Rahul Gandhi has the power to make me vomit words in any busy situation I am in.
I still remember that day and the ensuing press conference where the man addressing was giving stand up comedians a run for their money. The Vice President of the Congress party was about to tear an ordinance on convicted politicians to term it as complete nonsense. These dramatised histrionics have done more damage than infuse credibility in his leadership and inspite of a series of whitewashes shrinking the Congress to a paltry, the mechanism has not really changed.
Rahul Gandhi has always been in the ire of many factors. Expectations of carrying the family baton was from all the sides. The media harrowed him, the opposition downplayed his antics and political pundits wrote him nothing more than a comic relief entrenched in the maze of dirty politics. Even if his father and grand mother had their bundle of controversies, they had their share of aura or charismatic folklore to at least sway the masses.
When Rahul Gandhi ends his speech, the chances of the crowds disappearing are more likely than going berserk which is expected out of rally addressed by a seasoned politician. With such a quality of leadership at the helms in the Congress and a majority form of govt in lieu with Narendra Modi, the bickering and the tug of war literally seems like a China vs Brazil football match.
With this aspect of facing a political giant like Modi, Congress ought to be more careful in criticising or levelling charges. In the past also Sonia Gandhi with her back firing jibe,’Merchant of death‘ killed her party’s slim chances of coming to power in Gujarat instead of engaging into meaningful criticisms.In the same preposterous attire, Rahul too has adopted the same haphazardness of trading outlandish charges.
As Modi govt assumed power in 2014, Rahul Gandhi and his brand of criticism has still not adapted and improvised pertaining to the transformed political climate of the day .
After returning from his much talked about ‘sabbatical’, he called Modi Govt as a ‘suit and boot’ govt catering to the elite and not the masses over the Prime Minister’s monogrammed suit. With a political leader aspiring and waiting in the wings to be a future PM, his choice of words for the existing incumbent in office highlighted a much abysmal disparity. And his adoption of this very style as made him the centerpiece of ridicule which continues even today.
After much water had flown over the issue of demonetisation and curbing of black money, Rahul Gandhi made sensational allegations of the Prime Minister benefiting personally from an episode of corruption. After creating an unnecessary suspense, he finally broke his silence by alleging the PM received kickbacks from big business groups like Sahara and Birla, six months before the 2014 elections. Speaking at a rally in Mehsana, Gujarat ; he released a set of figures to emphasize income tax raid and computer documents were available with respect to this process.
There are two fundamental reasons as to why this latest tirade by the Gandhi scion has boomeranged and going down in the drains. Primarily, Narendra Modi enjoys a complete personal allegation free political career when it comes to financial misappropriation and corruption. There has not being even a single charge of any scam on his shoulders and so any lousy comment with respect to that will further amplify his image as a clean leader rather than distorting it.
Financial integrity is one of PM Modi’s biggest strengths and somebody even like Manmohan Singh revered as an epitome of honesty and personal consciousness was dragged into controversies and scams which were mired in serious investigations. Secondly complementing my previous point, this allegation of kickbacks received by some leaders and even Modi then as Gujarat CM were completely shot down before by the apex Supreme Court of the country. Documents to this supposed case were filed as a PIL by Prashant Bhushan which were later on termed fictitious and unsubstantiated by the highest court of law in the country. Predictably Kejriwal seconded it and Laloo Yadav (who himself as being convicted in courts for fodder scam) was quick to jump into the hurried bandwagon to support Rahul Gandhi.
On the contrary this time instead of deranged comments and flimsy sneers, a serious insinuation was made by Rahul Gandhi albeit with a complete lack of home work and cross verification of the dismissal of the case. Rahul Gandhi very partly reminds me of Abhishek Bachchan. The latter as an actor tried his level best to carve a niche for himself in the industry but being a Big B descendant was too much to take perhaps but at least he seems to enjoy acting. With respect to Rahul, he seems to have been destiny forced and pushed reluctantly into politics. As rightly said by Rajdeep Sardesai, Rahul Gandhi acts like a part time politician and so that ensuing shabbiness of his engagement comes to forefront every time he tried hard.
Move over to rallies, road shows and sleeping in Dalit homes, the prince of the first family of the Congress party needs more sabbaticals to regain a better political insight.