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Rahul Gandhi should take blame if he knew about Nitish Kumar's exit 3-4 months ago

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Anand Kochukudy
Anand KochukudyJul 27, 2017 | 19:17

Rahul Gandhi should take blame if he knew about Nitish Kumar's exit 3-4 months ago

When Nitish Kumar stunned everyone with his decision to quit as the Bihar CM on Wednesday, many political analysts didn’t see it coming. Only last Saturday, Nitish had met Rahul Gandhi in Delhi to apprise him of the situation.

To many, it seemed business as usual (and not as a last-ditch effort to save the alliance). The matter of deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav’s resignation had been festering for over a month and Gandhi’s statement to the press indicated everything was hunky-dory.

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But oblivious to the Congress, the tepid response of Gandhi to Nitish’s demand of Tejashwi’s exit had set off a chain of events. The Janata Dal (United) headquarters at Jantar Mantar was a hub of activity. Nitish decided to prepone a scheduled meeting of JD (U) legislators from July 29 to 26. And the rest is history.

Even if there was a small window of opportunity to save the alliance, the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) couldn’t come up with the political smarts to salvage the situation.  

What has stumped many political observers, however, was a statement given this morning by Gandhi to the press about his knowledge of Nitish’s impending defection since three months.

Even if his statement is taken at face value, it then begs the question as to what he was doing to deal with it. Was he simply standing by as the “mahagathbandhan” he was credited with forging was coming apart?

"In politics, you get to know what's in a person's mind. The problem with Indian politics is that people will do anything for selfish gains - satta ke liye kuch bhi kar dete hain," the Congress vice-president added.

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One wonders if the Gandhi scion thinks politics is all about charity and not a game of thrones. It’s more probable that Gandhi was once again relying on the advice of his famous coterie, a gang of rootless wonders and people without political acumen, to try to come off as smart. Instead, it only added to his “Pappu” image, something that he has been trying to shed without much success.

It’s been the longest tradition in Congress to credit everything positive to the Gandhis and mark out fall guys for disasters. For instance, the rout in Uttar Pradesh ensured the exit of Prashant Kishor, despite his contributions in Punjab.

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Nitish’s demand of Tejashwi’s exit had set off a chain of events. Photo: PTI

But then, wouldn’t it only be fair to blame Gandhi’s leadership, or the lack of it, for the collapse of the “grand alliance” in Bihar when he took credit for it in the first place?  This also comes on the heels of developments in Gujarat, a state going to the polls this December, where the party and Gandhi failed to prevent the exit of Shankersinh Vaghela.

The only realistic hope for an Opposition comeback in the general elections of 2019 was the Bihar model, to collectively take on the seemingly invincible Modi juggernaut. It fell apart in Uttar Pradesh only because the votes got split into three - unlike in Bihar - despite the Samajwadi Party and Congress coming together in a patchy alliance. 

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But Congress seems to be in a hurry to assist the BJP’s proclaimed goal of a “Congress-mukt Bharat”.  While the idiom of politics has changed forever, Gandhi seems to lack the shrewdness to outsmart political opponents.

A few months ago, just ahead of the elections in Uttar Pradesh, Sheila Dikshit ruffled a few feathers with her gaffe in an interview given to The Times of India. Answering a question on the Congress’ diminishing prospects in state after state despite Gandhi’s efforts, she was quoted as saying that Gandhi was still maturing and needed more time to come to terms with leadership.

Dikshit’s comments were not the words of a rebel leader but rather just a slip of the tongue. It also revealed the long rope that senior people in the Congress gave their leader to ease into the leadership role despite virtually being the heir apparent. Compare it to the kind of struggle his grandmother had to put up to take control of the party and rebuild its fortunes between 1969 and 1980.

Despite already being relegated to a bit player, neither Gandhi nor his partymen seem to realise the ground slipping beneath their feet. While Indira, Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi used to mingle with people and give audience to folks from all walks of life, Gandhi has only succeeded in emerging as a mystery man of sorts.

He was out of station ahead of the 2017 New Year to January 10 (even as crucial decisions on UP and Punjab polls were due) and again between June 13-30 this year after a token visit to Mandsaur, failing to capitalise on the farmers’ issue he had received on a platter.

Even when he is around, he remains inaccessible up to 12 hours on occasions, putting everyone in a dilemma, as happened recently.

Gandhi’s political judgment seems to get further impaired on account of the advice he receives from the “yes men” he is surrounded with. It’s reliably learnt that he doesn’t even have a speech writer, save for Jairam Ramesh’s assistance on rare occasions. He has failed to set agendas and to enthuse the masses.

The royal inertia that has set in seems to be the only constant. By letting Nitish defect to the NDA fold, Rahul has destroyed whatever slim chances the Opposition had of making an unlikely comeback in 2019.

He has been keeping up his tirade against the PM as he went to say the emperor was naked and nobody had the courage to tell him so. It could jolly well apply to Gandhi as well. Doesn’t India deserve a better Opposition leader who can take the attack to the government?

 

Last updated: July 28, 2017 | 16:11
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