Rajasthan: Gehlot’s social security gambit

Can the new welfare schemes help the ruling Congress blunt the opposition BJP’s campaign on corruption and deteriorating law and order in Rajasthan?

For the better part of the Congress’s four-and-a-half-year-long rule in Rajasthan, what made headlines outside the state was the war of words between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his younger rival Sachin Pilot, who always had his sights set on the top office. But the magician-turned-politician and his in-house competitor have now smoked the peace pipe.

As the two leaders paused the caustic tit-for-tat exchanges, the party top brass in New Delhi heaved a sigh of relief with the cautious hope that peace would hold in Jaipur, at least till the assembly elections, scheduled to be held later this year.

With polls just a few months away, Gehlot is betting big-time on his social security schemes to blunt the opposition BJP’s criticism over his alleged failure to curb corruption and to maintain law and order in the state and thus to woo back the electorate that appeared to be moving away from the Congress.

Knowing that Pilot, who was once rumoured to be planning to break away and launch a new party, is still waiting in the wings, Gehlot, now 72, is using all his administrative acumen and political charm to turn the tables. Along with political machinations, he is now rolling out various measures that he believes would help the Congress buck the trend of Rajasthan not re-electing an incumbent. Karnataka, where the Congress relied on its “Five Guarantees” and could wrest power from the BJP, offered him a template. He tweaked it a bit though, knowing well that the people of his state would expect the ruling party, not to make promises, but to deliver

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So, from the ‘Mehangai Rahat Camps’ (camps to provide relief from price rise) to legislations to guarantee minimum guaranteed income and access to health care for all as well as social security for gig workers and meeting the development needs of tribals and Dalits, Gehlot’s government is now rushing to tick all the vote-banks correctly.

Sensing the simmering public resentment over the price rise, Gehlot in April quickly came up with the idea of ‘Mehangai Rahat Camps’ and reached out to ‘labharthis’ (beneficiaries) offering relief.

The Congress’s leaders say that the ‘Mehangai Rahat Camps’ are a massive hit among people and helped blunt public anger over soaring prices. Gehlot also launched a scheme to provide LPG cylinders at Rs 500 to 76 lakh beneficiaries and is set to launch another on Independence Day to serve free food packets to 1.06 crore families. The minimum guaranteed income law promises 125 days of work a year for all adults and a pension of Rs 1,000 per month for every elderly, disabled, widow and single woman, with the promise of a 15% annual increase.

The law to guarantee social security to gig workers, a first-of-its-kind in the country, comes against the backdrop of similar assurances in Karnataka. The Right to Health law promises free treatment in all government hospitals besides free treatment in private hospitals in some cases.

The opposition BJP is calling it an extension of the “freebie culture” while questioning the fiscal health of the state with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself, leading the attack. Gehlot, however, remained unfazed.

“After three years, people usually start questioning the incumbent. But thanks to the schemes rolled out by the government, everybody is happy. The Mehangai Rahat Camps have done wonders,” Neeraj Dangi, a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, told DH. “There is now no anti-incumbency in Rajasthan.”

Asked whether these usual election gimmicks and last-minute wooing exercises, Dangi answers negatively. “It is wrong to say so. The government has been working at the ground level from day one. Every single constituency in the state irrespective of which party represents it has got the benefit of these schemes,” said Dangi.

The Congress believes that perception has changed in the past couple of months and the party is now better off compared to the earlier days. A senior leader involved in managing the party’s affairs in Rajasthan said that a change in public mood was palpable. He, however, still would not say that they have turned the page.

The party managers and publicists may find the going a bit easy, but the question that now looms large is whether Gehlot can win Rajasthan for the Congress again with his social security measures when he is facing criticism over a variety of issues, ranging from allegations of corruption and failure to curb crimes against women and attacks on Dalits.