Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday gave a personal “guarantee” to the people of Bihar that the RJD-Congress-Left coalition government would look after the interests of every section of the society, countering the BJP-JDU combine’s desperate attempt to revive the memories of excesses committed by the Yadavs against the so-called upper castes during Lalu Prasad’s regime.
Addressing rallies in West Champaran and Darbhanga, Rahul said, “I have come here to give you a guarantee that our government will be a government of every caste, every religion, every region, every district. Our government will work for education, healthcare, jobs and women’s safety. This election is not about the family of Tejashwi or mine. That talk is rubbish. This election is about the future of people of Bihar.”
While there is a realisation among the coalition partners that Tejashwi’s job-centric discourse had set the agenda of the election, placing the incumbent government on the defensive, the strong push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Nitish Kumar to revive the fears about “jungle raj” has generated some concerns. There is no denying the fact that Tejashwi’s politics has been entirely different, it is difficult to completely disconnect from the legacy issues as many sections of the society nurture a strong dislike for Yadavs’ dominance.
Tejashwi has talked about “sarv jan,” committing himself to inclusive politics and now Rahul is explicitly offering assurances in the form of guarantee to blunt the efficacy of fear-mongering. Though youths attracted by the job promise haven’t experienced the misrule of Lalu’s regime and aren’t ready to alter their priorities on the basis of an imperfect past, Rahul’s intervention is important as he has shown a tendency of fighting against injustice.
Rahul took care to explicitly back Tejashwi as a leader who intends to bring new vision. “Modi and Nitish don’t have the decency of talking about your problems. Modi promised two crore jobs every year. Does he even refer to jobs now? It is not only Bihar, Modi’s policies have ensured youth won’t get jobs anywhere in India. Note-bandi and lockdown destroyed economy. Modi and Nitish are leaders of past, you have tested them,” he said.
Realising that the people are too distressed to hear about issues unrelated to their wretched existence, Rahul avoided dwelling on national issues; skipped even his pet theme of Chinese intrusion. He kept his focus on the miseries of lockdown. “Millions of Biharis were walking home during the lockdown announced without adequate notice. We kept asking for giving financial help to the poor, to the small businesses, to the migrant workers. But Modi was not fighting corona, he was at war with the poor,” he said.
As there is a perception about Nitish becoming a liability and the entire burden of salvaging the NDA’s campaign falling on Modi, Rahul tried to create an impression that the Prime Minister’s credibility has gone down. He said: “Farmers of Punjab burnt Modi’s effigies on Dussehra. Not Ravan’s. I didn’t like it as burning Prime Minister’s effigy is wrong. But the farmers are angry. The Prime Minister works for the interest of a few capitalists. The farmers also burnt the effigies of Ambani and Adani along with Modi’s.”
Rahul’s campaign reflected a perfect synergy with Tejashwi’s as they seemed to be complimenting each other at a time the relationship between the BJP and JDU is marked by suspicion and distrust. This was made possible by the surge in Tejashwi’s popularity at the initial stages of the campaign, forcing the Congress to shed whatever inhibitions they had about his leadership. Now the Congress leaders hail him as the future chief minister in every meeting.
