Targetting Rahul Gandhi , Bad Politics Or Good Strategy ?

 

BY R.K.MISRA

Incidents are tiny specks-not even events- when they occur. It is only hindsight that strings them into history.

 Whether the Surat judgement in the Rahul Gandhi defamation case and the stirrings in the political pot emanating therefrom cooks the Congress goose, turns into a lavish Opposition spread, or recoils on the ruling political establishment, only time will tell. For the moment it has raised  temperatures nationwide and  initialled a process of political polarization. Long lost is the  bonhomie of the J.N.Nehru- A.B.Vajpayee era where tenaciously tearing into governance marked debates within Parliament and a warm, personal affinity in relations outside it. The Opposition is now the new enemy and victor-vanquished divide, is the prevailing language of discourse.

 Rahul remains defiant in the face of a  trial that gathered sudden speed and an equally fast paced disqualification as Member of Parliament who will not be able to contest the elections for 8 years, if the conviction is not stayed. The BJP terms the disqualification as per law and  hints at a conspiracy from within ,with party chief J.P.Nadda slamming Rahul as a habitual offender. Congress, on the other hand, terms it as an act of vendetta  provoked by the inordinate success of the Bharat Jodo yatra.

Be that as it may, the unfolding developments are very much a part of Narendra Modi’s political beliefs. The victor takes it all and in any confrontation there are no quarters given and none taken. You play to win. The world over both sports and politics are played this way, aver sources in the know of him. If demonstrators pull down the flag at the Indian Embassy in the UK this moment, the security barriers at their  embassy in New Delhi, are removed at the very next one. Call it tit-for-tat, call it vengeance. A no-holds barred battle is the new norm. So in  present day domestic politics as well.

Rahul too is now working to a clear-cut plan. Congress and Rahul strategy planners realise that Modi with aggression built into his persona is invincible on his own turf . He marches to the beat of his own drum, is closed off, distant and talks down. Whether a minor skirmish or a major battle, a foreign adversary or a domestic opponent Modi deploys the entire array of weaponry at his command to optimal use. Presenting a total contrast, both in characteristics, openness and affability coupled with Gandhian warmth, steely resolve and defiant demeanour wrapped in an indigenous ethos is how the new Rahul is being fitted out. The pilot test of this new ‘avatar’ was the  Bharat Jodo yatra which yielded  splendid gains  though  at the cost of losing Gujarat. The experiment, nevertheless was worth the while, say Congress insiders.

Coincidences are caused by hidden levers and disguised pulleys . It’s the sequence that gives away the game. The timeline of the case makes for interesting reading. Purnesh Modi who had filed the criminal defamation case in the Surat court in April 2019, almost a year later in March 2022 obtained a stay from the High Court after a plea seeking an explanation from Rahul was rejected. Almost a year later on February 16,2023,Purnesh Modi  moved the High Court for vacation of stay on the case  which was granted . This was the time period that  Parliament was  seeing uproarious scenes.  On March 20,2023, the Surat Court concluded trial and two days later on March 22,pronounced judgement. The next day Rahul was disqualified as an MP.

Whatever the intended purpose of the BJP  in strategising this proccess  may be, for the moment it seems to be having the opposite effect. Rahul’s refusal to apologise  and take the easy way out is purposive .If the objective was to silence him into a shell , he has turned defiant, more aggressive and distinctly veered towards the Gandhian strategy seeking to position himself at the other contrasting end of the political  spectrum. With elections in Karnataka on the anvil, the Congress/Rahul should be going full throttle.

Another important spin-off is that the  Opposition parties now realise the clear and inherent danger and have an immediate reason/need to come together. In one fell swoop, the BJP has brought almost the entire Opposition together, a task which the squabbling lot had miserably failed to achieve.

Whether ordained by history, germinated in geography or triggered by events, Gujarat has been a crucible for national political experiments  and march a key month.

The Navnirman agitation in Gujarat in the early seventies began with an innocuous students protest over rising mess bills in an engineering college and spread to engulf the state. Perhaps for the first time in the history of independent India a constitutionally elected government  was brought down by a protesting population. The then Congress  chief minister, Chimanbhai Patel resigned and the Gujarat Legislative Assembly was dissolved on March 15,1974. However it  triggered a chain of events that culminated in  Sarvodaya leader Jayaprakash Narayan- led crusade against corruption through marshalling of Opposition parties, the promulgation of Emergency and the eventual installation of the first non-congress government at the Centre on March 24,1977 incidentally led by a gujarati, Moraraji Desai. Ironically, BJP( then the Jan Sangh) which was a part of the anti-corruption crusade against Congress chief minister Chimanbhai Patel  had no qualms in becoming a coalition partner in a Janata dal led government headed by him which came to power on March 4,1990.

Further back in time ,Mahatma Gandhi’s salt satyagraha at Dandi which started from Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad on March 12,1930 was similarly, just a spot in a struggle but it was the violent response on peaceful satyagrahis that fuelled the fires  for a free India  over a decade and a half later. Gandhi never returned to his Ahmedabad ashram but  political happenings keep his state of birth in focus. Incidentally  It was on March 23, 1931 that Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged by the British government. Also, It was on March 23, 2023 that a court in Surat, Gujarat  sentenced Rahul Gandhi Congress leader and  the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi family to two years imprisonment for a speech termed defamatory to the Modi community, that he had  made in Kolar, Karnataka during the  2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. Rahul did not tender an apology and Chief judicial magistrate HH Varma pronounced that “less punishment sends a wrong message to the public”. There are two more similar cases filed during the same period of time in similar fashion, still pending resolution. Rahul, the Congress and the Opposition are up against a dominant political ethos that echoes a saying” It is not sufficient that I succeed-all others must fail”.

P.S. Rahul has been asked to vacate his Tughlak lane bungalow by April 22 assigned to him as an MP. The notice was served by the Housing Committee of the Lok Sabha which is headed by  C.R. Patil, BJP MP from Navsari who is also the Gujarat BJP  president.

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