Why one year of Modi as PM means more for Rahul Gandhi
With the Modi government getting ready to celebrate its first year in office on May 26, the focus, rightly so, would be on weighing the deliverables against the long list of promises he made during the election campaign, to ascertain whether the much awaited "achhe din" wasn't a mere political slogan coined by the BJP. But in any democracy, especially one as vibrant as ours, there would be an equally compelling case to assess how the opposition, led by the Congress and its vice president Rahul Gandhi fared in the past one year.
The Modi government started on a high note after receiving a historic mandate, winning 282 seats in the Lok Sabha. The Congress had been reduced to its lowest ever tally of 44. Modi, it seemed had the "Midas touch". Everything he did grabbed headlines from "Swachh Bharat" to "Make in India", notwithstanding the fact that one year later, we still don't quite know what these programmes entail specifically, except for some nice photo-ops and advertising budgets! Modi-mania had gripped India and the BJP wanted to make the most of it. Modi was still in campaign mode not just in India but also when he travelled to the US and Japan! As the prime minister, he addressed several rallies in states going for elections as the chief campaigner and the lone face of the party. The Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and Haryana elections saw the BJP doing well. Though in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP did not quite make the half-way mark that Amit Shah, the party's "chanakya" had predicted!
But this is when the problem began for the BJP and Modi. An overemphasis on politics but not enough on policy. Nothing was moving on the economic reforms front, growth indices across core sectors were showing pessimistic trends, job growth was sluggish and agriculture was being neglected too. The Modi government was also getting his priorities and politics - both horribly wrong. Dressed in what Rahul Gandhi alleged to be a Rs 10 lakh suit, the humble "chaiwala" (tea-seller) prime minister was now running a "suit boot ki sarkar" with its anti-farmer land acquisition policies, neglect of social welfare, cutting down key social sector spending and jugglery with growth figures! Retail prices of food and vegetables were still high and people could not quite figure out why they were paying through their noses for fuel when international oil prices were down 38 per cent since Modi took over!
The Modi-wave then hit the Delhi wall. A campaign run extensively on the slogan of Chalo Chale Modi ke Saath and even parachuting Kiran Bedi as the Delhi chief ministerial candidate did not help! The BJP was reduced to just three seats from 31 in December, 2013 in the Delhi Assembly elections. Having bagged all seven Lok Sabha seats in May, 2014, the expectations from the BJP were that they would bag atleast 60 of the 70 seats in Delhi given Modi's performance! Clearly, that wasn't the case. Repeated attacks on churches, Modi's weak silence and inaction against communal hotheads like Sakshi Maharaj and Yogi Adityanath on "Love Jihad" and "Ghar Wapsi", growing crimes against women, which rose by 31 per cent under Modi's watch in the national capital, the repeated U-turns on issues ranging from rail fare hikes to bringing back black money and talks with Pakistan, left many to wonder if Modi could walk the talk! It was the beginning of the end of his government's honeymoon period.
The Congress had its own set of problems. The failure to control the narrative even as Modi was losing grip made its impact felt in the Delhi elections and Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the elections with a massive 67 seats, most of which came at the expense of the Congress vote share. Unable to shake off its rustiness, the grand old party could hardly prove itself to be a viable alternative and was reduced to zero in the Delhi elections! Its media managers and Delhi leadership had horribly let down the party and its supporters. The writing was on the wall for both Modi and Rahul post the Delhi elections. Both had to take control of matters or risk complete decimation!
Rahul Gandhi's return after his 56-day sabbatical has been like a much needed "sanjivani booti" for his party! He intervened in parliament about five times in less than a month, organised a huge farmer rally in Delhi on the land acquisition law, undertook padyatras in Punjab, Maharashtra and Telangana and left no opportunity to make a pointed jibe at Modi's suit boot ki sarkar. The young leader also got his office to join Twitter to engage with the very social media audience that once considered Modi to be their darling!
In many ways, there has been a role reversal of sorts. Rahul Gandhi at the end of this year has emerged as the formidable opposition voice, which much like Modi had done during the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) final years, controlled the political narrative! Prime Minister Modi himself in many ways is emulating his predecessor by remaining silent on key issues. His approach to use foreign visits for shoring up his image at home is a short-lived and double-edged strategy. After 17 foreign visits, people are now asking when Prime Minster Modi would do a "Ghar Wapsi"!
Rahul Gandhi has a window of four more years to set the Congress in order organisationally and perceptionally. His is a climb upwards. Much like the slow moving tortoise, the Congress can still outrun the BJP if it is consistent under Rahul's leadership. For Modi, the downward spiral has well and truly begun. An overdose of showmanship matched by little statesmanship and the gulf between great expectations and cynical realities will prove to be his undoing unless he changes course quickly. Lap one has just ended. With four more to go, come 2019, this race between the tortoise and the hare promises to get more exciting by the day.