Rahul Gandhi, since being nominated the President of the Congress Party, seems to have suddenly found his voice after remaining virtually silent or absent in the first 10 years of Parliament when his Government was in power.
Here is an individual who genuinely believes that the nation owes him allegiance because of his ancestors and that he is entitled to everything.
Entitled to the top position in his party because of his family’s name. Entitled to all the trappings of power and the accompanying perquisites because of the sacrifices of his ancestors. Entitled to say anything he wants knowing that an army of senior leaders will jump to his defence. And of course, entitled to aspire to lead the country with no accountability.
Mr Gandhi seems to depend on 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 virtually 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”!
Deep inside he recognises that this will not happen, since there has been no case of corruption in this Government.
Therefore, he has decided to invent a pack of lies. If told repeatedly and convincingly, lies and untruths can certainly sow a seed of doubt in the mind of the listener for a limited period.
Let us examine some of his more recent lies and about turns.
- Rafale: Rahul Gandhi’s arguments on the Rafale aircraft purchase are moving from the sublime to the ridiculous. He needs a counter to the Augusta Westland exposures that are likely to happen and the Bofors matter that has sunk into the minds of the electorate. 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 and defend. They have nothing concrete to establish their allegations.
- Crony Capitalism: Mr Gandhi and his family have been beneficiaries from several corporate houses over the years. In order to hide their own issues, he has chosen to make the charge of crony capitalism on the Prime Minister. The fact that Mr Anil Ambani’s company has recently filed for bankruptcy has been conveniently ignored by Mr Gandhi since this goes against his narrative.
- Mr Parrikar: He made a personal visit to the Goa Chief Minister purportedly to enquire about his health and then promptly misquoted Mr Parrikar at an election rally. When his lie was questioned by Mr Parrikar, he tried to shift the blame to Mr Modi without any compunction.
- EVM’s: Rahul Gandhi blames the Electronic Voting Machines when his party loses an election and maintains a studied silence when his party wins an election. For him, EVM’s and the Election Commission are simply a matter of convenience - to be abused when they are perceived to be working against him and his party and to be ignored when they work in his favour!
- Loan Waivers: Rahul Gandhi announced loan waivers through the election campaigns in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. To the credit of the new Governments, the loans were waived immediately. However, the poor farmers generally received loan waivers of less than Rs 1,000 making a mockery of the promises. No one has bothered to revisit the commitments made. These elections are over and new promises will need to be made after 5 years.
- Non-Performing Assets: Rahul Gandhi has been busy blaming the Prime Minister for non-performing assets without understanding that loans become non-performing after they are due. Loans are normally given for say 5 years and after that repayment is due. Once the loan is due and if repayment is not commenced, loans are categorised non-performing. Therefore, NPA’s during the NDA tenure were loans given during the UPA tenure.
- Job Creation: He has just claimed that he has developed a plan to create 70 million jobs in the next 5 years. No plans have been announced on how this will be achieved and which sectors these jobs will be created. However, no accountability is sought from him on anything he says. It is worth looking at the fact that less than 17 million jobs were created during the 10-year term of the UPA.
- Saradha Scam: Rahul Gandhi needs to make up his mind on where he and his party stand on this matter. From talking about the losses in 2014 to castigating Mamata Banerjee for not taking action on the scam to now offering full support, no one really knows where he stands and what his next U-turn will be. Clearly, his position is based on what he believes may get him some headlines in the here and now. The past will be addressed by his minions and he will be protected at all costs.
- Relations with other opposition parties: It is interesting to see how easily, Rahul Gandhi changes his position. From cursing and abusing another opposition party leader to extending unquestioned support happens seamlessly and without any explanation. It would be interesting to see if there is any leader who he has not abused and later sought to partner with. Does any opposition party leader believe anything he says or is it simply a matter of convenience and prudence to stay silent till the elections are over?
The best form of defence is offence.
When nothing else works and the lies do not seem to stick, Rahul Gandhi very easily, resorts to name calling. Over the past year he has threatened Mr Modi to unilateral debates but kept surprisingly quiet in the Lok Sabha. He has used every possible negative adjective in his book for Mr Modi from Fuehrer to Chor to Insecure Dictator. Unfortunately, no one is buying into his narrative and this is frustrating him even more.
So is the honourable Congress President a congenital liar as suggested by Smriti Irani or is he simply delusional?
The word “delusional” comes from a Latin word meaning "deceiving." So delusional thinking is like deceiving yourself by believing outrageous things. A delusion is a false idea. It is a belief that has no evidence. A delusional person believes and wants to be true something that is actually not true. More so in the strong hope that something miraculous will happen that will make his beliefs come true.
Sounds familiar specially in context of the subject matter of this article?
Clearly, Rahul Gandhi’s only objective is to politicise every issue rather than see even a single issue to its logical conclusion. He has often been asked to show proof of the various allegations he keeps making and by his own admission on Rafale, he does not yet have proof. His delusional self seems to believe that proof will appear on its own to establish that he was right. Till then, he will continue with his “shoot and scoot” politics unabashedly.
He does not seem to have the confidence that he will be able to pull off a spectacular victory in the coming elections. The electorate has stopped believing him. It is only a matter of time before his party workers stop believing in him as well. The day is not far when someone from the crowd will should out that the prince has no clothes!
How long will Mr Gandhi keep crying “wolf wolf”?
As President Abraham Lincoln had famously said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
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The author is an Executive Coach and an Angel Investor. A keen political observer and commentator, 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.
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