(Siddharth Varadarajan is a senior journalist and analyst.)
Politics in India got a little bit more exciting on Sunday with the Congress's leadership declaring war on the Narendra Modi government over the Land Acquisition ordinance, the Prime Minister betraying his anxiety for the first time by delivering a defensive speech full of praise for himself, but dripping with bile towards the media for not adequately propagating his achievements, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) electing a dynamic new General Secretary, Sitaram Yechury.
Modi's speech to BJP parliamentarians covered the usual ground - our government is doing more for the poor than any previous government in the past sixty years - and was intended as a morale booster for his flock. But one sensed the barrel was being scraped when he also took credit for convincing the world, and especially countries like France and Canada, to offer India nuclear reactor technology and uranium. Are memories really that short in politics? BJP MPs clapped when he made that astonishing claim, even though dozens among them had voted against Manmohan Singh in 2008 when the actual deal that opened the doors for nuclear commerce with countries like France and Canada was being negotiated. The nuclear cooperation agreement with France was signed by Manmohan Singh in 2010. The agreement between Areva and Larsen & Toubro that Modi witnessed when he was in Paris last week is at best an appendage to that.
He took direct and indirect potshots at the media despite the fact that he has been treated with kid gloves so far. His praise for VK Singh for overseeing the Yemen evacuation of Indians will further embolden the former Army chief in his intemperate attitude towards journalists. While the Ministry of External Affairs, its two ministers, the Indian Navy and Air India deserve praise for the Yemen operation, Modi need not have pretended as if this was the first time India had moved to evacuate its citizens from a war zone. In 2006, Indians were rescued from Beirut, while in 1990, the Chandra Shekhar government's effort to rescue Indians from Kuwait following the Iraqi invasion of the Gulf state turned into the largest air evacuation in history.
At a time when farmers and the rural poor across India are beginning to feel under siege, it is natural for Modi to feel his political advantage slowly slipping away. What he doesn't want to admit is that the anxiety of farmers is the product of objective circumstances, and not political propaganda or media misrepresentation. Apart from unremunerative procurement prices for wheat, rice and cotton, the damage to crops because of unseasonal rain, the reduction of urea imports during the 2014 winter sowing season, and the dilution of adivasi rights to the forests, farmers and farm workers are now worried about the Land Acquisition ordinance.
For the second time in two weeks, Modi used his speech to put some distance between his government and Mukesh Ambani, the businessman whose name is a lightning rod for public anger over the government's pro-corporate biases. However, it is evident that the land ordinance is being brought in to make it easier for businessmen like Ambani to acquire farmland, and more difficult for farmers to resist their takeover.
While the Modi government is vulnerable to a political movement built around the issue of land and rural distress, it is not certain how effectively the Congress will be able to take advantage of this. The man billed as its future leader, Rahul Gandhi, took an unexplained leave of absence just when the issue was hotting up. Sunday's rally was timed for his return but the speech he delivered, though clever in parts, meandered and lacked the linearity and emotional appeal of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's own remarks. His anecdotes seemed disconnected, and the point he was trying to make, especially about the Australian diamond mine, was totally unclear. His repeated use of the English word 'bill' to describe the Land Acquisition law passed by the Manmohan Singh government was awkward. Despite reading from a written speech, Sonia Gandhi established a greater connect with rural India than Rahul Gandhi's extempore performance. Where he spoke loosely of the fears of 'kisan aur mazdoor', (suggesting, therefore, that he would also talk about industrial and mine workers), she used the correct phrase 'khet mazdoor', or farm workers. She mentioned the crop damage due to unseasonal rain. And she also had the political sense to thank the farmers who had come for the rally, taking time off from the busy harvest season.
The biggest mistake Rahul committed was to dwell at length about how the Congress-led UPA government was better than Modi's. While several commendable initiatives were taken during the time - eg. NREGA and the farm debt waiver - the Manmohan Singh years were not a golden period for the Indian peasant. In any case, when the Congress stood on that record and lost in 2014, there is little sense in trying to fight those battles all over again. Just as Modi needs to realize his government cannot guarantee its political future on the basis of merely running down the past, Rahul Gandhi must understand that praising the past will not get the Congress anywhere.
Curiously, neither Rahul nor Sonia presented a political roadmap for where the Congress's opposition to the land ordinance would go from here. Nevertheless, the fact that they held the rally in the first place means that the party intends to fight things out.
Who will front this battle? If Sonia Gandhi's performance was not that of a leader on the verge of retiring from active politics, Rahul Gandhi's speech suggests he still has some distance to go before the reins of the Congress will be safe in his hands.
Politics is a bloodsport and not a hobby or indulgence. Modi takes no sabbaticals. Even when he is abroad on official business, he believes in fighting his party's opponents. The coming parliamentary session will be a test of how serious the Congress heir apparent is about embracing the burdens of leadership.
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