One thing was hanging in regards to the Congress in Pune over the previous few days. The celebration was not merely making ready for Rahul Gandhi’s interplay with feminine college students. It had turned the programme into a significant organisational train, bringing leaders from throughout Maharashtra to Pune and placing its native equipment to work.
For 3 to 4 days, Pune grew to become a short lived Congress camp. State Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal was right here reviewing preparations, whereas senior leaders Satej Patil and Yashomati Thakur had been concerned in mobilising the organisation. Leaders Vijay Wadettiwar, Prashant Jagtap and others had been additionally seen across the preparations. The celebration’s Delhi workforce arrived a day earlier than the Chhatron ki Goonj programme, fourth within the collection.
Conferences had been held in numerous areas, employees mobilised and college students contacted in massive numbers. Leaders related to instructional establishments had been additionally concerned in bringing college students to the programme. The hassle was clearly higher than what would usually be required for a routine go to by a nationwide chief.
By Saturday night, Congress leaders had been visibly happy with the response to Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ interplay on the AISSMS floor. The police had estimated a gathering of 8,000 to 10,000 folks, though it crossed past this as per Congress leaders’ evaluation. The programme itself was totally different from a standard political rally, with Rahul interacting virtually solely with younger girls and listening to their considerations about schooling, aggressive examinations, security, careers and social pressures.
For Congress, due to this fact, there have been two occasions going down concurrently — one on the stage and one other behind it.
The stage was about Gandhi and the scholars. Behind the stage was the Maharashtra Congress organisation attempting to reveal that it may put its total equipment behind a single programme.
That effort grew to become much more seen as a result of Pune had already develop into a political battleground round pupil points a day earlier than the occasion.
The conflict between Nationwide College students’ Union of India (NSUI) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members on the COEP Technological College hostel on Friday night time gave the Congress programme an sudden build-up. The 2 sides gave sharply totally different accounts of what led to the confrontation. ABVP alleged that Congress employees had been pressuring feminine college students to register for Rahul Gandhi’s programme, whereas Congress leaders alleged {that a} feminine pupil who had supported the programme was threatened contained in the hostel.
The incident introduced pupil politics into the headlines only a day earlier than Gandhi was to deal with college students. Congress leaders, together with Vijay Wadettiwar, rushed to the hostel. Police deployment was elevated, and political leaders and activists had been subsequently barred from coming into the COEP campus and hostel for 4 days.
Regardless of the competing variations of the incident, politically it ensured that the topic Congress had chosen — younger college students and their considerations — was already being mentioned in Pune earlier than Gandhi arrived.
There was one other fascinating improvement occurring in Pune at virtually the identical time.
The Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) was holding its personal programme round Vande Mataram, with the celebration searching for to show the nationwide track into a bigger political and ideological marketing campaign. The BJP has been attacking the Congress over the latter’s place on the singing of Vande Mataram and has sought to current itself because the defender of the track’s full legacy.
So, in a metropolis recognized for its instructional establishments and pupil politics, two very totally different political messages had been enjoying out virtually concurrently.
However it might be simplistic to scale back the weekend to a different Congress-versus-BJP contest.
The extra fascinating query is why each events are selecting Pune for such programmes.
Pune has a big pupil inhabitants, a large younger workforce and an extended custom of political and social actions centred round schooling. It additionally has a focus of schools and academic establishments – Pune has over 25 universities, together with three publicly funded ones – that provides political events entry to a politically conscious younger viewers.
Congress made a deliberate alternative in limiting Gandhi’s interplay to feminine college students. The celebration had additionally linked the programme to Pune’s historical past of women’ schooling, significantly Savitribai Phule. The thought was to maneuver away from the traditional political rally and create a setting the place college students may communicate on to a nationwide chief.
And college students too did communicate. Questions and private experiences round examination irregularities, profession uncertainty, social restrictions and girls’s security gave the programme a unique texture from a traditional political assembly.
For the Congress organisation, nonetheless, the response on Saturday could have been just one a part of the satisfaction.
The opposite was seeing senior leaders from totally different components of Maharashtra working collectively in Pune for a number of days. Leaders who usually function in their very own areas had been all of a sudden coordinating with town unit, the state management and the nationwide workforce.
That form of mobilisation just isn’t straightforward for any political organisation.
It additionally explains why the Congress management was eager to make the programme larger than simply Gandhi’s look. The celebration had invested appreciable time and sources in it. Police had imposed 30 situations for the programme, which itself mirrored the dimensions of the anticipated gathering.
A profitable programme can generate enthusiasm for a day. The tougher process is to take care of contact with the scholars who attended, comply with up on the problems they raised and construct a sustained engagement with younger folks.
For Congress, Saturday provided a helpful organisational train in addition to a political platform. For the BJP, the parallel Vande Mataram programme confirmed that it too is eager to maintain its personal political messaging energetic in Pune.
And for Pune, the weekend provided a reminder that town’s college students are more and more turning into a constituency that political events can’t afford to disregard.
