Whose party line is it, anyway?

Just as I am writing this, I see a new statement coming in from Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on the poverty debate. The master dissenter, who prides himself for taking the contrarian view (one reason the media loves him) says: “I have always failed to understand the Planning Commission criteria for fixing Poverty Line... First indicator of poverty is malnourishment and anaemia in the family which is easily measurable. Can’t we have that as a measure?”

But why is Singh telling us this now? Shouldn’t he have aired his views vehemently in 2011 when the Planning Commission, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, first revealed its criteria to fix the poverty line at Rs 32 per capita per day for those living in urban India?

If he had aired his views at the time and followed it up with a meeting with Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and actually forced a rethink on this figure, all those poor, who are now being called better off, but who face the threat of losing out on vital benefits, would have blessed him.

At that time, the media slammed the panel that justified its criteria by saying it had simply adopted the Tendulkar Committee’s recommendations. But the panel also said that it had set up a review mechanism of its poverty yardstick and would do a rethink. But we never heard about it. All those who were apparently against the Rs32 cut-off, like Singh or his boss Rahul Gandhi, obviously never bothered to follow it up. That’s why this week, government figures claim poverty levels are down by the same benchmark!

Dissent is a wonderful thing and Congress leaders will tell you that the different and contradictory voices within the Congress party simply reflect its vibrant and democratic nature. The problem for me is that this dissent sometimes feels disingenuous. It feels carefully designed to cater to opposing groups and ensure that they find echoes within the Congress party. Every shade of opinion is voiced by various party leaders so that each votebank is safely covered.

So Singh knows that malnourishment is a major problem in his state, Madhya Pradesh, and so he criticises the Plan panel without actually doing anything to solve the problem.

His colleague, Law Minister Kapil Sibal, is in a greater position to actually get the Planning Commission to review its yardsticks, but guess what? Talking to Montek and forcing a review of the decision is just too much hard work for everybody — so he attends the annual general meeting of the Indian Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata (away from his colleagues in Delhi and yet, with attentive local reporters around to ensure his point of view will be noted) and disses the line.

Sibal says, “If the Planning Commission said those who live above Rs5,000 a month are not at poverty line, obviously there is something wrong with the definition of poverty in this country. How can anybody live at Rs 5,000?”

Again, agree with the sentiments, but what is the point of telling this to random Bengali businessmen? Why isn’t he wagging his finger about this inside Cabinet meetings? And why isn’t he telling Montek off publicly like he does so often with the media?

While Sibal voices the sentiments of his poor Chandni Chowk constituents in faraway Kolkata and Singh chooses the comfort of his smartphone to make a token protest for the benefit of the malnourished in MP, their far less influential colleagues are running around like headless chickens trying to defend the so-called party line.

Congress leader Rasheed Masood claims Sibal’s constituency has places like Jama Masjid where you can get a meal for just Rs5, and his party colleague Raj Babbar claims you can fill your belly in Mumbai for just Rs 12. These official spokespersons are abandoned by the party and we are confused. Does the Congress defend the Planning Commission or not? Is Rs 32 daily spending a benchmark for those living below the poverty line or not?

But, hang on, this isn’t the first time that the Congress has sent mixed signals.
Many of us are confused about what happened during the Batla House encounter despite the lower court upholding the Delhi Police’s account.

We are told by these Congress leaders that only a judicial probe will bring out the truth — If they don’t trust their own police force, how can we be so sure? The truth is that despite Rahul Gandhi’s command of ‘Stick to the party line’, there doesn’t seem to be a party line — not on Batla House, not on FDI, not on Maoist strategy and not on many other things. This chaos is strictly by design, a convenient plan.  

Sunetra Choudhury is an anchor/reporter for NDTV and is the author of the election travelogue Braking News.