Open Forum
New Delhi, 14 October 2016
Modi Bashing
RAHUL’S ONLY FORTE
By Proloy Bagchi
Plummeting
standards of political discourse in the country can surprisingly be largely
attributed to its “Grand Old Party”, the Indian National Congress. We saw it
when Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat
and we see it now when he is the country’s Prime Minister. Nothing seems to
have changed. It’s just gotten worse.
Some years
ago, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, called Modi, then Gujarat Chief Minister
“maut ka saudagar” (merchant of
death), hinting at his alleged role in the Gujarat communal riots of 2002. She,
as the head of her supposedly secular party only had in mind the violence of
Hindu “communalists” forgetting that they were reacting to the Godhra carnage
that preceded and provoked it.
If innocent
Muslims were killed by the rioting mobs, the killings in the railway coaches
were premeditated, had been preceded by elaborate preparations and were
perpetrated on equally innocent travellers. When Gujarat
riots are mentioned the killings in Godhra are hardly ever mentioned. In my opinion,
these two tragic and unsavoury events should be mentioned in the same breath
otherwise it wouldn’t be secular enough.
All that,
however, is beside the point. What we came out to discuss was the plummeting
standards of political discourse. Looks like, Sonia threw the first stone, so
to say. Now, years later, her son and Vice President Rahul Gandhi has made a
similar goofy statement abusing the Prime Minister in very crude terms. Winding
up his political campaign in UP, he said in Delhi that Modi, was hiding behind the blood
of “jawans” (soldiers who were killed in the Uri attack). He went on to accuse
Modi of indulging in “khoon ki dalali”
(blood brokerage) of army men, whatever that meant.
Apparently,
he could not, as usual, express properly whatever he had in mind. Predictably,
all hell broke loose and soon thereafter a series of press briefings had to be
conducted by his Party to clarify the matter and justify whatever utterances he
made. Presumably, in order to make the briefings more effective Kapil Sibal, a
senior member and a highly acclaimed lawyer to boot, was asked to meet the Press.
The briefings
were just to put across what Rahul had intended to convey, which he apparently
failed to do giving rise to a barrage of barbs. Numerous statements were issued
on his statements which were generally construed as insult of the Forces in an
effort to politically attack the PM. His statements were somewhat surprising in
the background of his appreciative remarks earlier when he said that the
surgical strike was the first PM-like action of Modi.
Nonetheless,
the statements came in for adverse comments by political parties, which
condemned it as an effort to insult the “Army’s valour”. All round denunciation
of his remarks came not only from BJP President Amit Shah but even Arvind
Kejrival, no admirer of Modi. Also the NCP President and a former Congressman
Sharad Pawar too disapproved of Rahul’s remarks. Even Sonia’s greatest
sycophant and RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav strongly criticised and said
Rahul failed to put across his views in a proper manner.
However,
much Sibal may have tried to justify Rahul’s outburst, his arguments did not
convince anybody. He as well as the Congress knew it. Rahul had indulged in
some shooting of the mouth out of his visceral hatred for Modi and that was
clear. He hardly has any control over his thought process and much less on his
expression. With his hatred for Modi and BJP he gets carried away when he occupies
a pulpit and wants to hit both of them hard even if that happens to be uncivil
and crude.
Attacking
Modi seems to be a pastime with him. Modi, perhaps, presents a larger than life
presence to him in front of which he finds himself far too diminutive – which,
in fact, he seems to be. He is a reluctant politician and seems to have no
mettle for it. His inferiority complex, regardless of the boost given to him by
his mother and her sycophants, apparently, doesn’t allow him to climb up to the
political stature that his status in his Party demands. All said and done, he
is unequal to the job that has been chosen for him by his mother and the Party
over which she presides.
Ever since
Modi formed the Government on his own steam, Rahul has been trying to nibble at
him. With the kind of majority that Modi mustered at the hustings in 2014, he
never had any worries and has largely ignored Rahul’s jibes. Having no issues,
Rahul started with the bogey of Modi’s suit worth Rs 10 lakhs (Rs one million)
that was a gift from one of his admirers. Modi wore it perhaps only once when
Obama was in India
and then had it auctioned where it fetched Rs. 4 crore (Rs. 40 million).
Then he
started a campaign to run down Modi’s government calling it “suit boot ki sarkar” (a government of
suited and booted gentlemen) and went to town telling people that such a Government
would do nothing for the poor. In the process, he would claim that he and his
party men work only for the poor whereas this Government worked merely for the
rich.
He clean
forgot his grandmother’s slogan of “garibi
hatao” (eliminate poverty) adopted over 40 years ago which was a fraud
played on the people. Poverty prevailed as her government promoted nothing but
corruption. Her daughter in-law had to initiate a poverty alleviation programme
in 2004 through the newly installed UPA government, which enacted Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Rahul had
also been criticising Modi’s foreign trips telling people that while the PM
goes visiting foreign countries, farmers continue to commit suicide at home. He
made it appear as if the farmers’ suicides could be attributed to the PM’s absences
abroad. This was another way of running
down Modi.
One doesn’t
know whether he found a corner to hide when the reports in the press indicated
that messages were received promptly after the Uri attack from the heads of
most of the governments of the countries that Modi visited. During his trips
abroad he developed personal relations with the heads of States/governments
particularly of the West. No Prime Minister earlier was ever able to forge such
close personal relationships with the leaders of the First World as also those
of the Third World.
Despite his
illustrious lineage Rahul has never been able to attain the heights of his
elders in the family. His grandfather, Feroze Gandhi, was a remarkable parliamentarian
and he had such guts that he could take on even his own father in-law
Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister. He could do all that because of his
political acumen, innate ability, tenacity and integrity. Somehow, Rahul lacks
all that and yet he is being made to strut around in the country’s political
firmament as a political leader. His is not politics; his forte appears to be
in slinging mud at those who happen to be in power. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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