Has Rahul Gandhi really changed? Or is it just us
The missing erstwhile "prince" is back after his sabbatical, a 56-day "self-imposed exile" or "holiday", depending on how you choose to see it, and things have just not been the same on the Indian political scene since.
Rahul Gandhi's return from an as yet undisclosed destination and straight into the thick of things with the farmers' rally he addressed, followed by his performance in the Lok Sabha, has been subject to the sort of interest that is puzzling to many, a relief to some and perhaps alarming to a few.
If all publicity can be seen as good publicity, for the ruling BJP, which has often proclaimed that among its goals is to achieve a "Congress Mukt Bharat", the response to the Congress scion's return could be a sign that the rival party, despite its drubbing in the 2014 General Elections and being reduced to 44 seats, is down, but not out.
For the Congress, which hangs on to the Gandhi family for survival like a coat on a hanger, the scrutiny is perhaps a relief: If the Congress heir still gets this reception then he is not irrelevant as the seats in hand suggest and the ruling party leaves no opportunity to insinuate, and therefore by extension, nor are they. The legacy, certainly frayed, in wear-and-tear condition, can be restored.
So what has changed? The #Pappu who left the country unannounced has come back two months later to be declared Rahul 2.0, his speeches deemed by sections of the press as combative, his oration new, improved.
Perhaps the question to consider is: Has Rahul Gandhi changed that much, or have our perceptions about him altered slightly?
"There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception," said Aldous Huxley, and politics is the fine art of understanding and manipulating the doors of perception and building realities around them.
As Narendra Modi rose to power on the perception of a man of the masses, an unsung architect of the Gujarat model of development and a social underdog who fought the allegations and arrogant jibes ("chaiwala" and "maut ka saudagar") of the privileged ruling establishment, Rahul Gandhi, as his foil, was perceived as the poor-little-rich boy, the Gandhi who got it easy, an entitled prince who didn't deserve his position of leadership in India's ruling dynastic party, which itself, dogged by charges of corruption and cronyism, didn't deserve its place in a changing India of equal opportunity.
If politics is about perception, timing is everything - so it is of significance that Rahul Gandhi's leaving of and return to Modi's India is at a time when BJP has finished a year in power. Where Modi speaking in Delhi was once an event of note, his addresses to the public, from radio to TV, no longer have novelty. While the Congress rule had the Congress president Sonia, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice-president Rahul make the news, in Modi's governance, largely, and despite heavyweights like Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, it is Modi who is seen and Modi who is heard. As Rahul returned to the capital, a certain and expected familiarly had set in with the new Indian PM, he is no longer an object of curiosity he was to the national public as the CM of Gujarat.
In contrast to the ascending Modi who came across as experienced and in control, the younger Rahul then seemed inadequate, fumbling and out of depth. But in contrast to the now in-power-for-year Modi, verbose if articulate, a control freak if disciplined, where Rahul's fumbling oration once seemed inarticulate, it can now appear simply honest and heartfelt.
Politics will continue to play out - anti-poor or anti-industry, pro-development or pro-left are questions that fly fast and furious as the ruling party and the opposition address them afresh with the return of Rahul Gandhi, along with "suit-boot party" insults traded for "maa-beta party" insults. But in the day of 24-hour TV visuals and social media analysis, another narrative simultaneously unfolds silently where style is judged apart from content and leaders are subject to a between the lines scrutiny by electorate that goes beyond what is heard and spoken.
Modi's reign, despite his assurances that under his rule no citizen will be discriminated against also sees members making communal statements and his parent organisation RSS mouthing controversial statements, giving opposition a chance to portray him as a master of doublespeak. Despite coming to power as a man of the masses, he is criticised for jet setting on foreign trips. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi, with his lack of smoothness in oration coupled with a consistency in speech, such as the habit of employing details of personal meetings with the common man in his larger pro-farmer, pro-adivasi narratives, is coming across as inclusive and as his sister Priyanka once called him, a liberal, with a "style of politics that is not opaque".
Unlike the always-in-control Modi, the statesman who brooks no dissent, whose cabinet is always formal and poised around him, Rahul Gandhi's appearance in Parliament after his sabbatical saw him amid his band of boys, Chavan, Hooda, Scindia, who albeit dynastic, prompted him and joked informally with him, strengthening his image as a team leader who makes people comfortable, who, conscious of his surname, makes an effort to reach out to people and hear what they have to say.
Modi's coming to power revealed to us his personal sense of communication with the people - sharing with the public his selfies with statesmen and his mother alike, allowing photos in his yard with his pet ducks or in his office with guests, a refreshing new style from the Gandhis who guarded their personal life like royalty.
Rahul's return, on the other hand, showcased his own personality stamp revealed in a different light. As he made his way to his home, he stopped by to pick up his two pet dogs left with his mother, with no orchestrated photo ops. There were no family selfies of the homecoming either. But instead of arrogance, his reticence this time seemed simply private in a touchingly human way that references the troubled history of the Gandhi family in the spotlight, a foil to Modi's monogrammed suit with the US president which has come to suggest a certain personal boastfulness and narcissism about the ruling Indian PM.
While perceptions and performance certainly can feed off each other in the public sphere, it is not possible to draw the lines with mathematic precision where one ends and other begins, nor is it possible to say whether they will continue to favour individuals, depending as they do more substantial factors such as on-the-ground work and the results they yield. But certainly, we can ask: is it really an altogether brand new Rahul Gandhi before us, or is it us who are beginning to see him with new eyes.