CHANDIGARH: Exaggerated rhetoric and scare tactics used by Rahul Gandhi in the recent
past may win a few headlines to help himself but do grave long term damage to the Congress.
His rhetoric of minorityism has whetted some appetite for power but the Congress dare not
translating it into reality. To soften up the public, he used to get his head down by making
refutable statements. The reason is that making such statements what opposition leaders do to
those they regard as political primitives, they would not have time to think if the compliment
were returned.
He might have included tabloid outcome of his own ‘immature’ statements. He was
playing holloween and crying full throat government has brought destruction and has turned
middle-class poor. It is public sector trick or treat. He has been targeting the government over
its management of COVID-19 pandemic in the country. But the crisis is not just due to
coronavirous but also because of preferring politics over national interest.
Congress strategists understood well they had none in their ranks who could match up
to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s communication skills. The Congress, therefore, went
about planning an ambush the BJP. There can be only two results from this abuse of
publicity. One is that the people demote such scares to wolf-crying and treat them as
background noise. The other is that, as all scare tales stereotype communities, did not take
seriously. In other words, statements as those from an imature head are wholly self-defeating.
Scaring the people as an act of policy may win a few headlines but do grave long-term
damage to the country. Modi may now be under tremendous pressure to do one better than
Gandhi two wrongs.
Mr Gandhi has been in the Lok Sabha since 2004 but till date he could not mark his
presence on the map of parliament. He termed Modi’s promises as ‘jumla (slogan) but he
himself forgot the promises made by the Congress party during its 60-year rule. His attack
over the Rafale fighter jet deal, and how it benefitted an industrialist who had never built an
airplane in his life.
When country is in crisis, it is the duty of every Indian to stand by the government
and support tie over the crisis but by nature Mr Gandhi has been intoxicated to do the
opposite. He should learn ‘sa re ga ma’ of politics even before picking up the alphabets.
Many might have puzzled to see him delivering speeches and some insolent could take him
so much for granted. But the political problems of faceless Congress is not a source of
anxiety as is apparent that elections are won in Gandhi’s family name. Empirical evidence
suggests otherwise. It demonstrated that neither Rahul Gandhi nor Sonia Gandhi has an
autonomous voter-pulling capacity. To put it bluntly, scares speeches of Rahul Gandhi in the
past to show that he can buck anti-incumbency. The Congress NREG programme, ‘Garibi
Hatao slogan’ the ‘aam aadmi’ approach has though raised expectations without any prospect
of delivery and could not bring great enthusiasm among the voters.
For Rahul Gandhi if the present is bad, the future looks alarming. There does not
seem any enthusiasm anywhere except at AICC headquarters. He stands for nothing in
particular, he has shown no flashes of brilliance and demonstrated no inclination to get his
hands too dirty. No wonder, if he may even be in line for next year’s Leader of the Year
award. Maybe, persuade Modi to hand over the ‘prize.’