Empower Us, To Empower You

This piece was published, edited, here.

February 7

They say a man who listens is a prized catch. By that indicator alone, Rahul Gandhi's stock should rise.

After all, it is not everyday we see a political leader asking people what they want. Almost never are our adivasi women posed such a question.

On Friday morning at Ranchi's Hotel Ashok, Rahul Gandhi listened. He even asked party general secretary B.K. Hariprasad not to interrupt when the latter tried to make a woman cut her speech short. He listened through complaints, he chuckled at anecdotes.

However, he answered what he wanted to. There was of course the talk of empowerment, on a loop. Worse, often his answers were twice removed from the questions.

Women stood up to ask micro-problems. There were several questions about anganwadi sevikas, parateachers, adivasi women's inheritance rights under tenancy laws, human trafficking, branding of women as witches: all Jharkhand-specific issues expected to be asked by adivasi women.

Yet, Rahul answered by throwing back stock answers at them - MNREGA, Right to Food - missing a chance to make clear that he has understood the problems of the adivasis with some nuance and to offer solutions.

Probably the only direct promise he made to the 800-odd women during the one-hour interactive session was that he would pressure the state government, of which the Congress is a coalition partner, to give more power to panchayats.

But that is not new, even for Rahul. On day one of his two-day visit to the state in September 2012, Rahul had met with panchayat representatives, who raised the demand of devolution of power. At that point in time, the BJP and JMM were leading the government here. Since then, the Congress has come to share power - even handling the relevant portfolio - but little has been done for the panchayats.

Maybe the Congress Vice President has taken on the empowerment of women as his new project, probably evident from the absence of a meeting exclusively with youngsters during his Jharkhand visit. He is already miles ahead of his counterparts when he shows a willingness to listen and talk to the most deprived of this country. But there is no evidence yet that he can walk the talk.