If I were Rahul Gandhi, I will first sack my advisors, speech writers and strategists and bring in a brand new team. I know it’s a sweeping statement as I am not sure if the others were wrong or Rahul Gandhi simply lacks the skill to pull it off and ends up giving a totally different message than what was intended by his support team. I can also imagine the pain his team might be going through too. It will be fair then to conclude that the failure of Congress in building a strong brand “Rahul Gandhi” can be attributed equally to his team – advisors, strategists, speech writers etc. apart from the person himself.
Let’s start with an example of the strategy applied in 2013 when Rahul Gandhi called the ordinance brought by the UPA government in 2013 to shield convicted lawmakers from immediate disqualification from the house as utter nonsense and tore some piece paper. What was the strategy? Probably they were trying to show Rahul Gandhi as an honest, fearless, young leader but what they did wrong was they were trying to do so by belittling their own government. The senior leaders looked stupid as an outcome of this, and Rahul Gandhi’s image also didn’t get any better in the eyes of the public leave alone getting votes. It was such a terrible advice given by someone to Rahul Gandhi. It’s another matter that it was the right thing to do and it’s another matter that the same event has come back to bite Rahul Gandhi as he proudly mentions now on his twitter handle that he is a Dis’qualified MP.
Some of the speeches that Rahul Gandhi has given in the past were so hilarious that it looked like he was trying very hard to prove the BJP right on being a ‘Pappu’. Internet was full of comic videos using his speeches. Aloo dalo sona nikalo, failing to pronounce the name Vishweshwaraiah, copying a condolence message from mobile phone, suddenly hugging the Prime Minister and winking at his colleagues later, wearing a janeu (sacred thread worn by hindus) on top of a jacket instead of wearing that inside to some of the recent ones like using the Modi surname inappropriately, Bhagwan Ram ne GST lagayi aur notebandi ki kya? etc. were all such terrible goof ups that one can’t help wondering whether he did these on his own or someone advised him to do so. A bad teacher and a bad student combo is always going to be an eventual disaster.
Rahul Gandhi’s recent speeches in the UK were again terribly ill-advised. His advisors should have realized that there is a very high level of nationalistic thought in India today and going to UK and crying over democracy dying in India would not augur well with most of the Indians. This was exactly similar to Mani Shankar Aiyer appealing to Pakistani leaders to bring Modi down. Congress does this mistake again and again and never seems to learn from them. Another recent example was Priyanka Gandhi’s speech asking whether Lord Ram was a Parivaarvadi. What was the thought process here? It was again similar to Rahul Gandhi’s comment on Lord Ram and GST or demonetization.
Rahul Gandhi’s recent dialogue that he is not Savarkar and a Gandhi never apologizes etc. was another terrible political mistake. Everyone knows that he has already apologized a couple of times earlier including the one where the court itself rapped him. What did Congress get out of this? This didn’t help in Rahul Gandhi’s credibility but on the other hand it must have upset several Maharashtrians for whom Shri. Veer Savarkar is an icon. This was proved when Udhav Thackeray had to come out openly and warn Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi’s attempt at bravado failed to give any great outcome to Congress and to himself. The fact that Congress’s protests saw only the Congress workers on the roads shows that the general public is indifferent about what is happening with Rahul Gandhi and don’t seem to think that something utterly wrong is happening in the country and don’t care if the US claims to be watching.
I am seeing one new development out of this disqualification. This has spread awareness within communities that if a politician speaks badly about their community they can take him or her to task. Every foul mouthed politician who has been targeting a particular community in his speeches will now think twice before speaking.
Some people have started saying that this is an inside job in Congress to get Rahul Gandhi out of the way but their dreams will never come true. It will be Rahul, Priyanka and Priyanka’s kids that will always lead the Congress until there is a party called Congress. Someone jokingly said, this is more of setback for BJP than the Congress as Rahul Gandhi was actually a star campaigner for BJP. I don’t think BJP has to worry much as Rahul Gandhi is not going anywhere. He is free, at least for now, from the responsibilities of an MP and will work harder.
On a serious note, if I ask myself has Congress failed Rahul Gandhi or has he failed the Congress, I think the answer will be both. Congress and Rahul Gandhi have to seriously introspect if they even want to retain their current seats in the 2024 elections. After all only a strong strategy, communication plan, great communicators and on-ground delivery all falling in place together helps you win in politics.
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