The long wait may be over but many questions remain

 

That Rahul Gandhi is finally being elevated to lead the Congress is not surprising at all. Nevertheless, the million dollar question is: Has the Congress scion developed the political acumen to take on the BJP?

Amitabh Shukla

It was one of the worst kept or rather the most publicized secret of Indian politics — Rahul Gandhi becoming the president of the Congress. Ever since he came into politics and contested the Amethi Lok Sabha seat 13 years ago in 2004, there was not even an iota of doubt that he would be the top boss of the party one day.

The reason is simple: ‘Dynasty’ is the keyword for the Congress and a leader, whose mother, father, grandmother and great grandfather have been Congress presidents, would naturally take over the mantle some day. There is no rocket science involved here and everyone, even in the remotest part of the country, perhaps, knew it. It was simply a matter of time as the question merely was ‘when’ and not ‘who’.

No wonder, soon after he became an MP, there had been a consistent clamour by an overwhelming section of the younger generation of Congress leaders, primarily the dynasts and speculation in the middle and upper echelons of the deeply entrenched party men and women, as to when and how will Rahul Gandhi take over from his mother, Sonia Gandhi.

Now that the decks have been cleared and the heir-apparent for a long time would finally take over as Congress president in the first week of December, speculations will finally end. In fact, after having occupied the post of the party president for the highest number of years in the entire 132-year-old history of the Congress, speculation would now be on the role of party chief Sonia Gandhi in the grand old party. Also, what will now be the role of the old guard of the Congress, which has been consistently loyal to Sonia Gandhi and who managed to read her mind over the years as also influenced her directly or indirectly, occasionally in conflict with the stated desires of the younger Gandhi. 

Perhaps what prompted the Congress to anoint Rahul Gandhi as the new party chief at this juncture in the month, when the Congress was founded in 1885, was the perpetual indisposition of 70-year-old Sonia Gandhi. In the high decibel, Himachal Pradesh Assembly election, she did not campaign at all. Even in the ongoing campaign in Gujarat, she is conspicuous by her absence. She was vacationing in Himachal Pradesh when a small bout of illness again forced her to go back to Delhi. She has been in and out of India for treatment for a while now.

In fact, it was the 47-year-old Rahul Gandhi, who was made the party vice president in 2013, who was the de facto party president for the last four years after officially becoming the Number Two in the party hierarchy at the Jaipur convention. It is a different matter that now, this official No. 2 position is being sought to be elevated to Number 1, even though the entire brass of the party knows that the actual decision-making since 2013 was being done by Rahul Gandhi himself.

The million dollar or rather the billion rupee question is: Has Rahul Gandhi re-invented himself to take on the mantle of not only the Congress but also the electoral charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi?

As we can see in the electoral polity, it is increasingly becoming a clash of towering personalities, something similar to the presidential form of contest and electioneering in the United States. Rahul Gandhi proved himself to be incapable of taking on Prime Minister Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, followed by several Assembly elections, the most important of which was the Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll.

In his home State, Rahul Gandhi himself selected the candidates, and decided to go for an electoral alliance with the Samajwadi Party and then faced one of the most crushing defeats of his lifetime, the second time in a row. When he took the mantle in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh poll, taking all decisions, the party just managed a little over five per cent of the seats. Both in 2012 and 2017, the entire political strategy in the largest State of the country of the soon-to-become Congress president collapsed like a house of cards, exposing him to several uncomfortable and probing questions.

Of course, what saved Rahul Gandhi from a complete political humiliation in March this year was the redemption in Punjab to a great extent. Here again, in the clash of two personalities — Capt Amarinder Singh on one side and the Badal duo on the other (Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal), the former won. Even though Rahul Gandhi’s political strategy was limited to non-interference in Punjab affairs and leaving almost everything to Capt Amarinder, no one would really call it a sign of a maturing Rahul Gandhi. Punjab cannot really be termed as a victory for Rahul Gandhi’s political acumen. Not even the staunchest Congress supporter would buy that argument.

So, what has changed between the disaster of Uttar Pradesh in March and certain ascension of Rahul Gandhi in December? Politically, nothing but perception wise, the Congress is thinking that the tide is somewhat turning against the BJP at the Centre and it is the right time for Rahul Gandhi to take over so that he can be projected as a leader of stature against Modi in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. The party, perhaps, thinks that by projecting a prime ministerial candidate, they would be able to stitch up an anti-Modi alliance in the remaining months.

There is also a belief amongst Congress strategists that an element of voter fatigue with the BJP has crept in after being in power for three and a half years at the Centre and they are increasingly finding traction once again amongst the electorate.

In the last six months or so, speeches of Rahul Gandhi in foreign countries and during election campaigns in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, is being cited as signs of the maturing of a leader. Of course, Rahul Gandhi does not sound immature now the way he did all through his tenure as a politician, it remains to be seen how it translates into votes in the near future. In fact, trust deficit of the electorate with the Congress has only widened over the years and months since the summer of 2014, when the grand old party of the country was reduced to its lowest figure in its entire electoral history of independent India.

Instead of reinventing itself in any big way and offering a new narrative to counter the electoral juggernaut of the BJP, the Congress is more or less counting on anti-incumbency, if any, against the Modi Government and is hoping that the alleged negative impact of demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax on the economy would help it overcome the political odds stacked against it. Being the principal opposition party at the Centre and most States, it is hoping that it would come to power by default rather than by a concrete design and roadmap. Is it a mere wishful thinking or is there any concrete electoral traction on the ground, only the results of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat on December 18 would show.

Rahul Gandhi would become the party president in the middle of the Gujarat election campaign — a State where the party is hoping to make a comeback bid. Not that the Congress hopefuls are hoping to return to power in a State where they have been out of the equation for decades. All they are thinking at this moment is a good show to use it as a launch pad for the next 16 months when the rival political parties would try to match each other in high decibel in the run up to the general election of 2019. (Nov 26, 2017)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/agenda/opinion/the-long-wait-may-be-over-but-many-questions-remain.html

Rahul Gandhi Version 2.0.0

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA

On Sunday, Ramlila Ground in the heart of Delhi saw the “relaunch” of Rahul Gandhi. Those who had thought that the new version of the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty would be better and faster than the previous one came out thoroughly disappointed after the rally. Sabbatical of almost two months and Buddhist style vipassana, tantra or whatever mysterious cult he practiced over the last few weeks, proved to be of no use as he used the same jaded language and took up the same issue on which the voters had rejected his party in the May 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The anti economic reform rhetoric and leftist agenda which he spoke from the dais was exactly he had been speaking uninterruptedly for the last few years. What was new in this?  So the launch of Rahul Gandhi version 2.0.0 seemed entirely uneventful and bereft of anything new and different. We had been repeatedly told by a battery of Congress spokespersons and those who swear by the dynasty that the new version of Gandhi would be different from the earlier one as he was into some introspection about the party and its policies and come out with the proverbial magic wand for its revival.

Will they now come out and say that the sabbatical, holidays, sightseeing; pleasure trip… or whatever you call his absence has actually benefitted the party?

Why has Rahul Gandhi become the source of biggest embarrassment for the family-run-and-controlled party? The answer is not far to seek. He is simply not interested in politics, not ready for the top job forced on him, not fit to take political responsibilities which his mother and others want him to shoulder. It’s like a great cricketer forcing his son to become a cricketer even though he wants to be become a rockstar or a writer. It’s like a classical vocalist who wants his son to become like him but the son is hellbent on becoming a fashion designer. It’s like someone forcing a journalist like me in his early 40s to become a marathon runner. Sonia Gandhi may be a great political strategist as the arrangement with Manmohan Singh showed, the longest serving Congress President in its history but that does not mean that because he is her son, Rahul too would be as “successful”.

I don’t understand why the Congress, particularly Sonia Gandhi, doesn’t realise that Rahul is simply not cut out to be a politician. He could be anything — a great yoga master, a Formula One driver, a Buddhist master excelling in the finer techniques of meditation, someone who can have a great control on his breath and is excellent in pranayama, a fitness freak and instructor and may even start lessons in positive thinking or giving sermons on religion and spirituality on television. His career, priority and interests lie somewhere else. But Congress wants him to become the party president, an election winning poster boy of the party, someone who inspires youth and is voted to power. I am sorry but they are betting on the wrong person. Rahul has been and would always remain a reluctant politician.      

What we saw at Ramlila Ground was paid Congress crowd, hardly interested in what Rahul or party chief Sonia Gandhi spoke from the stage. From Haryana and Punjab, busloads of people were brought in the national Capital, paid for missing their daily job, provided food, transport and entertainment allowance. It’s anybody’s guess how many of them were farmers.

Ironically the farmers of both Haryana and Punjab are ruing the loss of their wheat crop due to vagaries of nature and trying to somehow convince the procurement agencies that the poor quality of the crop be overlooked while being procured. That is their worry, not Land Acquisition Bill. In any case, farmers in Haryana and Punjab practically get market rate for their land acquired and most of them would rather want their land to be acquired for a quick buck as it saves them the social stigma of selling their land when returns from practicing agriculture is diminishing.  

So when Rahul spoke against the Land Acquisition Bill after his nearly two-month absence from the country, it seemed like a fly by night operator who was forced by the circumstances to say something in which he was neither interested nor convinced. It was like a professional golfer giving lessons on fish farming in a village, it was like a priest in a temple who has been forced to dance in a discotheque. The assembled crowd at Ramlila Ground endured the speeches for a while, had plenty of water and then preferred to go back to the safe confines of the buses and vehicles which had brought them to the venue from different places in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.

It’s not surprising that Congress is vertically divided on the name of Rahul Gandhi as the new Congress President. For the first time perhaps, Congress leaders are fighting amongst themselves and issuing contradicting statements on the name of Rahul. In Punjab, state Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa and former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh are abusing each other left right and centre in public almost every day. While Bajwa wants Rahul as party President, Capt Amarinder wants Sonia to continue.

In Haryana, State party chief Ashok Tanwar and CLP leader Kiran Chaudhry want Rahul, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda swears by his mother.

This is practically the situation in almost all states where Congress has any semblance of presence. A comic situation has emerged where a faction is supporting Rahul for its survival and the other Sonia, forgetting that no one is going anywhere in the family run organisation. They are stabbing each other but raising the slogans of Rahul Zindabad or Sonia Zindabad, to camouflage their bitter factional fight. Capt Amarinder knows that Bajwa has the confidence of Rahul and would not be removed from the post which he badly wants. So, you see him saying that Rahul is not experienced enough for the top job. He knows for sure that if Rahul becomes the party chief, he would have to seek VRS and head for his summer palace in Chail, Himachal Pradesh.

Instead of looking for ways and means to rejuvenate itself and look forward for the challenges ahead, the badly battered and bruised Congress has reduced itself to a laughing stock. Of course, Rahul is one big reason for this.

He has become a butt of jokes on social media. In fact, on WhatsApp and Twitter, most of the jokes are at the cost of the Congress Vice President. How can the party not see the writing on the wall and keep forcing Rahul to accept a job in which he has little or no interest or at best only a part time interest as he has not yet found what interests him the most.  

Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has already spoken about this and so has her son and former East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit. For the first time, Congressmen and women are speaking out against someone from the dynasty. This has never happened in the past. No one spoke against Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi being still a member of the party.

This is happening for the first time in the post independence history of the Congress. Is this political churning of a new kind, only time will reveal. But what is certain is that Congress is riding on two boats at the same time and that only leads to disaster. (April 20, 2015)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/2015-04-19-90447.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/rahul-gandhi-version-200.html

Do not expect dramatic changes in Congress under Rahul

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA

The vanishing act of Rahul Gandhi has led to a lot of speculations and triggered a wave of expectations as to what would happen after his return. A case has been made out where old and new Congress leaders are apprehending a series of changes in the party after the heir apparent becomes Congress president sometime in April.

The more the 130-year-old party changes, the more it remains the same. Rahul Gandhi has been an MP for a long time now, also a general secretary for the party for over half a decade and a vice president for over two years. He is de facto the no. 1 in his party even though his mother is the Congress president.

Towards the close of the last term of UPA, the 44-year-old Rahul assumed almost total control of the party in its entire decision making. Sonia Gandhi merely has the veto power as of now. Everyone in the party and even outside it has seen how he functions, how he speaks in public meetings, what kind of role he plays as an MP in Lok Sabha, and what kind of leadership abilities he has shown over the last few years.

So it would be interesting to see what kind of change is brought in the party structure after Rahul assumes complete control and takes decisions independently without the influence of the old guard. Given the way Congress has been functioning over the years and decades and how Rahul has himself worked, I do not visualise any drastic changes and whatever steps are taken by the new dispensation in the party would merely be cosmetic.

For instance when Rahul becomes the president, his mother could be elevated as the patron of the party or another suitable designation could be found for her. It is extremely difficult to visualise Sonia Gandhi retiring from public life completely in favour of her son.

 This has never happened in Gandhi family, no one has ever retired. Jawaharlal Nehru died as a Prime Minister in 1964 and so did Indira Gandhi when she was assassinated two decades later in 1984. Her younger son Sanjay died in a plane crash in 1980 and the elder son Rajiv Gandhi assassinated while leading his party’s campaign to return to power in 1991.

In Congress like most of the parties, ‘Power’ is worship — a glue which binds the party and Sonia Gandhi must have realised this over the years as the longest-serving party president. Retiring from public life in such a situation would perhaps be the last option.

So the point is even if Rahul becomes party chief, Sonia would continue to hold considerable power in the power structure of the party with whatever designation she has. In such a scenario, Rahul will have to abide by the veto power of his mother. If that remains the case, she will continue to have her own set of loyalists in some position of power or the other.

At the most, Rahul would change or reshuffle a few general secretaries and make changes in the AICC Secretariat. Some old Sonia loyalists like Janardan Dwivedi, Motilal Vora and a couple more may find themselves in the cold. Like Narendra Modi’s Cabinet where the age limit is 75 years, he may bring in a retirement policy and fix an age ceiling for the leaders. Some could be forcibly retired by the young and impatient Rahul. But will that change the face of the Congress? Extremely unlikely.

In the last three years, Rahul has taken most of the important decisions of Congress and almost all of them have boomeranged on the party and proved to be non-starters. The first major decision was to single-handedly fight the Uttar Pradesh elections of February 2012.

 Rahul chose all the candidates, carpet bombed UP with a series of meetings and created a hype, something unheard of in the Congress. The disaster was there for all to see with the Congress barely getting over a dozen seats and all Rahul camp followers having egg on their face.   

Of course, the most recent disaster was the 2014 Lok Sabha polls where Rahul was the Prime Ministerial candidate of the party and Congress returned with the most disastrous performance in the history of Indian elections and failed even to get 10 per cent seats and the position of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.

There were many electoral reverses all the way where Rahul led from the front and except Karnataka in May 2013, the party failed to win even the State elections anywhere in the country. The situation has come to such a pass in the Congress now that it is finding it difficult to win even the municipal polls in States where it had complete control on all the levels of power not long ago. In fact, changes like making Sachin Pilot the President of Rajasthan Congress was entirely Rahul’s idea.

 It did not change the fortunes of the party where BJP got three-fourths of a majority. Making Ashok Tanwar, the President of Haryana Congress too was the brainchild of Rahul. It didn’t have any impact as BJP swept to power for the first time in the State. In Delhi, Ajay Maken, a hardcore Rahul loyalist, has two successive failures in his report card.

 He was first made the media face of the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls by Rahul and the results were disastrous. Soon, the Congress vice president sent him to Delhi as the chief ministerial candidate of the party by Rahul and he not only lost his seat but the party failed to even open its account in the Assembly.

I am not sure if any decision taken by Rahul has proved to be electorally beneficial for his party in the recent months and years. There is no magic wand for Congress and Rahul. The crisis is deep and is there for all to see. Rahul will have to sweat it out in the dusty lanes and bylanes, villages and cities of the country to build a base for the party afresh.

Instead he chose a vacation for no one knows what. He will have to grind it the hard way, innovate new communication strategy and devise ways and means to connect to the youth.  He will have to lead from the front, counter the ruling party more effectively than he has done till now, be accessible to the party leaders and workers and provide answers to the questions which the people and Congress workers want. The million dollar question: Is Rahul willing to do that? Only he will be able to answer it in the next few months after taking over as the Congress president from his mother, if that indeed is the plan. (March 16, 2015)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/do-not-expect-dramatic-changes-in-cong-under-rahul.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/2015-03-15-86272.html

BJP only uses 'Me' while Cong uses 'We': Rahul

 

Amitabh Shukla | Solan

After the successful rallies of Narendra Modi in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress replied effectively on Thursday with two back-to-back rallies of party vice president Rahul Gandhi at Bilaspur in Hamirpur constituency and Solan in Shimla constituency.

Being more of a show of strength as Modi had addressed a massive rally here only two days ago, the Congress had mobilised all its resources to ensure maximum presence at the grounds of the Police Lines here in Solan, ensuring a massive traffic snarl on the serpentine hill road connecting State Capital Shimla to the plains. The picturesque ground was full to the capacity and youth dominated the audience even as vehicles mounted with loudspeakers roamed all around Solan asking people to “benefit” from the words of Gandhi.

Despite the hype and mobilisation, Gandhi did not say anything which he has not said in his rallies all over the country, he nevertheless linked Modi with RSS and accused the organisation of a regressive ideology in his two rallies.

“This is a clash of two ideologies. Our thinking is to take everyone along, we think about a Hindustani, they (BJP) think about other divisions... They only use the word “me” while Congress uses the word “we”. Congress talks to everybody, they do not do so,” said the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty on a bright sunny day. The Himachalis listened with rapt attention, occasionally applauding.

Gandhi also brought in his oft-repeated accusation against the alleged links of Modi with the Adani group and how land was given to it for a song, forgetting that land acquisition was hardly a poll issue in Himachal Pradesh as it is a hilly State and large scale acquisition was not possible except for power projects.

The connect of Gandhi with the people whom he was addressing was clearly missing even as most those who had come to the venue were Congress supporters brought in all types of vehicles from far-off regions of the State, including from the tribal areas of Kinnaur and even Lahaul and Spiti. The local leaders who had brought in the bus load of people proudly displayed their banners and names to take the mileage as Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was there and so was Youth Congress president Vikramaditya Singh. A lot of them were disappointed as Gandhi did not touch on the issue of remunerative prices for apples and taking steps against imported apples which people from the upper hills wanted to hear.

A group in the rally was carrying the banner of ex-servicemen and when Gandhi brought in the issue of One-rank-one-pension, there was a buzz and some excitement in this group. With armed forces a sought after career option in Himachal Pradesh, the issue also jelled with the volunteers of the youth Congress,

some of whom wanted to join the services.

But clearly, the local connect and highlighting local issues was missing from both the rallies as he merely focused on the issues being raked up by the party nationally.

“You have a Congress Government in Himachal Pradesh. If you also have a Congress Government at the Centre, there can be an effective partnership. We will extend all possible help for Himachal’s progress. Support Congress and elect our candidates to forge a good partnership and to transform Himachal Pradesh,” he said. This was perhaps the only statement of Gandhi which pertained to Himachal Pradesh.

The Congress vice president again harped on the “Rights” which the UPA Government brought in the last 10 years and said if voted to power, the party would bring in right to health and right to minimum pension for the elderly.

Gandhi claimed that Congress would push 70 crore people in the middle class in the next five years. “We gave you right to food, we want to give more…” Gandhi continued in one of the most prosperous States of the country, where not many would utilise the freebies which the UPA Government has been doling out and promising.

In Shimla, Congress candidate Mohan Lal Brakta is pitted against sitting BJP MP Virendra Kashyap.

It is a traditional Congress stronghold but BJP has made massive gains in recent years and won it after a long gap in 2009. Locals here say that the electoral battle in this reserved seat, comprising a huge geographical area, is tantalisingly close as Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has put in a lot of effort in campaigning despite his age. (May 2, 1014)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/bjp-only-uses-me-while-cong-uses-we-rahul.html

 http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/bjp-only-uses-me-while-cong-uses-we-rahul.html

Amethi-Raebareli models versus Gujarat model

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA

The electorate of the country seems to have made a decision and there is little doubt left that Congress is on its way out and NDA almost ready to occupy the office space of Prime Minister at South Block along with the ministerial buildings in Lutyen’s Delhi.

As the Congress is headed for its worst ever defeat in the last 62 years, BJP is headed for its best ever in the 34 years of its formation after 1980. It must indeed be gratifying for those involved in the formation of BJP after the fiasco of the Janata Party that from two seats in 1984 versus 410 seats of the Congress, it is headed to form the next Government in the Centre.

Demoralised workers of the Congress versus enthusiastic workers of the BJP tell the story in various parts of the country, which are yet to go to polls. Despite 10 years of rule, the party workers and candidates of the ruling party do not know how to approach the electorate and with what. Despite a manifesto, they do not know what promises to make and to which section. They are putting up a brave face even though they know what is in store for them. 

Sometimes, I am amazed at the way Congress is brazenly mocking at the Gujarat model of development. Agreed that the Gujarat model is for the big Capital but at the end of the day, it has generated employment  opportunities, increased the GDP of the State, enhanced tax collection and general prosperity with several ancillary units coming up to supplement the bigger industries. Of course, Gujarat was always a developed State and Narendra Modi perhaps played no more a role than that of a catalyst. The Gujarat model may also have its limitations and cannot be implemented in States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal where local economy has to be factored in for any scheme. But to out rightly reject it, the way Congress is doing, is simply amusing to say the least.  

Now, compare it with the Amethi and Raebareli models of development, patented by the Congress. Here, I have travelled extensively and amazed at the backwardness of the region despite electing Congress Prime Ministers, Congress presidents and vice-presidents since decades. Remember, Indira Gandhi represented Raebareli while her son Sanjay Gandhi and later Rajiv Gandhi represented Amethi. The same is the situation now, with mother-son representing the two constituencies — Raebareli by Congress president and Amethi by its vice-president.

All you see here in vast rural landscape of the two constituencies are remnants of petrol pumps. The party and its Government only allotted petrol pumps, LPG dealership and kerosene depots to their followers over the years. The concentration is so dense that there are petrol pumps and LPG dealers every 2-km in the two constituencies — something unheard of anywhere in rural India. In the twin constituencies, primarily rural, the vehicle penetration is so low that a lot of these petrol pumps have either closed down or exist just for the sake of it as many cater to not more than 2-3 vehicles a day. So this is the model of development of Amethi and Raebareli.

Then in all these decades when the two constituencies of UP have been electing Prime Ministers, Congress presidents and de facto Prime Ministers, all they have got are a few showpiece like a flying academy here or a footwear institute there, a railway coach factory now and a hospital. Some private sector investment did come after Rajiv Gandhi won in 1984 and became Prime Minister but then the industrialists got land at a throwaway price and wanted other concessions from the then Congress Government. They set up temporary shades, started some manufacturing in huge gated and walled complexes and gradually abandoned them. All of them are now firmly closed even as some are being used as prime real estate. 

In short, that is Amethi and Raebareli models of development where power always plays truant, you have to walk a considerable distance to get to a cyber café or eat a hygienic meal in a hotel. You will be lucky to find a decent hotel with power back up and without mosquitoes for company. The roads remain bumpy and the situation worsens in the monsoons.

Whenever I visited the two constituencies in the past, I always wondered what have the Gandhis done for the area to command absolute loyalty of the voters. Except for the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Munshiganj (Amethi) where the health service is top class, there is nothing modern in the entire area. You do not have to be a statistician or a sociologist to map the backwardness of the area. It speaks loud and clear as soon as you enter the two constituencies. A local Congress worker once told me the secret behind Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. Rahul Gandhi stays in its guesthouse whenever he visits the constituency and that is the reason it gets some attention and patients are taken care off through a trust.

This makes me wonder, if you cannot even improve the lifestyle of the people who have been voting you for decades and are loyal followers, what will you do for the country? You have been taking the people of Amethi and Raebareli for granted, not for a year or two but for decades — four decades. Paternalism of the royal style is not going to help here. This is what you have been doing for decades, make a flash visit, appear in a wedding function, wave from your SUV, eat a lunch on the roadside for photo-op, sit on the ground for a while and then disappear to the comfort of your home in New Delhi. People of the country have seen through this façade.

The Amethi and Raebareli models glorify poverty, teach you how to live with minimum resources and also tell you not to aspire for anything — jobs, better education, modern life style, electricity, etc. I would take the risk of being termed cynical, but perhaps there is a vested interest is keeping the people in the trap of poverty to command their loyalty. It is like the royal families of the country who still command respect in the small areas which they ruled decades ago. Rooted in poverty and superstition, they still revere the descendants of the Rajas and Maharajas out of habit.

But gradually old habits are changing and this is discernible on the ground. For the first time, in 2014, the Gandhi family has perhaps become a liability for the Congress in many places. There are perhaps only two States where Congress is holding on its own against the onslaught of the NDA and the regional parties this time. These are Assam and Punjab. While in Assam, Tarun Gogoi is the name instead of the Gandhi family, in Punjab each Congress candidate is holding on to the battlefield without the baggage of the Gandhi family. In fact, the saying in Punjab is that you should avoid a rally of a member of the first family of the Congress in your constituency to improve your prospects.

The bigger question now is that will the Gandhi family take the blame if Congress is reduced to double digits in the Lok Sabha election?

As Rahul Gandhi has taken over the party, his stamp is visible everywhere and is the de facto prime ministerial candidate of his party, he will have to be brave and candid enough to take on the responsibility. If the Congress fares well despite the odds, Rahul has to be given credit and if the party fails badly and reduced in the double digits, you cannot merely blame Manmohan Singh for that and emerge unscathed.

After May 16, Rahul Gandhi needs to reinvent himself and the Congress. The old idioms and phrases of governance, with which he is rooted, is not working in this age and era. Despite being relatively young and two decades younger than Narendra Modi, he could not make a dent in the youth segment and first time voters. He will now have to think what will his role be as a Leader of Opposition and how to use that role to strengthen the party and himself for the next battle in 2019. (April 28, 2014)

 http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/amethi-raebareli-models-versus-gujarat-model.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/2014-04-27-49218.html

Rahul interacts with Chandigarh Editors, fails in 'Mission Impress'

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA 

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.

(March 3, 2014) 

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/rahul-interacts-with-chandigarh-editors-fails-in-mission-impress.html

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/dehradun/2014-03-02-42406.html