UPA-2 vs Modi sarkar: What a year in politics can do
They sniggered when Rahul Gandhi said he would change the Congress in ways no one had imagined after losing Assembly elections in four states in 2013.
They scoffed when he had a strange smirk on his face as he and his mother accepted defeat in 2014.
Well, who is smirking now?
As Rahul attacks Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talking, not listening.
As Sonia stands with a black arm band shouting slogans.
The silence of the powerful is deafening.
What a difference a year brings.
Two photographs tell the story.
Then
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| May 2014: Sonia and Rahul Gandhi address the media after the Congress party took just 44 seats in the 543-member parliament. |
There is one of the Congress protesting outside Parliament against the suspension of 25 MPs by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
Now
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| August 2015: Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi shouting slogans with the party members at the parliament complex in New Delhi |
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| August 2015: Congress President Sonia Gandhi with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Parliament in New Delhi. |
As is evident from the photograph, which was approvingly passed along by the rightwingeratti, Sonia Gandhi is still pushing Manmohan Singh forward--the former prime minister's expression the familiar one like a deer caught in the headlights.
Rahul still looks bemused.
Sonia, with right arm raised, weird Hindi very much in tact (loktantra KA hatya ho raha hai), is still the driving force behind a renewed Congress, with its right mix of elders (Ghulam Nabi Azad looking impatiently at his watch, his hands resting on the shoulders of AK Antony smiling at no one in particular) and younger MPs (Gaurav Gogoi shouting slogans, Jyotiraditya Scindia wearing black saying India Wants Justice, Tanashahi nahin chalegi, Mann ki baat band karo).
And that is what should worry Prime Minister Modi.
The old formula, tired and tried for a decade, seems to be working.
With 44 MPs, Congress is still able to look like a party which can get its act together just a year out of power, and force a majority government on the backfoot.
Then
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| April 2014: Narendra Modi speaks during an election rally in Hyderabad on April 22. |
Contrast this picture of aggression with the photograph of the prime minister addressing the BJP parliamentary party. Modi is on the stage with a disinterested LK Advani and a nervous M Venkaiah Naidu.
Now
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| August 2015: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, parliamentary affairs minister Venkaiah Naidu and senior BJP leader LK Advani at the BJP parliamentary party meeting in New Delhi. |
No one looks each other in the eye.
They then pass a resolution to remind Congress of the dark days of democracy during the Emergency exactly 40 years ago, and say, in gleefully incorrect English, that Modi's popularity was a "pain in the eye" for the Congress.
What should worry the BJP is that it is looking out of touch. The prime minister is silent, unable or unwilling to communicate, and the party is drafting a resolution which is equal parts sycophantic in its praise of the Prime Minister and dismissive of Congress.
The Congress is looking like a party where marg darshaks still have a role but the baton has passed firmly into the hands of younger MPs.
Clearly adversity is a good adhesive, and power can be a stealthy corrosive.
An Opposition party can look relevant and a popularly elected ruling party can look hopelessly out of touch.