What is driving Rahul
Gandhi to stake everything, including possibly his political career on Rafale?
As a politician, I am
sure he knows or has been advised that he must never put all his eggs in one
basket. He has always been low on personal credibility with the electorate and
his gaffes in Parliament and outside are constantly doing the rounds on social
media. I would be surprised if he is not aware of this.
The stakes are very
high for him personally in the coming State and Lok Sabha elections. The
Congress has lost virtually every election under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership
barring Karnataka where it had to support its coalition partner to form the
Government and saty in power albeit with their partner as the leader of the
coalition. Of course, the Congress party will present a completely different
perspective on these losses and only speak about some of the bye-election wins.
Mr Gandhi is trying
everything in the book from temple visits and soft Hindutva to identifying his
“janeo dhari” self with the Hindu community to technology on the one hand and
questioning every step the Government takes on the other. What is particularly surprising
is his unparliamentary language which seems to be gathering more and more
adjectives as the elections draw nearer.
With very few issues to
speak about, no corruption issues at all over the past 4 years and faced with
significant positives of the Government that he no way to counter, Rahul Gandhi
and his band of merry men have picked up Rafale as their single point agenda. Coupled
with this, they have decided to target Prime Minister Modi as a single
individual because they believe if they hurt Mr Modi, they will hurt the
Bhartiya Janata Party.
Rahul Gandhi’s
arguments on the Rafale aircraft purchase are moving from the sublime to the
ridiculous. His shrill comments are being loyally parroted by the senior
Congress leaders because once their ”Prince” has spoken, they have no option
but to comply, repeat and defend. They have nothing concrete to establish their
allegations, but their entire strategy is to somehow, sow some seeds of doubt
in the minds of the electorate.
Mr Gandhi certainly
believes in the philosophy that if he shouts out an allegation crying himself
hoarse long enough, some of the dirt may stick. He assumes that because of the financially
dirty reputation of his own family and party, whereby he and his family have had
a sticky finger in every pie, Prime Minister Modi can also be tarnished with
such nonsensical allegations. He recognises that the only salvation for him and
his family is to somehow convince the electorate that Mr Modi and the ruling
party is “also corrupt”!
None of the other opposition
parties, barring the now almost defunct CPI(M), have chosen to rake up this
matter since no one sees any merit in Mr Rahul Gandhi’s argument.
Mr Gandhi keeps pulling
out some mythical contract that the UPA Government was planning to sign but did
not. He does this to compare what his Government may have done with a contract
that has already been executed by the NDA Government. The question to ask is
why this was not signed in 10 years of the UPA Government? Did the Congress
want to make money from this deal, like they did with Bofors and were unable to
close a satisfactory deal?
Logical arguments from
experts mean nothing to him. Detailed explanations have been provided by the
Government, but these are discarded very promptly by Rahul Gandhi and his loyal
spokespersons. Mr Gandhi is used to tearing up legislation of his own
Government led by Mr Manmohan Singh so how can he be expected to believe the
words of the ruling party!
Statements by the
Defence Minister mean nothing to him and his party. Statements by Mr Eric
Trappier, the CEO of Dassault are deemed to be rigged. Statements from the
French President are discarded and thrown away as motivated. He believes no one
except himself.
The Supreme Court has
taken a view that the price will not be discussed and Mr Gandhi, fearing a strong
reprisal from the Court, has wisely chosen to stay silent on this matter and
not cast aspersions on the views of the honourable Court.
His complete lack of
experience and understanding coupled with his raw ambition to become the Prime
Minister at any cost is on display. He has no worries about disclosing all
details of Rafale to our neighbouring countries because he thinks there is
something that maybe hidden in the deal. Security of the country be damned.
Mr Gandhi is in a very
desperate position. He needs to get opposition leaders together to fight
elections and despite the weak position of his own party, he wants to assume
leadership of the mahagathbandhan.
If the Congress party
does not come to power even after riding on the back of the so called
mahagathbandhan, it would not be hard to assume that other competent leaders in
the Congress party will start to emerge and question Mr Gandhi’s leadership. The
Congress may disintegrate or go through a serious reorganisation under another
set of leaders.
The Congress party is
familiar with such cataclysmic changes within itself.
After all, Mrs Indira
Gandhi, Mr Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, split the Indian National Congress in
1969 and formed Congress (Indira) the precursor to the party that Mr Gandhi
leads today. Where are the tall leaders like Morarji Desai, Babu Jagjivan Ram,
PV Narasimha Rao and so many others who were thrown out of the party and
forgotten.
Rahul Gandhi has cried
“wolf-wolf” too long and it is only a matter of time before the electorate will
stop believing anything he says. As the old saying goes, Mr Gandhi can fool
some people all the time or he can fool all the people for some time but he certainly
cannot fool all the people all the time!
Will Mr Rahul Gandhi be
the last of the Nehru legacy that Mrs Sonia Gandhi recently spoke about?
Will Rafale become
another celebrated story of the “Prince has no clothes”?
*******************
The author is an Executive Coach and an
Angel Investor. A keen political observer, he is also the founder Chairman of
Guardian Pharmacies. He is the author of 6 best-selling books, The Brand Called You; Reboot.
Reinvent. Rewire: Managing Retirement in the 21st Century; The Corner Office;
An Eye for an Eye; The Buck Stops Here - Learnings of a #Startup Entrepreneur
and The Buck Stops Here – My Journey from a Manager to an Entrepreneur.- Twitter: @gargashutosh
- Instagram: ashutoshgarg56
- Blog: ashutoshgargin.wordpress.com | ashutoshgarg56.blogspot.com
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