things, degrades his initiative. Thus, in this case, why couldn’t Sonia and Rahul think of making gajar ka halwa, which north Indians, at least, can readily relate to? The carrots may not have been from their garden; nevertheless, that would have sent out a mother-son bonding message. And, if they wanted to do something a little exotic with carrots, they could have made carrot murabba. Surely, Indira Gandhi would have initiated Sonia into the goodness of gajar ka murabba. And they could have also dwelt on the nutritional value of amle ka murabba, which is made in early summer. It would have been best if they had made besan ke laddoo.

Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra has contributed to doing away with his ‘Pappu’ image. By any standards, it was an enormous feat of physical stamina and he stuck to his ideological message right through. It is difficult for his political rivals to call a person who has walked such a long distance as ‘Pappu.’ One can almost hear village elders and others who may be great admirers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi admit, “Chhora chala toh hai.” The fact that the Congress lost the Assembly elections in the Hindi heartland states has more to do with the great structural weaknesses in the party rather than Rahul’s image. Image matters in politics and, therefore, it is essential for Rahul not to convey that ultimately he is a ‘south Delhi’ boy — as the marmalade video does.

As of now, despite all the efforts being made by the Opposition parties through the INDIA bloc, it is apparent that the BJP under Modi is ahead in the electoral race. Modi towers over the entire Opposition’s leaders. Besides, in the Hindi-speaking states and western India, unless some entirely unforeseen development occurs, it is a near certainty that the BJP will be victorious in the Lok Sabha election. The question is whether it will do as well as it did in 2019. It is too early to make that assessment.

The fact is that the fortunes of the Congress cannot be revived unless it is able to make headway in Uttar Pradesh. It lost influence in UP more than three decades ago when its traditional voter base of high-caste Hindus, Scheduled Castes and Muslims abandoned it. Over the years, the Congress organization has become ineffective in the state. The problem is that the Gandhis, in the past two decades, have not focused sufficiently on UP. These two decades have also seen changes in the thinking of the Hindus in the Hindi heartland, including UP. It has moved towards reviving past glory and doing away with what they consider historical injustices. The Congress simply does not know how to respond to these changes with sustained clarity.

Meanwhile, it is clear that the international community anticipates a Modi victory in the General Election. Had that not been so, a major country like France would not have accepted the invite to its President to be the chief guest at the Republic Day event, especially as it was publicly known that India’s first choice was US President Joe Biden. Biden’s presence in India four days after the Ayodhya ceremony would have been a great communication coup for Modi. The BJP would have used it to project Modi’s international profile, in addition to his position as India’s tallest leader. While French President Macron is a significant global leader, he is obviously not in the same league as Biden.

(The author is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India)