In an analysis and explanation that markedly and significantly differs from what we have heard from academics, newspaper columnists and television pundits, the Chairman of the All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) says his party failed to win Haryana because it failed to appeal to the state’s urban voters.
In turn, the explanation for this is that it did not convey an aspirational message that would appeal to urban voters and to young urban voters in particular. Now, Praveen Chakravarty argues, Congress must craft an aspirational appeal for urban Indians that can be conveyed side by side with its traditional appeal in terms of social justice, caste, equality, etc. Chakravarty says the two appeals are not contradictory.
In a 25-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Chakravarty gave an example or illustration of how Congress could appeal to urban voters and to young voters in particular.
He said it should say: “Making money is not bad … dream to be wealthy, go chase wealth, go chase money”. Chakravarty agreed that if Deng Xiaoping could say in China, a country that is by no means a democracy and which, at the time, claimed to be socialist, that it’s glorious to be rich, this is a message that can also be voiced by Congress.
Chakravarty argued that an aspirational message would not contradict Congress’s traditional message of social justice or nyay. Rather it would complement it. In the interview, Chakravarty repeatedly said that Rahul Gandhi understands and supports the need for an aspirational message from the Congress Party to urban and young Indians in particular.
However, he said, he has not discussed this with other leaders in the party but he does not believe they would differ or disagree.
The interview is fundamentally important because it reflects an important change in the Congress Party’s thinking about how to appeal to urban voters.
Chakravarty is the first important and senior Congress leader to articulate in public – and do so comprehensively – the need for Congress to acquire an aspirational message for urban India. Others may have thought along similar lines but they have not spoken out.
