It’s all merely Sound and Fury

There is a lot of discussion about whether the visit of Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi to the US is a hit or miss. Well, this week, I would like to present a critique of not just Rahul Gandhi but of many regional leaders as well who refuse to change or re-invent themselves.

The most unfortunate aspect for them is that issues which have nothing to do with people are given high priority and there is a lot of pontification without knowing the subject.

All leaders, from Rahul to regional party leaders, display arrogance and vindictive attitude and depend heavily on divisive politics. They are not bothered about facts. They come up with dangerous narrative on every issue and make unforgiveable speeches which are supported by their cheer leaders who come up with all kinds of praises on social media, praising them to sky and making all kinds of vulgar comments on their political rivals.

This dirty culture needs to be stopped and the government needs to come up with stringent rules and regulations to control the menace of social media. Some may say that this amounts to control of media. Media also needs some control and has to follow certain ethics. Rahul speaks of controlled media. Yes, it is so because every party has its own newspapers and TV channels which cannot be independent.

Let’s first discuss about Rahul’s US visit. Being an LoP, he is supposed to act as the shadow Prime Minister. This puts a great responsibility on him, particularly, when he is on a foreign soil. He should be doubly careful about whom he is meeting and what he is stating at various diasporas. He cannot be a “purveyor, propagator of propaganda unlimited,” as a BJP leader rightly said. Instead of indulging in ‘Pop spritualisation’, he should follow the principle which the Pandavas and the Kauravas upheld. They fought among themselves but if any outsider tried to attack them, they used to take the stand that all 105 were one.

Congress and BJP may fight each other tooth and nail on Indian soil and in Parliament, but when on a foreign soil, their leaders should steadfastly defend India in every respect. But it is painful to see Gandhi speak so low about the Indian economy, running down India and praising China and constantly attacking the Prime Minister. He should go through the speech of Atal Behari Vajpayee at the United Nations when the then PM P V Narasimha Rao (whom Congress never owned to date) sent him to UN, notwithstanding the criticism from Congress party. Vajpayee did not speak anything political there. He strongly defended the country and the policies of PV.

Before 2014 elections when Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan made certain remarks against the then PM Manmohan Singh, the BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi condemned them.

Irrespective of who prepares his draft speech, Rahul should cross-check facts before parroting them. Rahul while speaking at University of Texas stressed on unemployment due to lack of manufacturing units in India and stated that the US and other countries in the West were facing the problem of unemployment, whereas China was not, as it was dominating global production.

But statistics indicate that China has over 21 per cent unemployment and more than one out of every five in the age group of 16-24 are unemployed. He feels China’s economy is excellent but their FDI had seen a fall by 28% and manufacturing dropped to a new low.

Rahul often says that India needs to learn a lot from the US. Sorry Rahul! Let us take pride in the fact that it is India which was the Viswaguru and had taught many things to the world. Even during Covid-19, it was India which was first to come up with a vaccine to save thousands of lives across the globe. As a citizen of India, you should feel proud of motherland, Rahul ji!

The Gandhi scion also spoke of attack on democratic structure, institutions being controlled, governments being overthrown, media not working, courts not working and so on. Just flip through some pages of political history of last 75 years and see who started it. What was Emergency? Why was it imposed? It was imposed because a court gave verdict against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother. As a student of Delhi University, I had seen how media did not work, courts did not work and how people were jailed and persecuted, and how students were put behind bars without any reason or rhyme.

Rahul then spoke about his concern that Sikhs may not be able to wear turban or kada or go to Gurudwara. He gave an impression that Sikhs were different from Hindus and that there was persecution of them in India. He should have known that when India was facing persecution and attack from Moghul rulers over 500 years back, a new force to fight them had to be created and, hence, every family sent the eldest son to turn into a warrior and Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru, gave them ‘Five Ks’ to be followed to represent their identity: Kada metal bracelet; Kesh not to cut hair; Kanga wooden comb worn in hair knot; Kirpan, a small knife; and Kachhera, a boxer type undergarment and turban.

Guru Granth Sahib has several references and verses on Lord Rama, Krishna, Sita etc. In fact, the reference to Rama, some say, is more in Gurubani than in the Ramayana. They are 100 per cent Hindus, not separate a religious minority. They celebrate all Hindu festivals and are an integral part of Hinduism.

If there was persecution of Sikhs, it was in 1984 when over 3,000 Sikhs were killed when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. It was nothing short of genocide. Their hair was cut, turbans burnt and many Sikhs were set on fire and all those who were behind this mayhem later became ministers in the Congress government. The explanation of Congress then was that when a huge tree falls tremor occurs.

But the cheer leaders of Congress say Rahul expressed real concerns for the dalits, poor, and minorities in India during his address in the United States. They also support Rahul’s meeting with US lawmaker Ilhan Omar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is a founder of the Khalistani terrorist organisation Sikhs For Justice. Pannun extended his support to the Congress leader over his remarks on Sikhs in India and this invited serious objections from all sections back home.

Ilhan Omar is a Somalia-born radical Islamist politician from the US. She has been a supporter of Pakistan and even reportedly visited PoK on a visit sponsored by Pakistan.

Rahul should know we had a Sikh President Giani Zail Singh. The super cop of Punjab, KPS Gill, was a Sikh and his valiant acts will be remembered forever. We had a distinguished Chief of Air force between 1981-84, Air Marshal Dilbagh Singh, who was a Sikh. The Sikh regiment of India Army is known for its valour. The best of the farmers who had adopted modern technology are Sikhs. That is why I said one should not pontificate when one does not know the subject.

At the regional level, we have leaders like Mamata Banerjee who threatens to quit every time when there is trouble in her state but does not put in her papers. She also never gets tired of criticising the party in power at Centre, whether it is BJP or Congress. Then we have Y S Jaganmohan Reddy of YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh and BRS leaders in Telangana who display politics of vendetta. None of these leaders is concerned about the people or their problems.

But one thing I agree with Rahul and that is politics have dramatically changed after 2014. It is now a decade of ‘accuse and abuse’ political rivals, create disturbance in one way or the other, knock the doors of courts on every issue which results in further piling up of cases related to common man which leads to delay in justice to non-VIP prisoners

Lawmakers who are supposed to be people’s representatives remember the people and their issues only before polls. Ruling parties want to decimate their opposition, and the latter want to thrive on dangerous narratives and demolish the ruling parties.