RG (Rahul Gandhi), president of Indian National Congress recently visited Germany and London for four days. He addressed several gatherings, all carefully handpicked to sing songs in his praise to his small sprinkling of listeners. As was expected from the young Gandhi, right from the minute he said in first word in his visit to London, he began attacking the Indian government, and sometimes even Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally. It should be pointed out that there were no facts to substantiate his allegations or more importantly, he had no alternative policies to those he criticised with such relish.
President of a party that could at some stage in the future be the ruling party of India, Rahul completely disregarded his position as the Opposition leader. The convention of a leader of a major political organisation dictates, that when they address gatherings abroad, the refrain from criticising, or say OPENLY criticising the ruling party. It is always preferred to use a very measured tone in doing so. While one may point out that the BJP leadership has also made that error to a certain extent, it definitely does not give RG license to keep on senselessly attacking his opponents willy nilly on every issue at home.
The simple principle is, even if you criticise your opponents, the best way is to concede what is fair, reasonable or not throw allegations that are completely without any foundation. Such a give and take would have made the communication more meaningful and advantageous to the leader of a party with a long and honourable history like Indian National Congress. Perhaps his strategy is based on some campaign consultants from Australia, US, and somewhere abroad, who have failed to understand the psyche of the Indians, or the Indian diaspora abroad. During the US election of 2016, as well in UK in 2015, such campaign consultants encouraged a technique of “Attack is the best defence”. The foul-mouthed Donald Trump triumphed and here, Mrs May lost her majority in the Parliament.
The main butt of RG's attacks was the alleged corruption in the Rafael deal. The whole issue is very complicated and only time will prove that it is very counter-productive or stupid to compare carrots with cucumbers. (Why remind Bofors scam and Congress?) Gandhi repeatedly talked about Dalits, tribals, minorities (Muslims, Christians) and other deprived classes. This unsubstantiated attacks at every meeting would naturally be least effective over time.
Sikhs too are a big and visible minority in India. In one of the gatherings, when asked about the Congress role in the butchery of 3000 or more Sikhs in Delhi on October 31, the day former prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards. Rahul perhaps could have said that it was a very tragic development, and he regrets the death of so many people, and the Congress party itself was not the main culprit. He could have conceded that yes, the main four accused were leaders of the Congress party. However no, he instead went on blaming RSS at every count, even comparing it with the Muslim Brotherhood. How low can you stoop?
Congress party aspires to do better in the election next year. Nothing wrong with it. But they should have an appropriate strategy and fact of the matter is, Rahul Gandhi has none. His expert advisors should have also realised that if Congress party openly wishes to consolidate their traditional votebank, it will obviously and inevitably bring the vast Hindu majority in India to some conclusion. He was perhaps told to keep on slinging mud, hoping that some will stick. Well, it is not as simple as that. People who sling mud at others, seldom realise that they unavoidably splash some at themselves too.
There are two other important questions. Perhaps RG or his advisors should consider very carefully. One, why British media, especially some well known as critic of PM Modi or the BJP completely refrained from reporting on Rahul's speeches or visit? Second, Why Rahul Gandhi was not able to meet any important MPs let alone ministers or party leaders of the government party here? It is my opinion, that they might have felt RG's future in politics is very bleak. They may have also been advised by India-based British diplomats, or journalists not to give too much importance to him. If these bigshots truly felt that RG is a man with mettle, they would have flocked in voluntarily, without any persuasion, to meet and exchange ideas with him.
I was most concerned about the Conservative Friends of India, which is an organisation supported by the governing party, had organised a meeting for Rahul. Invitations were issued and somehow it was hijacked to another venue in the Parliament at the eleventh hour. Two MPs from the Labour Party were in attendance, with no participation from Conservative Party. The real strange part was while Rahul Gandhi was about to go to the meeting in the grand committee room, he was persuaded by a Labour MP, a member of Shadow Cabinet and Anand Sharma, to walk 10 minutes away to another venue to meet with some members of the Shadow Cabinet. Why delay a properly arranged meeting by over an hour? The planning of RG's trip uncannily resembled his political strategy. There was confusion at every level.
My attention had also been drawn to a report by Ashish Ray, president of the Indian Journalists Association, Europe; Published in the National Herald, a Congress party-owned daily in India, on August 31. Obviously, it was very positive report that gave absurdly glowing tribute to the activities of RG.
It also highlighted a public meeting in Ruislip, which was, to say the least, a tamasha with several accredited British journalists claiming that it was completely a shamble.
In that report, Asian Voice found a proud mention without it's name, with the author only describing it as “the voice of Modi.” It is rather regrettable that a reporter of the caliber of Ashish Ray had failed to see a fair and ethical reporting of RG's visit before and after his addresses.
