Last Monday, Congress
vice-president Rahul Gandhi was in Chandigarh
for a meeting with the ex-servicemen to impress them how his party made One
Rank One Pension possible. As the States of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal
Pradesh have a huge population of ex-servicemen, the choice of Chandigarh made
a political sense when the Lok Sabha election is weeks away. I do not know
whether Rahul managed to impress the former soldiers as I was not present in
the meeting but a colleague who was present, said he failed to do so.
But I will tell you about another
meeting where I was present. Gandhi took this opportunity to invite the Editors
and Resident Editors of English, Hindi and Punjabi newspapers to have what his
organisers said a “free-wheeling” discussion with him on anything under the
sun. I was one of those invited for the discussion along with two dozen odd
editors of newspapers based in Chandigarh
and Punjab . No one from the electronic media was invited
as one of the print editors quipped, “once bitten twice shy”. He was referring
to the disaster of an interview of Rahul with Times Now not long ago.
I suspect, the meeting with the
Editors was perhaps the first priority of Rahul and other meetings scheduled
with ex-servicemen, NSUI leaders and with the senior Congress functionaries
were incidental. Repeatedly showing indifference towards the media has taken a
heavy toll on Rahul’s image and he has been getting a bad press throughout. Of
late, he has tried to correct this image as Rahul himself said that he has been
meeting the editors wherever he is going for electioneering and party related
work. For a change, even his office in New Delhi has climbed down from the high
pedestal and started sending press releases and his photographs only now after
he completes a decade in politics.
Perhaps, Gandhi and his
cheerleaders always thought that media would lap whatever he said or did. It
will make a positive story out of all he does or doesn’t do and keep him in the
limelight in a positive way. But sheer arrogance of a decade hasn’t really
worked out. Bad press ahead of the Lok
Sabha elections has forced the Congress heir apparent to change his media
strategy and approach the press. So, I was there at the interaction which was
supposed to begin at 5.15 pm at the
Chandigarh Club. I did not mind when the interaction was delayed by almost an
hour as I expected Rahul to speak his mind out on national issues, hitherto a
forbidden area for him. But it was not to be.
In the entire conversation
spanning around 40 minutes, there was nothing significant which Rahul spoke and
which I already did not know as a journalist and an avid consumer of news. The
only thing, I thought, was different was the answer to a question as to why he
did not shave every day. Frustrated at his answers and strategy of ducking
inconvenient questions, a journalist, perhaps jokingly asked the question on
his shaving pattern and stubble and the perennial question, when will he get
married. On shaving every day, Rahul said his beard is hard and he finds it
inconvenient to shave everyday as he gets bruises. I never knew that and
returned enlightened. On the question of marriage, Rahul preferred to give an
expression of smile-cum-frustration but did not answer it making sure that the
journalist sounded silly asking this. Anyway, this question has been put to him
hundreds of time in the last 10 years and now no one bothers to ask it any
longer. Many think that he crossed the marriageable age long time ago; the
minimum legal age in India
to get married is 21. He will turn 44 in
June and in India
this is the age when many are in the process of getting their children married
and becoming grandparents.
Anyway, as he was continuously
talking about women empowerment in his entire conversation, another senior
journalist got an idea and said if he married, at least one woman would be
empowered. Rahul preferred to ignore the jibe which was perhaps aimed at him
taking refuge in the word “women empowerment” repeatedly.
At the outset when the ground
rules were set in for the interaction, we were told that it was an “off the
record” interaction and Gandhi should not be quoted. But when journalists
insisted, Gandhi simply said you may ask Ajay Maken (head of Congress media
department in New Delhi ) about it.
Come on Rahul, no one would take the trouble to call Maken as you never said
anything which was actually worth quoting. In any case being a party
vice-president you can easily take a decision on the spot if you want to be
quoted or not. Delegating such a simple decision to another party leader in
front of journalists does not speak well of your leadership qualities.
Without bothering whether it was
on the record or off, at the outset, I asked him about the opinion polls which
project the worst ever performance of Congress and the best ever by BJP and
what was his take on these polls. The Congress vice-president simply dismissed
the opinion polls saying that they were held in 2004 and even in 2009. He also
did not reply when reminded that these opinion polls predicted Congress defeat
in the four States which went for Assembly polls in December last year.
Then it was the turn of a
friendly editor, known for his pro-Congress inclination. He asked about the
vision of Gandhi about the issues facing the country. Now Gandhi’s eyes lit
bright and he jumped on the opportunity and lectured us on the importance of
women empowerment, bringing the poor above the poverty line, Right to Food
Bill, Right to Information and how his father Rajiv Gandhi brought computers in
the country and the Opposition at that time laughed at him. When the lecture
went on and on leaving the journalists exasperated, a nice soul interrupted the
monologue and put a question on lack of growth, employment opportunities and
economic downslide. Rahul thought for a while or at least made that expression
and came out with a gem — this was happening everywhere. Then all of a sudden,
he again jumped at the claim on how the UPA Government has brought in 15 crore
people from below to above poverty line.
In the entire interaction, Rahul
refused to reply directly to any question or suggestion, using vague ideas
throughout to put his obscured point of view through. He referred to various
“Rights” which UPA made as law, MGNREGAs, how the party brought Lok Pal Bill
but never talked about what the Government would do if voted to power and what
will be the agenda. He almost verbatim repeated what he said at Gannaur in
Haryana earlier on the same day while interacting with farmers. The rest of his
answers were from his speeches at public meetings all over the country, clearly
failing to realise that in this age of media boom and live telecast, a consumer
of news knows what he has spoken and where. He perhaps forgot that he was
interacting with senior media persons, not all of whom are reverential towards
the first family of Congress and want a Rajya Sabha berth under the nominated
category.
Asked about high command culture
prevalent in Congress and how every decision is taken in Delhi even as he
talked about democratisation in NSUI, Youth Congress and holding primaries in a
dozen odd seats, all he said was that more decentralisation was needed but
Congress was far better party than BJP in this regard. His attack on BJP was
all on similar lines which we have heard everywhere — power there (in BJP) is
concentrated in one person while we talk of empowering the people, they talk of
breaking and we talk of bringing people together etc.
I remember a similar interaction
with Rahul almost five years ago at his 12 Tughlaq Lane
residence-cum-office in New Delhi .
Around 30 journalists covering the Congress party as a beat got a call to make
it to the interaction with Gandhi who was then a party General Secretary.
Surprised, everyone who got the call went there, yours truly included. Again,
it was a monologue, ducking inconvenient questions, talking about what he knew
rather than what was being asked. Finally, it was agreed that the entire
conservation and interaction would be “off the record” on the promise of Rahul
and his aide Kanishka Singh that it would become a regular feature. It never
became a regular feature and it is only now when Lok Sabha elections are round
the corner that Rahul has again thought of engaging with media persons —
something which he always thought was not worth doing or below his stature left
at best for the battery of spokespersons.
So, there we are. Even after interacting with
Rahul in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, hearing his speeches all over the
country on news channels and reading it on websites and newspapers, going
through the press releases which his office sends regularly on my e-mail ID, I
am not any wiser. I still do not know what is Rahul’s stand on various issues,
what is his blueprint for economic growth and social equity, how is he better
than his opponents and how will he tackle various economic and social
challenges.
It seems Rahul has stopped
learning as the interaction at 12 Tughlaq Lane
in New Delhi almost five years ago
was no different from the one at Chandigarh Club last Monday. In five years you
can do a PhD in two subjects but Gandhi remained the same. Both interactions
were vague, without any substance, unappealing and even if you went there with
the intention to support Congress, you will return and vow not to vote for the
party given the naiveté of the heir apparent, dismissive approach, air of
arrogance, contempt for those opposed to his idea and un-accommodative
authoritarian approach in functioning.
Perhaps a stint in Opposition
would teach him what 10 years in Government has not been able to do. Perhaps he
will have to unlearn what he has learnt so far in politics and make a fresh
beginning to sound appealing. After all he is not heading a 10-member NGO but
is the de facto head of a 128-year-old party.
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