Combating the BJP ideologically: Congress needs a clear identity

Since 2001, the WSF has come to represent serious alternatives to capitalist globalisation. Attending it in Mumbai were peaceniks, labour unionists, feminists, refugee-rights defenders, environmentalists, indigenous-rights activists, media-freedom campaigners, Dalit activists, scholars and political workers.

The last category included Left and Centrist leaders from nearly 100 countries. Missing from this category was India's Congress party. True, Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde made a token appearance at the WSF, as did MPs like Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar.

But the Congress as a whole did not relate to the Forum although it was devoted to developing alternatives and building struggles against global hegemony, and solidarity movements to enlarge human freedom and empower the underprivileged.

This lapse on the Congress's part won't shock many. The party rarely holds a dialogue with like-minded people or its own social constituencies like the Dalits or Adivasis. Results of the recent Assembly elections have certainly jolted the Congress into some rethinking. But that is limited to fielding Ms Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra and Mr Rahul Gandhi as campaigners, and reaching out to range of potential allies.

This turn to alliance-building means the Congress is shedding its arrogant claim to being the "natural party of governance" and acquiring great flexibility. It brought the Nationalist Congress Party around from almost joining hands with the BJP to exploring an alliance with itself.

The Congress is also reaching out to major regional parties like the DMK and BSP, and smaller ones like Mr Ram Bilas Paswan's Lok Janashakti (which commands 60,000 to 100,000 Dalit votes in every Bihar constituency). It has kept communication open even with the Samajwadi Party, despite the latter's aversion to a pre-election coalition.

Most important, the Congress has let its potential allies know that Ms Sonia Gandhi won't lead a broad anti-NDA coalition.

Such flexibility, however, isn't reflected in the Congress' continuing obsession with the Nehru-Gandhi brand. It must overcome this obsession and avoid giving the impression that political desperation is driving Ms Priyanka Gandhi into electoral campaigning.

The Congress must not entertain the delusion that the key to winning the next Lok Sabha lies in a combination of smart campaigning, electoral micro-management and coalition-building alone.

These tactical decisions are undoubtedly important. But the real issue is strategic. What does the Congress stand for? What direction will it give to Indian society and politics? How will that improve the lot of the people? How is the Congress's identity superior to the BJP/NDA's?

The Congress has been confused about such strategic issues since the early 1990s, when it came to power in a minority government. The global context then was defined by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the growing sway of market-fundamentalism. Domestic politics was defined by a BJP strengthened by the anti-Babri mobilisation.

The Congress under Mr Narasimha Rao tried to reinvent itself as a Right-of-Centre party, soft on Hindutva, soft on market dogma, soft on Western hegemonism, soft on the IMF. It effectively became the BJP's 'B' team.

This didn't impress the electorate. The people supported the Congress only when it addressed their gut issues. For instance, it did well in the 1998 elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi because it refused to succumb to post-Pokharan chauvinism and concentrated on prices and unemployment.

Wherever the Congress tailed the BJP, as in post-Godhra Gujarat, it performed disastrously. It refused to condemn the Gujarat communal pogrom and fielded Mr Shankarsinh Vaghela, who openly praised the RSS.

The lesson is crystal-clear: the Congress cannot compete with the BJP on its ideological-political terrain. It can rejuvenate itself only as a Left-leaning party which relates to the throbbing, living concerns of flesh-and-blood people.

This Left-leaning characteristic is important because the natural centre of gravity of politics in India's poor and hierarchical society lies to the Left. The BJP's Rightwing politics has little mass-level support: its national vote is under 24 percent and concentrated among urban savarna upper classes. This is nowhere near what the Congress used to command in its years of power.

The Congress must project itself as a party of clearly defined Left-oriented policies. It must spell out where it differs with the BJP on economic deregulation and privatisation. It must oppose the sale of public sector equity to finance the government's profligacy. It must clearly say what it intends to do to revive public services. It must formulate an alternative Budget with a pro-poor thrust.

The Congress must be emphatic in pursuing pro-peace policies with our neighbours. Indeed, it must send a high-powered delegation to Pakistan and Nepal to meet a spectrum of political leaders and people's organisations. It must demand nuclear restraint and an end to the India-Pakistan arms race. It must ask for an end to the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq and a just solution to the Palestinian question.

Domestically, the Congress must promote a dialogue with all sections of Kashmiri opinion, release of political prisoners and return of the Pandits to the Valley. It must commit itself to principled secularism and defence of human rights.

The Congress can take on the NDA which has lost more than half-a-dozen partners in 15 months: National Conference, Rashtriya Lok Dal (Ajit Singh), Lok Janashakti (Paswan), BSP, DMK, PMK and MDMK. It may lose the Asom Gana Parishad and INLD (Chautala) too. It's now looking for singletons like Mr V.C. Shukla and Ms Maneka Gandhi.

The BJP can yet be successfully challenged. But this will have to be a programmatic, policy-based, challenge. Can the Congress mount it?

Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.