Rahul Gandhi’s debut speech as the Leader of Opposition was almost phoenix-like in its symbolism. The speech was much awaited by both his party and the treasury benches for this would set the mark for the opposition-government rapport in the Lok Sabha during this stint of the Modi government. It was Rahul who led the opposition’s reply to the President’s Address and he came armed with both aplomb and facts. Not to mention some hard earned gravitas. Gone was the Pappu of the last decade as the young leader stood tall and attacked the government both on its track record of the last decade, as well as its ideology. He brought the Hindutva fight from the streets to the halls of legislation – something that the ruling BJP has never hesitated to do.
There has always been a debate within the Congress that the party should not take the BJP on issues of religion because that is Prime Minister Modi’s strong point. His entire political identity is to fashion himself as the Hindu Hriday Samrat and he has very been successful in pulling this imagery off. However, unlike some of his party colleagues, Rahul has always maintained that the BJP’s Hindutva is not the Hinduism of the masses and is something that needs to be exposed. He never misses an opportunity to attack what Hindutva as a violent and fear provoking version of Hinduism. Rahul’s fight on this has been consistent – attack the very ideology that spawned the BJP and the RSS to power.
When the PM himself stood up to object, Rahul was quick to come up with a rebuttal, retorting that the PM does not stand for all Hindus, neither does Hindutva represent `real’ Hinduism. Earlier when Rahul Gandhi spoke in parliament the heckling was left to the likes of Smriti Irani and Anurag Thakur. But this time, as Leader of Opposition, Rahul got a status upgrade. It was the Prime Minister who stood up twice to object to some of his comments while sundry other cabinet ministers including the Home Minister joined in at various points.
This itself sent its own signal – a leader has arrived in the opposition ranks. A leader worth taking note of, and rebutting.
A lot has changed since Rahul took up the LoP job. He has sent a signal to the political class that he is no longer a political tourist but one who is finally in the game. Even before that, when he chose to hang on to the Rai Bareli seat and gave up his constituency in Kerala, it was clear that he had now his eyes on the top job. For it is Uttar Pradesh the heart of the hindi heartland that conventionally sends Prime Ministers to the center. The Rahul who said no to being a minister in Dr Manmohan Singh’s cabinet is now ready to try his hand at both governance and politics.
The post of the LoP comes with a cabinet rank. Moreover, as per convention the LoP is the de facto Prime Ministerial face of the Opposition and come next election, Rahul will probably take on the PM and lead the I.N.D.I.A bloc as its leader. Until then for the next five years we will see the ground being laid for that final battle as from now on, every Parliament debate is going to be seen as a referendum between Rahul versus Modi.