Anand Kochukudy
Delhi witnessed one of its largest funerals on July 21st as its citizens came out in droves to bid adieu to their former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who passed away at the age of 81. One could see people from all walks of life braving pouring rain at the cremation ground in Nigambodh Ghat in what was perhaps a fitting tribute to the three-time CM instrumental in transforming the face of the national capital.
For a beleaguered Congress looking for inspiration to come back to reckoning in national politics, Dikshit’s three terms in power might offer a clue. Her first term in 1998, barely three months after being appointed the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, is mainly attributed to the onion price shock witnessed that season. Nevertheless, Dikshit proved to be a hands-on CM during her first term when Delhi was used to massive power outages, killer Blueline buses, water shortages and a creaking city infrastructure.
Recently, Pawan Khera, Dikshit’s political secretary/OSD for three terms, wrote how she would instruct telephone operators at her home to relay every call to her at any hour as people fed up with power outages would ring up the CM’s house to complain.
From privatising a corrupt Delhi Vidyut Board making way for private companies to getting the entire transport fleet to move to CNG, to the rolling out of the Delhi Metro, she Dikshit oversaw massive development activities during her first term.
Simultaneously, Dikshit also began an initiative to promote civic participation in local governance by conceiving the Bhagidari scheme, a direct interface with her citizens through Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs). These initiatives helped her come back to power in 2003 with a renewed mandate when the Congress lost elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Dikshit’s grip on Delhi only got stronger as the election result in 2008 proved. Even the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attempt to politicise the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and former finance minister Arun Jaitley’s turn as the campaign manager didn’t work as people stuck by the tried-and-tested Dikshit.
While the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre took a pronounced left turn with a rights-based agenda after ushering in reforms in the previous decade, Dikshit catered to the aspirational middle-class in the national capital by fixing pressing issues such as ‘Bijli, Sadak and Paani’. Despite being a close confidante of Sonia Gandhi, Dikshit wasn’t influenced by the welfare-driven National Advisory Council (NAC) led by Gandhi.
Dikshit’s three terms have lessons for the struggling Congress. She successfully bucked anti-incumbency because she managed to serve her middle class electorate with a hands-on approach and problem-solving skills. There was no pandering to the Left or the Right or cultivation of vote banks — instead, she did what was expected of her by working hard and providing an efficient government responsive to the citizenry.
With India gradually becoming a middle-income country with an aspirational middle class, the Congress still appears to be in a time warp when it comes to formulating economic policies. Therein lies a huge opportunity for the Congress to turn around its listless performance at the hustings in 2019.
Swapan Dasgupta in his book Awakening Bharat Mata: The Political Beliefs of the Indian Right, writes how Prime Minister Narendra Modi adapted to the shock defeats in Delhi and Bihar in 2015 (along with the opposition to the Land Acquisition Bill and Rahul Gandhi’s “Suit-boot” jibe) and refashioned his economic agenda by chucking the “minimum government maximum governance” reform mantra to a more welfare oriented one to reach out to the untapped sections of the electorate. The effect of such an adaptation was witnessed in a slew of election victories that followed culminating in the general elections.
To counter this strategy, the Congress should remodel its economic agenda to a more market-driven Centre-Right one while remaining steadfast to its liberal principles socially to give an alternative to the BJP’s all-inclusive economic agenda complimenting its Right-wing Hindu Nationalist outlook. In fact, it was the Congress that ushered in reforms in 1991 and it is up to them to embrace that legacy and move on with the times than make election promises in 2019 that hark back to the 1971 slogan “Garibi Hatao”.
Except that the Congress, after many leaders lost in the general elections and Rahul Gandhi’s resignation as party President, seems to be shifting further to the Left while setting an economic agenda and aping the BJP in its cultural and social outlook by adopting a soft-Hindutva stance is the way forward. That would only prove to be a suicidal approach at a time when people want a genuine political alternative to the BJP, not a BJP lite.
It would be the perfect tribute to a stalwart liberal democrat such as Sheila Dikshit if the Congress were to chuck its socialist politics and deficit-spending economics, and adopt a more Centre-Right economic paradigm to counter the BJP’s Hindu majoritarian agenda while remaining staunch defenders of liberalism and pluralism.
Anand Kochukudy is a political commentator and editor, The Kochi Post. Views are personal.
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