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Let's go beyond rhetoric: Modi needs counters to apt issues raised by Congress in Gandhinagar

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Sanjukta Basu
Sanjukta BasuMar 17, 2019 | 13:26

Let's go beyond rhetoric: Modi needs counters to apt issues raised by Congress in Gandhinagar

Recently, Congress President Rahul Gandhi chose the 89th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March, to hold the high-profile Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Gujarat after 58 years. It was a huge symbolic and strategic decision to launch the poll campaign from Narendra Modi’s home turf. Or, shall we say, from Mahatma Gandhi’s home turf? Who said Gujarat belongs to Narendra Modi? 'Reclaim Gujarat, Reclaim India' was Congress’s big message.

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The launch was peppered with several other symbols.

The day began with the whole Congress family’s visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram. Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his wife, Congress leaders Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia and others, were in the Ashram. The leaders were seen wearing soothing whites, sitting calmly at the Ashram courtyard, listening to a beautiful rendition of 'Vaishnava Jana Toh' — a stark contrast to how every BJP rally is conducted. This, in my view, is the contrast between saffron and white, quiet confidence and loud nervousness, Godse and Gandhi.

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Picture of tranquillity: Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram. (Photo: Twitter/@INCIndia)

2019 is going to be a battle of ideologies and people’s issues. “No sacrifice is too great in this endeavour, no effort too little, this battle will be won,” tweeted Rahul Gandhi, resolving to defeat the RSS-BJP ideology at the end of the CWC meeting.

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However there is one big challenge in this resolve — how to set the narrative and communicate to people on the relevant issues when the ruling party is clearly in a position of advantage with their robust and rich election machinery, and how to set the narrative on national security and Pakistan — an arena in which PM Modi is a pro.

A hundred years from now, when India's political history would be retold, there would be two phases, post-Pulwama attack and pre-Pulwama attack. Pre-Pulwama, I'd say Rahul Gandhi was the rising phoenix and Narendra Modi was an ailing horse. After losing all five states in the Assembly polls held in November and December 2018, the BJP’s morale was down.

It became clear to the public that the PM could not face the media — he was apparently not in a position to even reply to the questions raised by his party cadres.

His controversial decisions, like demonetisation and sloppily implemented GST, and his party’s “Cow Mothers” had started hitting home. It was an avalanche of bad news — demonetisation did not meet any of its claimed objectives, unemployment was at a 45-year high, foreign investment in India was an all-time low. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) came to be yet another institution — after the CBI, Supreme Court and RBI — that was reportedly meddled with by political powers. Two senior bureaucrats resigned in protest, alleging that the government was not publishing the unemployment report in a bid to hide embarrassing data.

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Angry farmers and jobless youth had started asking about real issues — brushing the Ram Mandir aside. Almost every poll prediction had written Modi off to be the next Prime Minister — theories were being floated that Nitin Gadkari was the RSS’s reserve man for the Prime Minister's post.

Everything changed with the Pulwama attack.

Post-Pulwama, Modi’s image suddenly started growing. He became bigger and stronger by the day as he went on a blitzkrieg campaign. The poll predictions started favouring Modi again. Wherever he went, he flexed muscle and reminded everybody that only Modi can save India from terrorists. Supporters — including BJP leaders across the board, most mainstream media and social media trolls — aggressively peddled the narrative that even though the BJP had admittedly failed on all grounds, we should vote Modi back to power because only Modi can save us from terrorists.

Yet, nobody asked — why did India face its worst attack in three decades, costing us the lives of 40 CRPF jawans, under the nose of such a strong leader?

We are told that India needs Modi to be safe from terrorism for the next five years. However, what of those 40 jawans who were not safe when India was under Modi’s regime for the last five years? That question is lost in the patriotic din.

In the period from February 14 to the CWC meeting on March 12, the Congress seemed to have lost the narrative or at least been silenced by concerns over national security.

Congress party workers and supporters have been restless and impatient since then. Some of them were crippled with the fear that the Congress had given up the fight because, after all, who can compete with Narendra Modi when the only issue to be dealt with is terrorism and Pakistan? From television news to social media, nobody was allowed to think or talk about anything else except war with Pakistan.

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Let's talk about some real issues, Mr Prime Minister. (Photo: PTI)

But then, a week is a long time in politics. And it is now over a month since the Pulwama attacks — a good time for the opposition to bring the focus back on the real ‘bread and butter’ issues. Rahul Gandhi’s favourite topic — the Rafale deal — is still not out of the narrative. The government cut a sorry face in the Supreme Court recently, claiming Rafale files were apparently stolen from the Ministry of Defence — to which the apex court asked about the action that the government had taken if there was a theft.

Rahul Gandhi promptly came out to hold a press conference (the only topic on which he does) to give a new campaign line — “Gayab ho gaya (It has disappeared).”

Rahul also asked the government to investigate the contents of the allegedly stolen files. The Attorney General soon made a U-turn and denied theft, to which Congress leader P Chidambaram remarked, “I suppose the thief has returned the file.”

A recent RTI revealed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had cautioned the government against demonetisation, making it clear that none of the proposed objectives was likely to be met. Yet, the Modi government apparently went ahead with it.

Journalists in London traced Nirav Modi, to find that he is having a gala time in London, running his business, sporting expensive jackets — and here in India, a media house scoop claimed that the Modi government was not being proactive in getting Nirav Modi extradited back to India.

The Modi government seems once again in an uncomfortable spot where questions are being asked, but there are no answers — except “what about Pakistan?”

It is momentous that at this critical juncture, the Election Commission announced the dates for the General Elections starting April 11.

The Congress President and General Secretary at their Gandhinagar speech adopted a brilliant strategy to dilute all the potential narratives likely to be raised by the Prime Minister in the remaining few days of the campaign.

In her debut speech officially as a politician, Priyanka Gandhi invoked the inner conscience of the voters to be aware of the real issues that affect their lives and question the relevance of the BJP’s narratives. On the PM’s turf, she spoke about the true meaning of nationalism and patriotism. She cautioned the people that there will be irrelevant issues discussed but, “Don’t let anybody distract you. There is nothing more patriotic than raising your own awareness. Be aware of the power of your vote, it is a weapon. Not a weapon to harm anybody but to change your future. This election, remember what you are choosing, you are choosing your future. So only you will decide what are the real issues that concern you,” said the Congress scion.

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Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra raised questions of issues and conscience in Gandhinagar. (Photo: PTI)

After she empowered the electorate with a conscience-raising speech, Rahul Gandhi stepped in — to firstly proclaim that the 2019 battle would be about ideologies as “some forces are trying to destroy the nation Gandhi built”, and then, by listing the issues Congress is going to focus upon.

Rahul raised some pertinent issues — the destruction of institutions, the Supreme Court judges' press conference, Judge Loya’s death, unemployment, farmers' distress, loan waivers benefitting the rich and not farmers, demonetisation, badly-implemented GST, a recap of the Rafale issue, including the latest revelation of a dissent note by the Indian negotiating team, the six airports leased out to the Adani group, the many letters from London to India to send Nirav Modi back that went unanswered, the PM addressing these people as “bhai”, their alleged funding of advertisements and thereby apparently getting preferential treatment.

Rahul’s speech was peppered with the latest news, referred to multiple events and facts, not just hypothetical or ideological grandstanding. In-between, he briefly touched on the nationalism issue and challenged Narendra Modi’s ‘desh bhakti’ by saying that “it was NSA Doval who escorted Masood Azhar out of India.” Both Rahul and Priyanka intermittently reminded the crowd that "BJP and Modi ji will not talk about these issues and will try to suppress them."

The Gandhi siblings have prepped the crowd well.

If the BJP avoids the real issues and focuses on Pakistan even after this, it would be quite disastrous. People now know that it is a ploy to cover Modi’s failure. They will see through the deceit.

However, how far have the crowds absorbed the speeches, whether the Indian voters have the bandwidth to understand and internalise the power of their vote, and their role in democracy at all, and whether their conscience is truly awakened to fight hate and divisiveness or not — we would know in about a month.

Last updated: April 10, 2019 | 12:21
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