Articles

Staying in the news is one way to become the news. Rahul Gandhi has become a headline bandit with constant cannonade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Congress vice-president earned the social media sobriquet of ‘buddu’ from a powerful maverick politician of the BJP. The Prime Minister mocked him as a package sans substance.

Yet Rahul is the topic de jour in the national political conversation as a leader whose staying power is fuelled by Modi. Decoding Rahul’s Morse code of malarkey reveals a side that shows street sense in targeting the powerful and popular Modi.

Since the PM uses one-liners to make headlines, anyone who responds gets almost the same attention by default. Even the Opposition parties, which avoided confronting Modi, are now willing to fight him under Rahul’s standard. For the first time, Rahul was taken seriously, thanks to Modi. Leading the campaign against demonetisaion, Rahul spoke on behalf of the entire Opposition.

It was a transformation through temerity—the leader who was known for fumbles and verbal tumbles had suddenly acquired a quiverful of poetic and punitive adjectives to pierce his opponent’s armour. In the gathering storm of the Uttar Pradesh elections, Rahul seems to have become a wordsmith of a new political vocabulary with phrases such as ‘suit boot ki sarkar’ and Modi-made Demonetisation Disaster. 
Until now, even after 12 years in politics, Rahul had nothing to flaunt except his Gandhi pedigree.

A successful stratagem of warcraft is to be learned from the enemy. To face the formidable Modi, Rahul has discarded the non-confrontationist political legacy of his father Rajiv Gandhi. Though his Facebook introduction talks, he promised to carry forward Rajiv’s unfinished agenda.

However, it seems he has more faith in grandmother Indira Gandhi and uncle Sanjay Gandhi. RaGa has literally rolled up his sleeves—a signature oratory gesture—for a decisive political bout with Modi. Rahul’s tactics and terminology of the past few weeks reflect Indira’s aggression in his choice of words and the street fighting talent of his uncle Sanjay.

Of late, the Congress’s president-in-waiting has been at his most acerbic best by hitting out at the PM. He has chosen the streets as his battlefield. He joined snaking queues of ordinary citizens to collect his quota of cash following demonetisation. He has criss-crossed the country, chipping away with rhetoric at the PM’s overpowering personality. So far no good. “Honey I shrunk the party,” could well have been his patent line. The Congress diminished from a political giant to a pathetic pygmy with a fragmented identity in three years. But Rahul has never been out of mind or sight of people who matter or vote. From boardrooms to classrooms, he is the subject of either ridicule or admiration.  

Rahul has Modi to thank for it. He is in the news for questioning the PM’s personal integrity. Though the 46-year-old Gandhi promised an earthquake by exposing an alleged scam involving Modi, his subsequent revelations didn’t move even a fallen leaf on the political field.

By choosing Gujarat, Modi’s home state, as the battlefield to attack him over supposedly receiving corporate kickbacks, Rahul defined the battle lines for the future. He has decided that it is not the BJP but the PM himself who is his prime target. By striking a muffled martyr’s pose, what he could have said on the floor of the Lok Sabha, Rahul disclosed at Mehsana.

 Staying in the news is one way to become the news. Rahul Gandhi has become a headline bandit with constant cannonade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Congress vice-president earned the social media sobriquet of ‘buddu’ from a powerful maverick politician of the BJP. The Prime Minister mocked him as a package sans substance.

Yet Rahul is the topic de jour in the national political conversation as a leader whose staying power is fuelled by Modi. Decoding Rahul’s Morse code of malarkey reveals a side that shows street sense in targeting the powerful and popular Modi.

Since the PM uses one-liners to make headlines, anyone who responds gets almost the same attention by default. Even the Opposition parties, which avoided confronting Modi, are now willing to fight him under Rahul’s standard. For the first time, Rahul was taken seriously, thanks to Modi. Leading the campaign against demonetisaion, Rahul spoke on behalf of the entire Opposition.

It was a transformation through temerity—the leader who was known for fumbles and verbal tumbles had suddenly acquired a quiverful of poetic and punitive adjectives to pierce his opponent’s armour. In the gathering storm of the Uttar Pradesh elections, Rahul seems to have become a wordsmith of a new political vocabulary with phrases such as ‘suit boot ki sarkar’ and Modi-made Demonetisation Disaster. 
Until now, even after 12 years in politics, Rahul had nothing to flaunt except his Gandhi pedigree.

A successful stratagem of warcraft is to be learned from the enemy. To face the formidable Modi, Rahul has discarded the non-confrontationist political legacy of his father Rajiv Gandhi. Though his Facebook introduction talks, he promised to carry forward Rajiv’s unfinished agenda.

However, it seems he has more faith in grandmother Indira Gandhi and uncle Sanjay Gandhi. RaGa has literally rolled up his sleeves—a signature oratory gesture—for a decisive political bout with Modi. Rahul’s tactics and terminology of the past few weeks reflect Indira’s aggression in his choice of words and the street fighting talent of his uncle Sanjay.

Of late, the Congress’s president-in-waiting has been at his most acerbic best by hitting out at the PM. He has chosen the streets as his battlefield. He joined snaking queues of ordinary citizens to collect his quota of cash following demonetisation. He has criss-crossed the country, chipping away with rhetoric at the PM’s overpowering personality. So far no good. “Honey I shrunk the party,” could well have been his patent line. The Congress diminished from a political giant to a pathetic pygmy with a fragmented identity in three years. But Rahul has never been out of mind or sight of people who matter or vote. From boardrooms to classrooms, he is the subject of either ridicule or admiration.  

Rahul has Modi to thank for it. He is in the news for questioning the PM’s personal integrity. Though the 46-year-old Gandhi promised an earthquake by exposing an alleged scam involving Modi, his subsequent revelations didn’t move even a fallen leaf on the political field.

By choosing Gujarat, Modi’s home state, as the battlefield to attack him over supposedly receiving corporate kickbacks, Rahul defined the battle lines for the future. He has decided that it is not the BJP but the PM himself who is his prime target. By striking a muffled martyr’s pose, what he could have said on the floor of the Lok Sabha, Rahul disclosed at Mehsana.