24.5.09

The Congress' Punjab experiment

Even in this age of cynicism, it is no mean achievement to have 3.5 lakh young men and women rushing to join the state unit of a political party in the course of a month. This is what the Congress achieved in Punjab this year. It laid the foundation for Rahul Gandhi’s success in the elections. The number of new Congressmen and women is astounding because the young were attracted to the party by an experiment — that is, Rahul’s plan to re-energize Congress at the grassroots. As a result of the recruitment drive, says Punjab Youth Congress president and firsttime MP Ravneet Bittu, 33, there was a sharp rise in voter turnout in Punjab. If Gujarat was a laboratory for Hindutva, Punjab was a political incubator for Rahul’s experiments with intra-party democracy. The experiment seems to have succeeded as two of his three nominees for the elections won. Even Sukhwinder Singh Danny, who lost, made deep inroads in chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s home constituency. The success of this experiment is interesting because the Shiromani Akali Dal was already growing younger under the leadership of Sukhbir Singh Badal. He has inducted the sons of many party leaders into the government. Sukhbir’s experiment came much before Rahul’s in Punjab. But there is a difference. Rahul made his effort democratic by engaging former chief election commissioner J M Lyngdoh to conduct the party polls that chose from among 2,900 candidates. In contrast, Sukhbir merely ensured the loyalty of certain political families. It made for an interesting election tussle. With Rahul’s youth brigade taking on Akali old-timers, the Akalis raised a new slogan: “Rahul ke ummeedwaron ko school vapas bhejo.” The Akalis’ idea was simple: Rahul’s baba-logs were inexperienced. Even so, one of them, Vijay Inder Singla, defeated Akali heavyweight Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa in Sangrur. In that overused word, it was an historic victory. And an historic day. But, Rahul did not make history in Punjab in a day. It was hard to recruit so many young people in such a short time but Rahul’s personal endeavours made a difference. The Gandhi scion travelled across the state, wowing Punjab’s aspirational youth, most of whom dream of living the way Europeans or Americans do. Might that be the reason Rahul chose the state as a laboratory, testing ground for his first experiments with democracy. His next stop is Gujarat and the Punjab project will be rolled out in every other state within the next six months. If that were to happen and if Punjab were replicated and multiplied across India, membership of the Indian Youth Congress could touch one crore, Bittu said.

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