PM Modi bashing Rahul’s only forte 

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. 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.

Rahul’s 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.” However much Sibal may have tried to justify Rahul’s outburst, his arguments did not convince anybody.

Attacking Modi seems to be a pastime with him. 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 claim that he and his party men work only for the poor whereas this government worked merely for the rich. He cleanly 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.

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.

By Proloy Bagchi