VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
The entire week and the month,
people of the country were obsessed with cricket legend Sachin Tendukar’s last
Test match and the kind of farewell and honour of Bharat Ratna he got after his
last international match.
This was of course on expected
lines in the cricket crazy nation. Cricket and politics remain the favourite
pastime of the county and if you add films to it, the list gets exhausted for
most of us. As Tendulkar finally left the cricket field after a career spanning
almost two-and-a-half decades, the spotlight has shifted back to politics where
BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is locked in a bitter war of
words with Rahul Gandhi, the undeclared PM candidate of the Congress.
What is problematic for Rahul is
the fact that he has not seen life beyond power in the last almost a decade
ever since he joined active politics as a MP from Amethi. This is hampering his
campaign and issues he is raising. He is used to a position of power from where
he can dictate his terms even to the Prime Minister. The Government had to take
back its Ordinance on convicted leaders after Rahul’s intervention. This is
enjoying real, unbridled power. People find his rhetoric championing the cause
of the poor bereft of substance due to his elitist upbringing and belonging to
a dynasty which has been in prominence for a century in this country. There was
an Internet chain mail, which proclaimed that no one from the Nehru-Gandhi
dynasty has worked for a living for the last 100 years. Gandhi tried to change
this perception but this boomeranged. This image cannot be shed by eating in a
dalit household once in Uttar Pradesh or using the name of Kalawati, only to
forget her completely. He did not show any seriousness towards their cause once
the photo-op and news-op was over.
Modi, on the other hand, is
projecting himself as the underdog (a tea seller, from a poor family etc).
Ironically, this is the very section the scion of the Gandhi-Nehru family is
trying to woo courtesy the Right to Food Bill, Land Acquisition Bill etc. But
no one is buying the argument of the Congress and they are rightly asking
questions to Gandhi. Tell us first what
you did in the last decade of governance? Tell us the reasons why should we
vote for you this time round also? Tell us what different would you do in 2014
if voted to power again? These are the questions and issues where Rahul and his
party are left fending for proper answers.
Sitting on the fence as an
observer, I sometimes feel that life is indeed difficult for a politician in
power. There is so much of ammunition to fire at those in power that it is
indeed extremely difficult to answer all those queries. This is perhaps
anti-incumbency troubling both Rahul and his party. And if this anti-incumbency
is there for 10 years when the level of expectation is very high, it is a sign
of trouble.
On the other hand, political life
is trouble free for those in Opposition. BJP does not have to answer for price
rise, inflation, national security, foreign policy issues, unemployment,
recession, corruption, scams etc. Recall the golden days of the Opposition when
an eloquent Atal Bihari Vajpayee used to target the then Congress Governments
with his wit and humour, both inside and outside the Parliament.
As the campaign for 2014 unfolds,
Modi is not facing the same handicap which perhaps Rahul is facing. The
Congress vice-president simply cannot answer the acts of omission and
commission which his government did in the last almost a decade. No one can do
when a mediocre government only worked for short term goals rather than
concrete long term measures.
Modi knows how to play to the
gallery. He has learnt the art from Vajpayee and other Sangh stalwarts and BJP
leaders. He knows how and where to target and this perhaps established a chord
with a section of the new voters. Being in the opposition at the national level
has only helped his cause. His party was in power almost a decade ago and he is
not supposed to answer for this alleged sins. Being the Chief Minister of Gujarat
has helped as he has to showcase the achievements of a state which was already
developed in most of the parameters. All you had to do was to improve upon
those parameters. Everyone in the country knows that you cannot replicate the
so called Gujarat model in Bihar
or West Bengal nor is it possible. But Modi has
definitely managed to sell a dream to the people.
It seems people have seen enough
of Rahul in his last two terms as MP and his USP has worn out. He was AICC
General Secretary in-charge of Youth Congress and NSUI. Nothing dramatic
happened to these organisations nor did they become dynamic under his
stewardship. He spoke of democratisation and elections in the youth wings, this
happened in a limited way but the hypocrisy was exposed when parent Congress
remained the way it was. Rahul also spoke of dynasty, patronage and money in
politics. This malaise is more widespread in Congress itself than BJP. So all
those ideas and principles for which Gandhi stood for has collapsed in front of
him.
Modi is a dream seller. It has
been a meteoric rise for him — from a tea vendor to a lowly RSS pracharak to
the charioteer of LK Advani’s rathyatra and backroom boy of the BJP on Ashoka
Road . Then it was the post of Gujarat Chief Minister
and now the prime ministerial candidate of the party. Modi wants to show to the
people that through sheer hard work, he has risen to the position of eminence
and has traversed a long but difficult path. Contrarily, Rahul got everything
on a platter and could not even manage what he had on the platter and spilled
it out. This is being sold to the voters and they seem to be purchasing the
idea. (November 18, 2013)
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