Obsessed with his phone, Rahul Gandhi gave an incoherent speech
One of the negative qualities attributed to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is that he is inaccessible. Party leaders and workers rarely reach him directly over the phone or expect a personal response to emails. Though some claims are exaggerated — he has been quite regular in giving appointments in the past six months — such allegations are not completely unfounded. If that is so, it’s really intriguing to observe his fixation with his cell phone during the increasingly rare public appearances that he makes.
On April 16, the day he returned to Delhi after a 56-day-long leave, TV cameras spotted him in his car, staring at his cell phone screen. Three days later, when his mother was speaking at the Kisan rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, the Congress vice president was seen fiddling with his phone again. Even during the first CWC meeting, held immediately after the humiliating defeat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul reportedly spent a lot of time with his phone. Now the big question is: who is he constantly in touch with as no Congress leader claims to be on the speed dial of the Gandhi scion?
Rahul has every right to use his phone and be connected to any person he wants. But the urge to check and respond to messages when the Congress president was speaking at a rally of great political significance did not make a good visual. Party workers expect him to lead the battle against the Modi government, inspire them with a fiery speech, script Congress revival strategy, strengthen the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and eventually take charge from the mother.
Instead, he sounded and looked the same he was two months ago — indifferent and inconsistent. What was the outcome of the nearly two-month-long introspection? It’s foolish and unfair to expect overnight change in his approach, but body language, especially in public, does indicate what’s in store for future.
His speech at the rally was a rehash of old things that he had said earlier — Bhatta Parsaul, Niyamgiri and MGNREGA. He did try to take on Narendra Modi claiming that the prime minister wanted to grab farmers’ land to help the corporate world; he showed anguish at Modi washing dirty linen in foreign soil. But it was by no means a coherent speech which could captivate the audience. Even the anecdotal story that he recounted was not summed up well. It’s no surprise then that only the Hooda supporters were clapping and hooting on cue.
Several Congress leaders claim that Rahul had taken this leave because he wanted to get rid of Congress old guard and form a new AICC team but Sonia Gandhi was not willing to give him a free hand. According to insiders, the mother and son are now reconciled. If that is true, Rahul seems to have yielded to the Congress president, at least, for now. If the names who shared the Kisan rally stage with Rahul and Sonia are any indication, the party may not see any organizational change in near future. The rally demanded motivational fiery speakers. Instead we saw veterans such as Manmohan Singh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, AK Antony, Digvijaya Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad grabbing the spotlight.
The highlight was Antony delivering a welcome speech for Rahul and Sonia in English, punctuated by a thick Malayali accent. Sachin Pilot, who brought over 35,000 farmers from Rajasthan for this rally did give a speech but why did he not find a place alongside Rahul? Where were other young bloods such as Jyotiraditya Scindia and newly-elected IYC President and Rahul’s favourite Amrinder Singh Raja? Congress needs new leaders to replace the faces of UPA-2.
The old guard has already thrown a challenge at Rahul Gandhi. In his concluding speech, Digvijaya Singh appealed to Rahul to visit the 6 lakh villages in India and stand by the poor farmers. It was an indirect way to tell the Congress vice president to take up his job 24x7 and earn his position as the Numero Uno leader of the party. Whether Rahul likes it or not, that’s the only way to go. He needs to be seen and seen more and everywhere — from the villages to the virtual world. Foreign trips can wait for a while.