If Janardan Dwivedi, who has held a senior position in the Congress party’s leadership structure and has long been deemed a “loyalist” of party chief Sonia Gandhi, has had to suffer the fate of being called by the chairman of Congress’ disciplinary committee, A.K. Antony, for an explanation, it is his own doing.
In this episode lies the stark lesson that those in public life ought to weigh their words with care, and be mindful of the context.
Controversially, Mr Dwivedi had said recently that the Lok Sabha campaign of the BJP, and its protagonist Narendra Modi, had succeeded in communicating the impression that the saffron flag-bearers were closer to the electorate than any other party, and this was a sign of Indian-ness.
This is vague, and plain amateurish analysis. It ignores underlying factors. The Modi vote turned out to be less than a third of the votes cast. Besides, there was strong anti-incumbency and deep division in the so-called “secular” camp if there is such a thing.
Thus, analysis of the kind preferred by Mr Dwivedi should not have been uploaded to begin with, no matter by whom. Besides, “Indianness”, Indian nationalism, “Bhartiyata” and “Hindustaniyat” are words with layered meanings. These expressions can be fraught if carelessly used.
Mr Dwivedi also messed things up by speaking bang in the middle of a difficult election campaign for the Congress in Delhi. If he was venting an organisational angst, and merely aimed to capture eyeballs, his sin would be deemed all the greater.
