Opinion: Rahul Gandhi in a new avatar, aggressive on ideology but the real issues of the public are something else

Writer: Asim Ali
Some of Rahul Gandhi’s comments during his/her visit to the US stirred political controversy. But what matters most is what he/she said and what he/she didn’t say about his/her political views. he/she laid out the Congress’ vision, which emphasized two main themes: fairness and pluralism. Rahul compared this to the BJP’s vision, which he/she claimed is based on caste hierarchy and majoritarianism. he/she also condemned a system that denies opportunities to 90% of people.

But on the policy implications of the caste census, including increase in reservation, Rahul Gandhi said that it will depend on what comes out of these studies.

Here, a significant difference can be seen in the political approach that the opposition leaders are emphasizing. The approach is more about ideological issues and less about value issues. In political science, a valence issue (employment/corruption/cost of living) has a uniform appeal across voters, while an ideological issue is one that divides opinion across different sections.

In India, there is a large segment of voters who base their voting choices on the ability of parties to deliver on cross-cutting valence issues. Ideological attachments can be weak. For just one example, consider the dramatic decline of the long-dominant CPM in Bengal and Tripura. The rapid disappearance of their large ‘left’ voting bloc is an indication that a party’s social support base largely derives from its credibility in power-taking and its ability to deliver public goods. Without these two compelling factors, ideological positioning becomes irrelevant.

Political philosopher Georges Sorel said that a political vision is nothing but a ‘social myth’ – a symbolic, often utopian view of the future that can mobilise the masses behind a political force. It is situated at a higher level than ideology, creating a path to achieving the vision.

Under Rahul’s leadership, the Congress ship has gradually re-established itself as an egalitarian left-wing force. The party has intelligently expanded its catchment area of ​​voters, especially attracting those regionalist, backward caste and Ambedkarite constituencies that once viewed it with suspicion. However, its core message of reducing inequality could be expressed more forcefully by linking it to an attractive vision of the country’s development that promises upward mobility and expanded livelihood opportunities for all.

A CSDS-Lokniti survey earlier this year found that unemployment is a serious concern for nearly two-thirds of voters. The highest proportion was found among OBC, Muslim and Dalit voters. The rest of the electorate is not only conscious of communal issues but is also equally concerned with livelihood concerns.

The ‘Gujarat model of development’ makes for an attractive vision. In 2014, the campaign cushion provided by this symbol helped the Modi-led BJP win a clear majority for the first time in nearly three decades. It projected an image of rapid private-investment-led growth and commensurate job creation (based on the mantra of ‘minimum government maximum governance’).

The NDA’s lackluster performance over the last 10 years has badly dented this vision. The level of private investment (measured in terms of gross fixed capital formation) has not been impressive, while job creation has been stagnant. The World Bank reported that the manufacturing sector in India accounted for 13% of GDP in 2022, down from 17% in 2010, a decline of 4 percentage points.

In the 2025 ‘jobs budget’, the NDA 3.0 allocated $1.2 billion to its flagship job-training scheme for the emerging ‘neo-middle class’. In comparison, the Modi government allocated a 10 times bigger share of $10.3 billion to MNREGA, the UPA-era rural employment programme.

NDA 3.0 is facing questions on job creation. So, this is a golden opportunity for Rahul to offer an alternative view on jobs. Not just to connect with poor voters, but also to rekindle Congress’s ties with the ‘Manmohan Singh-middle class’. This class voted for the Congress in 2009 but moved to the BJP (or, AAP in Delhi) in the last decade. Congress can build its symbolic political capital as the architect of the country’s post-liberalisation middle class.

In his/her US tour, Rahul addressed the unemployment crisis, at one point suggesting that India could learn from China and Vietnam in moving from a consumer-centric economy to a production-centric one. In addition, he/she advocated a manufacturing-based approach and cited the progress made by states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. All of the ideas are interesting but they are left unelaborated and unconvincing.

Instead of incoherent suggestions, perhaps they could have crystallised the Congress’ own economic vision. What are the sound governance practices India can adopt from countries like China and Vietnam? What are the best practices adopted by states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, and can these be combined to form a national model? How is the new Congress different from the UPA-era Congress in terms of economic policy? Does the Congress support sweeping reforms in the bureaucratic structure? How does the party view state-centre relations? What are some of the key measures taken by Congress-ruled states on educational reforms, social equality and economic opportunities? Does the party advocate the INDIA Alliance model for development or the Congress Development model?

The Congress’s solutions to broader economic concerns, especially jobs, may come under scrutiny in its campaigns for the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. In the first two states, the Congress alliance is dependent on the support of the dominant agrarian castes (Jat and Maratha). Therefore, it will need to carefully calibrate its appeal on caste-based distributive justice. In Jharkhand, the Congress’s role as the JMM’s junior partner will be to reach out to voters in urban-dwelling and caste-Hindu constituencies outside the tribal heartland.

The Congress has already firmly established itself on the centre-left political continuum, moving into territory with a fertile social base. But just as a fisherman expands his/her catchment by casting a net over more and more territory, the Congress now needs to cast the widest possible net, and to do that it clearly needs capable hands.

(The author is a political researcher.)