Rahul Gandhi’s Yankee pitch against Modi

Throwing quite a few googlies from such different lands and climes as America is vis-à-vis India, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi must have flummoxed his critics and his admirers. And what is more important is that he himself has not only been cool and unfazed but also showed tact, poise, grace and humility with remarkable ease throughout his sojourn this time unlike those in the past that has often been thought to be meant for merriment; and may have been somewhat of a sabbatical, or driven by for the sheer fun of it.

His talks at the two prime US universities, and more so the long interactive, or question-answer, session at Princeton, were a none-too-loaded rebuttal of common refrains about him. Instead, these have, indeed, been more direct affirmation of his future, or likely, role in politics back home with possibly a more focused and nuanced approach to issues than what has thus far generally been the case.

And so Rahul clearly missed the bus, allowing Narendra Modi’s juggernaut to role in top gear for over three years now. The Congress’ best bet has been accused of giving Modi a virtual walkover and an open field to have his way. So much so that Congress Mukt, or GOP-less, Bharat did not look a distant possibility. Congress and more so Rahul have often virtually ducked amid BJP and Modi’s fusillade of myriad attacks. This has mostly been so with a few exceptions like the one when Rahul once came fresh after vacationing abroad in the first half of 2015 and took on the Prime Minister with a comment like “suit-boot ki sarkar”, leaving the saffron ranks red-faced over the Congress scion’s pointing out the PM’s sartorial fetish.

The question that was asked in the wake of this episode was how that Rahul gets these ideas only when he goes abroad and draws a blank closer home. But this time Rahul let himself loose in the ideas l playing field of US universities and other informed circles of NRIs. The outcome of this has been so wide ranging as to indicate his will and, may be, ability to steer clear of the muck thrown around to not only trap him or his party but also the country that, according to him, is losing its way, ethos and moorings under the current regime.

His two-week-long outreach to Indians abroad took the wonks by surprise when he said that Congress was an NRI movement of sorts since its main leaders like Gandhi, Nehru and Patel have mostly been overseas before they came back to transform India. This was to remind his audience mainly Indians among students of Congress’ main USP based on modernism that has, indeed, lured Indians to the West since yore for ideas that they could take back home and help pushing the country into a modern era. So what might have looked outlandish to audiences at home was, in fact, a subtle refutation of watering down the charge that the Congress’ first family, more so Congress president and Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi, often faces for being of foreign origin and trying to turn her into a virtual outcaste vis-à-vis India’s public affairs by her and Congress’ adversaries.

Thus, Rahul Gandhi went about smashing pseudo-and-parochial-boundaries etched by the Sangh Parivar to keep Congress, Rahul and Sonia at a distance from power. The Sangh onslaught ever since Modi’s rise has been so relentless that it needed a bit of remote handling that Rahul, in fact, opted for by talking of issues dogging the country from the safe and distant confines of America. He said that telecom is wading through domains and changing processes while he himself was actually opting for it by addressing Indians in the US and finding attention back home. He talked of the process of transforming India that began since before independence and with the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi from abroad. Rahul spoke of green revolution and white revolution to bring focus onto Congress’ role in shaping modern India.

And as for deficiencies he succeeded in starkly putting it before the powers-that-be by talking of 30,000 job seekers surfacing a day to find a paltry 450 jobs available in the market. The huge gap was a challenge for the Congress and it remains so for Modi. Thus, he said that anger was building up. This was more so, according to him, because Congress was voted out making way for Modi amid the disgust created by rising unemployment. He said China was able to create blue collar jobs while India could not. Modi’s Make in India he hailed and endorsed but bemoaned the approach towards this as small and medium enterprises were being ignored besides agriculture facing neglect though these have more potential for creating jobs, than big industries and manufacturing which was also changing in any case in favour of automation instead of human intervention.

He accused the Government of diverting the issues by hopping on polarisation and, thereby, mauling the vision that has thus far carried India and Indians to greater urbanisation from what was once a palpably vast rural economy. Rahul defined the Indian vision as something which could allow everyone to share and partake in it. But he felt that this was under threat now as one community was being pitted against the other. He also said the Government or public processes have been becoming more opaque than getting transparent. He found that laws were being validated by Parliament after being framed by bureaucrats and Ministers instead of members, experts and well-meaning citizens.

Though he did not suggest any solution he called for recognising the problems first and accepting the truth vis-à-vis things like jobs instead of diverting the issue as is the case now. This, he remarked in response to a question by a student at Princeton University, who pointed to the possible vernacularisation of politics amid the failure of the elite which was perhaps giving way to the rise of politicians like Modi in India and Donald Trump in the US.

Though Rahul did not answer the question that pointed to the class difference between him and Modi alongside Trump in case of America, it had the potential of unraveling the enigma of Rahul Gandhi. And as he cruises along for another showdown with Modi backed by Amit Shah in about a year-and-half from now, Rahul, as per most pundits, appeared only to be rehearsing for the early part of the 2019 midsummer battle by making friends and influencing myriad groups of Indians, who have either made the US their home or are trying to settle in the virtual far-off paradise. But the fact that a large number of Gujaratis too were among them points to Rahul’s eyeing upon not only the battle for Delhi but also what is at hands much before that since only after a couple of months or so from now Gujarat is going to polls to elect a new Assembly.

And this time the sobriquets like Shahzada, Yuvraj, Baba and Pappu that opponents loved to chase Rahul with through electioneering in the past not only appear to be fading out, but Rahul is also gearing up to turn out in better form and match Modi’s might whether as has been the case in the US, or Gujarat where stakes are high because of its being the Prime Minister’s homestead.