On the defensive

Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi with son Rahul Gandhi (left) and daughter Priyanka Vadra (right) in Rae Bareli on April 6. - EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP

The Congress(I) campaign tends to be defensive as the ruling coalition keeps harping on Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, even though such attacks seem to have had little impact on the voter.

"WE are damned if we do, and we are damned if we don't." This exasperated reaction from senior Congress(I) leader Jairam Ramesh explains the party's dilemma in the ongoing electoral battle. As the campaign progresses, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), especially the Bharatiya Janata Party, is increasingly jettisoning issues of development and gradually concentrating on Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin.

The Bofors issue, which has been resurrected, has proved handy in highlighting Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. Says the BJP's master-strategist Arun Jaitley: "If the mere presence of a foreigner in the Prime Minister's residence could cause a scandal of the magnitude of Bofors, imagine what it could be if a foreigner becomes the Prime Minister."

As the polling date approaches, the BJP has ensured that all discussions begin and end with the foreign origin issue. And Congressmen have been forced on the backfoot. Once the issues of Bofors and Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin are raised, the NDA government's failures - its unedifying record of corruption scandals, its dismal performance in the agriculture and social services sectors, its indifference to the problem of growing unemployment, its callous disregard towards farmers' suicides, its apathy to the sufferings of common people - recede into the background. The only thing that catches the media's attention is the response of the Congress(I) to the BJP's attacks on Sonia Gandhi.

The Congress(I)'s calculations of taking on the NDA on the basis of the latter's dismal performance and cashing in on the anti-incumbency factor are being frustrated by the way in which the BJP has changed the course of political discourse. Says Jairam Ramesh: "But what is the option before us? We can either ignore the issue totally or take it head-on. We have opted for the latter. The problem is that even if we make a passing reference to these issues, the media picks up only that and ignores the rest. It is not that we are not highlighting issues concerning people's lives, but you people (the media) do not report it." Addressing a conference of party workers after filing her nomination papers in Rae Bareli on April 6, Sonia Gandhi dwelt at length on the failures of the NDA government and how the BJP was trying to divide society on caste, community and religious lines. The crowd response was feeble at best. However, when she talked about her "family's ties" with Rae Bareli and how the Nehru-Gandhi family had braved "personal attacks" to "uphold values", slogans such as "Sonia, tum sangharsh karo, hum tumharey saath hain," (Sonia, we are with you in your struggle onward) rent the air.

At the public meeting addressed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani in Lucknow a day before Sonia's meeting in Rae Bareli, it became clear that even senior leaders of the BJP were willing to skip real issues in favour of a personalised campaign. Vajpayee had received Advani who reached Lucknow in the course of his Bharat Uday Yatra. The thrust of the speeches of both the leaders was Vajpayee's persona and how his presence had transformed India. While State-level leaders such as Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh attacked Sonia Gandhi directly on the foreign origin issue, Advani was more discreet. Rajnath Singh said Sonia had humiliated Indians by claiming falsely of having secured majority support in 1999. "Ek videshi mahila ko pradhanmantri kabhi nahin banane denge," (We will never allow a foreigner to become Prime Minister) he said. Advani did not name Sonia but kept reiterating how there was nobody who could match the "towering personality" of Vajpayee in the race for Prime Ministership. The Prime Minister ridiculed Sonia on the no-confidence motion speech in which she described the NDA government's claims of prosperity as "Mungerilal ke haseen sapne" (Mungerilal's sweet dreams). The BJP's second-rung leaders such as Pramod Mahajan have not spared even Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra, suggesting that "only those who are born of mothers of Indian origin can become the Prime Minister".

For days on end, the BJP's media briefings focussed on Sonia's alleged involvement in the Bofors scandal and her "eloquent silence" on the issue. BJP leaders seem to have forgotten that it is they who have been in power for the past six years and consequently responsible for any laxity in the Bofors investigation. The Congress(I) joined issue with the BJP by asking Vajpayee three questions: Why could the government not extradite Ottavio Quatrocchi from Malaysia, a country India bent over backwards to please during NDA rule? Why did Vajpayee, as leader of the Opposition, write to the then Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, pleading on behalf of the Hinduja brothers? Why did he reverse his own position on the Indo-Oman urea joint venture after becoming Prime Minister?

But has the BJP succeeded in turning the battle into a Sonia versus Vajpayee affair? Not quite, if people's reactions are a pointer. As far as BJP supporters are concerned, Vajpayee's persona is the key motivating factor and any number of charge-sheets against the NDA government are insufficient to dissuade them. But, for the rest of the voters, the issues range from caste equations to local issues. As this correspondent followed the Sonia-Rahul cavalcade from Lucknow to Amethi and Rae Bareli on April 5 and 6, people echoed similar views. "How does it make a difference whether Sonia is from Italy? The fact is that she chose to wed in India and has displayed more Indianness than an average Indian woman. Look how she totally kept herself out of politics for so many years after Rajiv's death," said one.

In Uttar Pradesh, where it seems the Vajpayee versus Sonia factor would override everything else, caste and party affiliations dominate all other considerations. In Barabanki constituency, which is sandwiched between Rae Bareli and Amethi on one side and Lucknow on the other, people said they preferred to vote along caste lines. A Yadav would proudly announce that he would vote for a member of his caste. If two or more parties field candidates from the same caste the party becomes the criterion. By and large, Brahmins preferred the BJP and Dalits the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The candidate's local standing seemed to be the next consideration. People who claimed to be "khandaani Congresswallas" vowed to vote for the Congress(I). For example, Ram Lakhan, a Dalit from the Trivediganj kasba of the Barabanki constituency, has always voted for the Congress(I) and has no intention of shifting loyalties.

For euphoric supporters of the Congress(I), who swamped the roads to welcome Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka in Amethi and Rae Bareli, nothing could be more ridiculous than describing the three as foreigners. "Once a woman marries, she belongs to the land of her marriage. The BJP leaders, who keep talking of Indian culture all the time, should know this much at least," said a woman in Rae Bareli, visibly upset at Sonia being termed a foreigner. Even in east Varanasi, where the Congress(I) has no base, the Vajpayee vs Sonia debate has failed to catch people's imagination. It is local problems such as power shortage, bad roads and poor civic infrastructure that matter. Disappointed with the performance of the sitting MP and BJP nominee S.P. Jaiswal, they feel that the Congress(I) candidate, Rajesh Mishra is a better choice because "he is more accessible, more dynamic" and more likely to raise their problems. Mishra has been talking of solving the problems of the weavers of the famous Benarasi saris. The weavers feel that the BJP has done nothing to ameliorate their problems all these years.

However, the programmes and policies of the NDA and the Congress(I) as revealed in their manifestos are strikingly similar. Congress(I) leaders disagree: "We have been criticising the anti-people policies of the NDA government since the AICC [All India Congress Committee (I)] plenary session in March 2001. The difference between their policies and ours is in the fact that their policies benefit only some people, some parties, and ours are for all," said Jairam Ramesh. Emphasising the same point, Sonia Gandhi told party workers in Rae Bareli: "The government should not work for the benefit of only some people. I am surprised when Vajpayeeji says everybody is happy. Perhaps he does not know of the problems of women grappling with high prices, of unemployed youth, of the sufferings of khet mazdoor [farm labourers]."

Said former Prime Minister V.P. Singh: "The foreign origin issue is directly related to the aspect of birth, like that of religion or caste, and it cannot be disputed, challenged or argued about. It suits the BJP to keep up such issues because it then manages to divert attention from real issues, which could get it negative points." According to him, one reason why the BJP has been resorting to politics of "birth" for the last one decade or so is "because it is emotive and appeals to the heart to the obliteration of everything else." But whether the one-point campaign benefits the BJP or will simply backfire, remains to be seen.