Going by the TV rants of his detractors, headlines in the media and aggressive trolls on social networks, the former president of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi, must be the most mocked, ridiculed and hounded politician in India today. But can he blame anyone else for this unenviable situation? The answer is: No.
People forget that he has been in politics for 15 years; he is a 3-time MP. And, he hasn’t been sitting idle and doodling at home either. He criss-crossed India to rediscover it like his great grandfather; he was the principal mascot of his party and campaigned energetically in 2014 and 2019 general elections while mounting personal attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Unfortunately, notwithstanding his vigorous campaigning, the fortunes of his party have been steadily shrinking, touching a dismal figure of 44 seats in the current Lok Sabha. In 2019, in Uttar Pradesh which has produced 4 Congress prime ministers and many cabinet ministers, Sonia Gandhi was the sole Congress winner. Rahul suffered the ignominy of losing his own seat in Amethi after having won it twice. Without the support of Malayalee Muslims in Wayanad in Kerala, he won’t have been in Parliament.
Recently, Rahul turned 50. Barack Obama, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron had made history by this milestone. When one looks at Rahul’s political journey so far, one gets a feeling that his train isn’t going anywhere and he is metamorphosing into a frustrated, clueless angry leader desperately struggling to remain relevant in Indian politics.
His upbringing, mindset, inability to connect and the company he keeps, lack of passion to achieve goals, narrow base of advisers and opposition from the party old guards have contributed to this sorry state of affairs.
Hailing from an illustrious political family with a silver spoon in his mouth, insulated and elitist upbringing, educated in premier institutions, Rahul betrays an inherent dislike for people of humble origin. He isn’t alone. Mani Shankar Aiyar and Sonia Gandhi have in the past used terms like ‘Chaiwala’, ‘Neech kisma ka insaan’, and ‘Maut ka saudagar’ for PM Modi. This attitude alienates a large number of voters whose social profile has changed over the years.
Rahul’s close aides, mostly from Wharton, Harvard and MIT in the US, are intelligent, hard-working, well-meaning and loyal technocrats. But having never contested any election, they are clueless about what clicks with voters and what it takes to win an election. Depending on their advice is short-sighted. Taking the British Foreign Secretary to sleep on the roof of Kalawati’s home in Amethi (she didn’t vote for the Congress) and telling villagers to develop at “Jupiter’s velocity” showed his disconnect with ordinary people and their problems.
During UPA-I and II, his sudden disappearances without telling his party officials where he was going and for how long, projected him as a part-time leader who didn’t take his responsibilities seriously and wasn’t too concerned about discomfiture of his party. His alleged statement in some sections of the media that becoming PM wasn’t a big deal and tearing off the Ordinance issued by the then UPA government underlined his arrogance and disrespect to the sitting Prime Minister of his own party.
He was reportedly keen to organise his party from the grassroots level by holding organisational elections but couldn’t take the exercise to logical conclusion. This didn’t catapult him as a harbinger of change. By the end of 2013, thanks to Anna Hazare’s anticorruption movement, a series of scams tumbling down the closets of several ministers, CAG scathing reports, stinking strictures of the Supreme Court, paralysis in governance, Congress’s defeat in 2014 seemed a foregone conclusion. Rahul couldn’t stop it. With his administrative and organisational experience, exceptional oratorical skill and ability to connect with the masses, Modi was unstoppable. Still he could have fared better had he offered a well-argued, practical and convincing alternative to governance. Rahul must realise that constantly attacking the PM is unproductive. PM Modi is the most popular national leader today.
Harping on Rafale deal, ‘Chaukidar chor hai’, ‘Surrender Modi’, etc, seems juvenile jabs and won’t harm the PM; instead, Rahul looks out of touch with prevailing mood. As Sharad Pawar says, while the country confronts the Chinese at the LAC, questioning PM Modi isn’t in order. If Rahul is serious about politics, he should first become a full-time politician, and raise issues that matter to the masses. Just attacking PM Modi won’t do him any good.
The author, a former Ambassador, writes on political and strategic affairs.