http://www.indianexpress.com/news/whose-agitation/673470/
Whose agitation? The Indian Express Posted online: Sat Aug 28 2010, 23:51 hrs Rahul Gandhi kept a two-year-old date with the inhabitants of Orissa’s Niyamgiri hills on Thursday. In what became a highly charged visit to Lanjigarh, site of Vedanta’s controversial refinery, he set out the timeline at a Congress-organised rally for tribal rights: “This is your victory. You saved your own land. Two years ago you had come to me saying the Niyamgiri hill is your god. I told you I would be your sipahi (soldier) in Delhi. I am happy that I have helped you in whatever way I could.” He did not get into details of Vedanta’s now cancelled bauxite mining project. The message was delivered in a disarming manner now associated with Rahul Gandhi — sentences scrubbed down to remove the stock, and therefore false-sounding, words from the rallyist’s phrasebook; a spontaneous connect with those gathered without fawning intermediaries. But the Niyamgiri visit does mark a change in his way of political mobilisation. Rahul Gandhi is perhaps the most powerful general secretary in the Congress’s history. He is powerful in part for being seen to be his party’s future. As he has criss-crossed the country, connecting with the “aam aadmi”, it has been seen to be an effort at including various constituencies in a forward-looking way. So he has flummoxed his political opponents by casually taking a local train in Mumbai, having a meal in a Dalit household, chatting with university students — how do they counter the charisma of a man unhurriedly telling folks there’s a future to be built? Now, at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district he has taken responsibility for winging a government action a certain way — if not for the actual decision by the Union environment ministry against the bauxite project, at least for advocating a certain point of view. The decision came two days before Rahul Gandhi visited Orissa, when preparations for the visit had already been made. The government is the right authority to take a call on the legitimacy of the bauxite project. But the message that the Congress’s mobilisation in opposition-ruled states is backed by the Centre’s actions has unsettling implications. Also, at Lanjigarh, the Congress appears to be unbundling the “aam aadmi” on a case-by-case basis. This carries the danger of it then having to balance different constituencies with competing agendas. ------------------------------------ ---- INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/