What Rahul isn’t saying

In his trip to US, some of Rahul Gandhi’s remarks engendered political controversies. But the bigger takeaway is what he said, and failed to say, about his political ideas.He sketched out Congress’s vision, emphasising two key themes: fairness and pluralism. Rahul contrasted this to BJP’s vision, which he claimed was based on caste hierarchy and majoritarianism. He also deplored a system “where 90% of the people do not have access to opportunity.” But on policy implications of a caste census, including an increase in reservation, Rahul said it “would depend on what comes out of these studies.”Here, one can note a critical gap in the political vision outlined by the Leader of Opposition. The vision is top-heavy with ideological issues, light on issues of valence. In political science, a valence issue (employment/corruption/cost-of-living) is one with uniform appeal among the electorate, whereas an ideological (or positional) issue is one that divides opinion among different sections.In India, there are large segments of voters who base their voting choice on the competence of parties to deliver on cross-cutting valence issues. Ideological attachments can be tenuous. To give just one example, consider the dramatic collapse of the long-dominant CPM in Bengal and Tripura. The swift evaporation of their large ‘left-wing’ voting blocs is an indicator that a party’s social support base is drawn in large part from its credibility at power-acquisition and competence at delivering public goods. Without these two pull-factors, ideological positioning is rendered irrelevant.A political vision, as political philosopher Georges Sorel described, is above all a “social myth” — a symbolic, often utopian, view of the future that can galvanise the broad masses behind a political force. It resides at a higher level to ideology, which forms the path to achieving the vision.Under Rahul’s leadership, Congress’s ship has gradually repositioned itself as an egalitarian left-of-centre force. The party has wisely enlarged its catchment area of voters, specifically appealing to those regionalist, backward caste and Ambedkarite constituencies that might have once viewed it with suspicion. However, its core message of levelling inequality might be more forcefully articulated by attaching it to a compelling vision of developing the country, promising upward mobility and expanded livelihood opportunities for everyone.A CSDS-Lokniti survey earlier this year found that unemployment forms a pressing concern for almost two-thirds of voters, with the highest proportion being found among OBCs, Muslims and Dalit voters. The latter segments of voters are not just attuned to sectional issues but equally to bread-and-butter concerns.The ‘Gujarat model of development’ formed a captivating vision. In 2014, the campaign ballast provided by this symbol helped Modi-led BJP garner the first clear parliamentary majority in nearly three decades. It conjured up an image of rapid private-investment-led growth and corresponding employment generation (based on the mantra of ‘minimum govt maximum governance’).The lacklustre performance of NDA over the last 10 years has gravely punctured this vision. The level of private investment (measured in terms of gross fixed capital formation) has not been impressive, even as employment generation has remained stagnant. World Bank reported that India’s manufacturing sector accounted for 13% of its GDP in 2022, a decrease from 17% in 2010.In the 2025 ‘jobs budget’, NDA 3.0 allocated $1.2bn to its flagship employment-training scheme, geared towards the emerging “neo-middle class”. By comparison, govt allocated a 10 times larger share of $10.3bn to MGNREGA, the rural jobs programme of the UPA era. NDA 3.0 faces questions on employment generation. Hence, this is a golden opportunity for Rahul to provide an alternative vision on jobs. Not just to connect to poorer voters but also to rekindle Congress’s bonds with the “Manmohan Singh-middle class constituency”: those sections that voted for the party in 2009 but went to BJP (or, in Delhi, also AAP) over the last decade. Congress can build on its symbolic political capital as the architect of the country’s post-liberalisation middle classes.In his US tour, Rahul did address the unemployment crisis, suggesting at one point that India could learn from the trajectory of China and Vietnam in shifting towards a production-centric economy from a consumer-centric one. Further, he advocated a manufacturing-led growth path and cited the advances made by states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. All interesting ideas, but ones that were left unelaborated and unconnected.Instead of disjointed suggestions, perhaps they could have formed a segue towards fleshing out Congress’s own economic vision. What are the concrete governance practices that India could borrow from countries like China and Vietnam? What are the best practices followed by states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, and can these be aggregated to form a national model? How does the new Congress differ from the UPA-era Congress in terms of economic policy? Does Congress support thoroughgoing reforms of the bureaucratic structure? How does the party view state-Centre relations? What are some key measures taken by Congress-governed states on educational reforms, social equity and economic opportunities? Does the party advocate an INDIA alliance model of development or a Congress model of development?Congress’s solutions to broad-based economic concerns, particularly jobs, would likely come under the scanner in its campaigns for the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. In the first two states, the Congress coalition is banking on support from the dominant agrarian castes (Jats and Marathas). Hence, it would need to carefully calibrate its appeal on caste-based distributive justice. In Jharkhand, Congress’s role as the junior partner of JMM would be to reach out to voters among urban-dwelling and caste-Hindu constituencies, outside of the tribal heartland. Congress has already positioned itself firmly on the centre-left political coordinate, anchored towards a fertile social base catchment. But like a trawler seeking to maximise its catch, the party now needs to cast the widest possible net, and do so with demonstrably capable hands. The writer is a political researcher.