Rahul’s outburst: A watershed moment in Indian politics?

FP :Abhay Vaidya 46 mins ago

Barely two days before his outburst against the UPA government’s ordinance to counter a Supreme Court order disqualifying MPs and MLAs convicted in a criminal case, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi‘s body language had become a talking point among Pune’s editors and senior journalists.

Rather unusually, Gandhi had held a 90-minutue long informal exchange with a select group of journalists at the Balewadi stadium in Pune. 

This was the second leg of his Maharashtra tour and Gandhi took everyone by surprise, especially the top editors in Delhi, who later came to know that he had spoken extensively and informally on a range of subjects.

The issue of the controversial ordinance came up during that chat with journalists and Mr Clean’s cryptic response amply indicated that he disagreed with the government’s position.

 On hindsight, it was disappointing that none of the assembled journalists asked him about his brother-in-law Robert Vadra‘s controversial land deals in Haryana, especially as Gandhi seemed to be in a mood to talk.


During a Pune interaction with editors and journalists, Rahul Gandhi’s body language suggested that he did not see his political inexperience as a handicap but as an asset. Reuters

During a Pune interaction with editors and journalists, Rahul Gandhi's body language suggested that he did not see his political inexperience as a handicap but as an asset. ReutersDuring a Pune interaction with editors and journalists, Rahul Gandhi’s body language suggested that he did not see his political inexperience as a handicap but as an asset. Reuters
As the interaction came to a close, it became amply clear that this was a new avatar of the young scion of the Gandhi dynasty: not the same, indecisive, clueless, reluctant and inaccessible Congress vice-president that everyone spoke about.

Instead, Rahul Gandhi‘s body language suggested that he did not see his political inexperience as a handicap but as an asset, as much as his father Rajiv Gandhi did. He seemed to represent the same generational impatience with things going wrong in India, as did his father. Recall how Rajiv Gandhi was also welcomed into Indian politics as “Mr. Clean” who offered hope to a young generation.

There was a new air of confidence and freshness about Rahul Gandhi at the Pune interaction. “He is intelligent and not dumb as projected by the media,” was how one senior journalist present at that gathering reacted.

Rahul appeared genuinely warm and well-meaning and did not resemble the typical politician. As a part of his media strategy to woo journalists, Gandhi has been known to grace the weddings of relatively junior reporters on the Congress beat in the capital. In Pune, he shook hands with all the 25-odd journalists, exchanged a few words with each one of them and within two days, his media cell mailed these memorable pictures to them. Rahul did something similar with the police constables on duty around him and got pictures taken with them.

These tid-bits apart, the image that came across was that of an earnest and well-meaning Rahul Gandhi who had no airs about him. More importantly, his body language clearly indicated that he was now ready to take charge and willing to lead the Congress into the 2014 general elections.

With his outburst on the ordinance negating the Supreme Court’s verdict on convicted MPs and MLAs, Rahul Gandhi has pitched himself as the Congress’s prime ministerial candidate for 2014 as decisively and as controversially as Narendra Modi did.

If Modi’s elevation rubbed party patriarch LK Advani the wrong way, here was Rahul Gandhi virtually mocking at the entire UPA cabinet led by prime minister Manmohan Singh. His caustic condemnation of the ordinance is a snub not only to Singh but also to others in the cabinet such as Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Law minister Kapil Sibal and Information & Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari.

The 43-year-old Gandhi’s outburst on the ordinance marks a watershed moment in Indian politics because it decisively signals his arrival and emergence as the new face of the Congress party as it prepares for the 2014 general elections.

This moment signals decisively that the Gandhi dynasty is intact and the baton is ready to be passed on from Congress president Sonia Gandhi to her son. As over the past six decades, the Congress continues to be under the spell of the dynasty which has withstood rebellions right from the time of Kamraj during Indira Gandhi’s era down to Sharad Pawar in the Congress under Sonia Gandhi.

There is no question of any such rebellion against Rahul Gandhi who, like others in the dynasty, brings certain clear advantages to the Congress. The charge of being “autocratic” which is being applied to Narendra Modi, applies as much to Rahul Gandhi because it is his voice that will prevail over that of all others. Decisiveness will no longer be a trait seen in NaMo alone as RaGa too is beginning to show the same characteristic.

Unlike in the BJP which has a prominent anti-Modi faction articulated most eloquently by Sudheendra Kulkarni, the former aide of LK Advani, Rahul Gandhi is neither tainted nor handicapped by any such opposition. Like Modi for the BJP, he has emerged as the game-changer for the Congress as India hurtles towards the 2014 polls.

Bravo Rahul! Critics take note, Pappu passed with distinction

 FP :by Akshaya Mishra Sep 28, 2013

Give it to Rahul Gandhi.

 For once in his nine-year long political career, he has given some reason to be applauded.

 His plainspeak on the ordinance overruling the Supreme Court verdict on the convicted legislators will now be subject to many interpretations; 

there will even be political motives ascribed to his dramatic move,

 but none of it would take the shine off the fact that he stood up for a good cause and 

upbraided the government headed by his own party. 

Such action requires courage, 

lots of it. 

We have not seen that from any leader from any party in recent times.

Rahul has provided enough hints of impatience with the erratic ways of the party earlier, but he has rarely spoken up against the government which looks ever eager to court controversies and the bad press. 

He has done it and how!

“The ordinance is a complete nonsense, it should be torn and thrown away…I personally think what the government is doing on the ordinance is wrong. It was a political decision, every party does it, and there is a time to stop this nonsense…It is about time that political parties stop making these type of compromises. If we actually want to stop corruption then we cannot make these compromises,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi at the Delhi press club yesterday. PTI

Harsh words these, from someone who along with his mother – Congress president Sonia Gandhi – is seen to be remote-controlling the party and the government. 

That this outburst should come in public is interesting. 

Was it an impulsive, spur-of-the-moment action? 

By all indications no.

Younger leaders in the party, the members of Team Rahul, have already expressed their reservation about the ordinance in public for sometime.

Union Minister Milind Deora tweeted out his displeasure a couple of days ago, saying the government’s ordinance move ‘…can endanger already eroding public faith in democracy’.

Sandeep Dikshit was more guarded in showing his disapproval – “…I personally believe that it is something that should initially go to the standing committee” – still he made it known that he was not with the government on the ordinance.

Even other leaders known to be close to Rahul such as party general secretary Digvijaya Singh, Priya Dutt and Anil Shastri had made public their disagreement.

There has been considerable churn in the party over the ordinance in the last few days. It was cynical to begin with and it could have waited for a political consensus as it is already with a parliamentary committee. These made the ordinance totally uncalled for. Some of the grievances of the political parties over the apex court ruling disqualifying convicted members are genuine and need consideration.

While most parties agree on this, the Congress by going ahead with the ordinance – some allege it was done to protect RJD’s Lalu Prasad and Congress’ Rashid Alvi – was exposing itself to unwarranted controversy. However, finally it appeared that a clique of senior ministers, not particularly sensitive to public opinion, seemed to have won the day.

Rahul was making amends. He was also probably making a statement about himself and the Congress. Was it his conscious effort to distance the party from the government? By implication, his action means disowning of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But let’s don’t read that far.

His primary target seem to have been the group of Congress leaders calling the shots in the government and landing it in one embarrassment after another. They will be more careful in their actions after this episode. This is an insult as big as it can get. It will be interesting to watch how the government responds to that. The response canbe expected to unfold gradually, revealing the changing equations in the party and the government.

The Congress vice-president has not impressed with his political or communication skills so far. He has been happy playing the backroom boy and avoiding the media glare, but he is definitely living up to his reputation as the outsider in politics. The more he speaks his mind, the better it will be for his public image.