Priyanka In Parliament: She Faces Some Real Challenges

Unemployment, rising prices, and a declining agricultural sector have become unmanageable. Priyanka has to contribute to the articulation of the policy of the Congress party on these issues

After spending much of her political career cultivating family constituencies in Raebareli and Amethi and trying to revive Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi finally entered Parliament. In a depressing political scenario following a crushing defeat in the stronghold of Maharashtra, her arrival on the parliamentary stage will provide emotional stability to the Congress. With the party irrelevant in Maharashtra, the Congress is unlikely to pose any challenge to Modi at the Centre. The party needs to at least show some kind of imperviousness towards these setbacks. Priyanka’s winning Wayanad with an increased vote share of the Congress and entering Parliament will undoubtedly boost the morale of the demoralised party workers. The leadership has to cope with many challenges.

She seemed to be satisfied with her supportive role and managerial assignments and patiently performed them. Now she has decided to take the role of a full-scale politician. Even during her stint as the general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, she hardly showed much inclination towards power politics. She also carefully kept herself out of the power struggle within the party and the alliance. She might have influenced decisions on vital organisational appointments in the party; she still avoided becoming a power centre in the party. Now she has to make a choice of staying out of the power struggle or becoming a power centre.

However, the discourse, most of which is intended to divert the people’s attention away from real concerns, is mainly sponsored by the puppet media.

How media views things could be gauged by newspaper and TV headlines. None, perhaps, has missed the point that now all the members of the Gandhi family are in Parliament. The entire media has highlighted the dynastic aspect of Priyanka’s election to the Lok Sabha. This is clearly a BJP influence. The party never lets any opportunity go that could be used to prove the dynastic character of the Congress. How the RSS and the BJP have been hypocritical in their behaviour could be seen in the just-concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections. The party gave a ticket to one of the two sons of former Chief Minister Narayan Rane from a seat in Konkan. The party accommodated his other son by ensuring a ticket from Shiv Sena, an ally. Rane is already an MP. Many other examples are there where the party has given preference to family connections? The rhetoric on dynastic politics has been putting pressure on the Congress since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru. Socialist leader Dr Rammanohar Lohia attacked Nehru and later Indira Gandhi for their family affiliations and accused them of establishing dynastic politics in India. Since then, Socialists have been in the forefront in targeting the Congress for what they call slavery to a dynasty. However, most of what remained of socialist politics in the country is governed and ruled by dynasties. This is the case with other parties too, be it Trinamool Congress, DMK, NCP, Shiv Sena, or BJD. Priyanka, Rahul, and Sonia together in Parliament would, of course, invite attacks from the BJP and its supporters for coming from the same family. Does it matter anymore? The RSS itself claims to be a family and runs the politics of the BJP. How is it different whether the family is cultural or biological? The saffron organisation takes pride in being part of a big Hindu family. Congress should not be defensive in dealing with these attacks, many of which are vulgar.

Priyanka’s entry into Parliament needs to be celebrated due to other reasons as well. She has entered it at an important juncture of Indian politics when communalism occupies a big space in parliamentary politics in the country, and failed institutions show no sign of recovery. The crony capitalism shows no sign of retreat. Unemployment, rising prices, and a declining agricultural sector have become unmanageable. Priyanka has to contribute to the articulation of the policy of the Congress party on these issues. In her political past, in political activities, she has shown her mettle in articulating issues of the common man. Despite her party having minimal influence over the state politics, she effectively intervened on behalf of the victims. Though electorally it did not pay much, her efforts were able to spark enough resistance to embarrass the authorities. Her intervention in the Hathras rape scandal and the Lakhimpur Kheri murders of farmers were notable events in her political career.

When reservations for women in Parliament and state assemblies will soon be a reality, Priyanka’s role becomes all the more important. Her slogan, “Ladki hoon Lad Sakati Hoon (We Are Women, We Will Fight),” might have failed to impact elections, but it was bold and inspiring. In a province like Uttar Pradesh, such slogans are ahead of their times. The state that is ruled by a priest who invokes his adherence to Hindutva every other day and takes pride in opposing progressive ideas, she risks being termed a feminist. A close look at the politics of the BJP reveals that all its welfare programs targeting women promote the theme of a woman who has to work for the family. Prime Minister Modi’s Ujjawlaa Scheme, Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s Ladali Behana in Madhya Pradesh, and more recently the Ladaki Behana Scheme in Maharashtra conform to the theme of patriarchy.

Priyanka has the challenge to counter patriarchy in all its forms and take women along with her. It is not as simple as it appears to be. In a communal environment when women are being mobilised for campaigns against minorities, it is challenging to inspire them to fight for their identity and larger social goods. The BJP could not accommodate a leader like Sushma Swaraj beyond a point. But the Congress promoted leaders like Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Now Priyanka is its choice. It needs to be welcomed.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)