The Congress has repeatedly failed to offer a vision for India while being led by the Gandhi family, especially Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi is primarily focused on criticising Narendra Modi with the belief that people will eventually realise the folly of voting for the BJP and would opt for the Congress. Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi and the Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener, wants to take on the Congress on these crucial issues by outlining an alternative vision for India that Rahul Gandhi categorically lacks.
Kejriwal is not the type of leader who avoids accepting responsibility or outlining his goals for the country. With his expansion spree across the states, he has already sent a message that he is looking for something bigger. Many AAP leaders think that Kejriwal could even run against PM Modi in the lead-in to the 2024 elections. Only time will tell if he’ll directly challenge Modi or team up with other opposition parties, like the Congress. Kejriwal is currently attempting to make it clear that his fight is not just against the BJP but also against the conventional and antiquated ideologies of the Congress.
AAP’s vision for India
Kejriwal and AAP have developed a unique vision for India. The fundamental idea is the development of the education sector. After tasting success in Punjab, AAP is now moving towards states like Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. And in these two states, the party is talking about Kejriwal’s model of governance, which is fundamentally free and fair education, free healthcare, free electricity, free water, et al. While the BJP and the Congress want to label Kejriwal’s model as just freebie politics, the Delhi CM is meticulously developing and presenting this welfare-centric model keeping the development of education as its core value.
Rahul Gandhi’s limitations
Over the years, the Congress has lost its enthusiasm for discussing issues that affect the general public. For instance, the Bharat Jodo Yatra’s central tenet is to discuss issues like economic inequality, social polarisation, and political centralisation. Rahul Gandhi has spoken about unemployment, the poor state of the economy, and other issues, but the party leadership has not offered a counterargument. The UPA-I and II governments came up with a number of ground-breaking and distinctive ideas for governance. For instance, the 100-day work, MGNREGA, and various other issues. The political party that liberalised India’s economy is the Congress. But all these remarkable things were done when non-Gandhi prime ministers were in charge. Rahul Gandhi generally does not praise the works of Prime Ministers like PV Narasimha Rao or even Dr Manmohan Singh.
Policy vacuum
Under the current Congress chief ministers like Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, and Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh, the party has done some great policy works, but Rahul Gandhi never presents examples of such governance. It is pertinent to note that the Congress under Rahul Gandhi does not even talk about the minimum income support programme or NYAY which was its key poll plank during the 2019 general elections.
Kejriwal wants to take this vacuum of lack of vision or idea about governance. And there is no doubt that he is able to successfully present his model of governance in front of the people. The Punjab victory is a shining example of this success.
Mass-movement background
The backgrounds of Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal distinguish their political philosophies most significantly. Rahul Gandhi entered politics due to his family background. But Arvind Kejriwal entered politics through a grassroots mass movement. To put it more plainly, the Bharat Jodo Yatra is the first significant mass movement initiative implemented under Rahul Gandhi’s direction. Arvind Kejriwal, meanwhile, is aware of the significance of large-scale protests. He is skilled at managing campaigns and always likes to turn any political or governance issue into a large-scale movement.
Arvind Kejriwal vs Rahul Gandhi
Arvind Kejriwal is a politician and founder of AAP. His priorities are to expand the party, gain the faith of the people, and conquer power. Rahul Gandhi is a dynast, therefore, his priority is ensuring the best interest of the Gandhi family.
The politics of Arvind Kejriwal is direct. As the chief minister of Delhi, he does not hold any portfolio, but he takes credit for all the good works done by his ministers. For example, deputy CM Manish Sisodia is the education minister, and Delhi’s education development happened under his leadership. However, AAP promotes this as the brainchild of Kejriwal. But at the same time, when the Enforcement Directorate arrested Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, the AAP national convener stood beside him and asked people to have faith in him. He did the same with Sisodia. This is a way of telling the people that Kejriwal is the person who, at the end of the day, is answerable to them. This is taking responsibility.
On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi and the coterie around him are not ready to take responsibility. The Congress has been losing under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi election after election, yet he is still leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra. He is not even interested in fighting an internal election to become the president of the party. In a recently held press conference, he even mentioned that there is no contradiction between his unwillingness to become the president of the party and to lead this march.
Kejriwal knows that to defeat the BJP he will have to become the key face of the opposition. But the other opposition parties are majorly dependent on the Congress, barring a few like the TMC. There is no doubt that any formation to defeat the ruling dispensation cannot happen without the Congress. But Kejriwal loves to take risks. He is projecting his party as a political alternative to the Congress. Only time will tell what resonates well with the people of India.
The author is an independent journalist and columnist based in Kolkata and a former policy research fellow at the Delhi Assembly Research Centre. He tweets as @sayantan_gh. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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