Trivialising Rahul Gandhi and other conundrums

Rahul should make it clear that he is not in the PM race and that any fightback against BJP is only possible with a combined strategy with regional parties

The message from a reporter attached to one of the big media organisations said that it was “necessary to find the woman so that the wrong things being said and speculated stop.” Attached was a blurry video of a woman with frizzy hair seated next to Rahul Gandhi while he ate with gusto from what appeared to be a large soup bowl. The reporter was checking if the woman was me. It was not. But the point is that it was a task given to reporters to find who a woman seated next to RG might be.

Just as it has been a campaign on BJP social media handles and on the ecosystem that supports them to zoom in on his neckline and say hey, he is wearing a warm vest under his T-shirt while walking in the north Indian cold. Who walks, talks, hugs or holds hands with Rahul Gandhi is driving right-wing social media into a frenzy. The length of his beard
has already invited distasteful commentary.

All of this in itself is revealing. Clearly, it is part of a concerted attempt to mock the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra. This strategy is to trivialise the entire exercise in order to deflect from what is being said. The entire focus is to ridicule and trash Rahul Gandhi.

Whether one takes Rahul Gandhi seriously or not is not the point. He has walked over 3,500 kilometres since the yatra began on September 7 last year, and as I write this is passing through Haryana, and the journey has just around 280 kilometres left till it reaches its destination in Kashmir. Along the way, Rahul Gandhi has made several statements and answered press queries. The thrust of the messaging has been against cronyism, politics of division/hate and about federalism. He has touched on serious socio/political issues such as authoritarianism and economic inequality. He has indeed displayed the physical fitness and resolve necessary to make this extraordinary journey on foot.

Read | The successes and pitfalls of Bharat Jodo Yatra

Some days ago, the yatra walked through the parts of northeast Delhi that had riots in 2020. For many residents of riot-affected parts of the neighbourhoods of Maujpur, Seelampur/Jaffrabad, the yatra, with its slogans of Nafrat Chhodo/Bharat Jodo (Leave hate/Unite India), created a moment where they felt that they had not been forgotten. In little ways, it has helped create a positive public sentiment towards the Congress and has certainly rehabilitated the image of Rahul Gandhi.

Yet, this is a time for modesty and understatement by the Congress that should eschew grand utterances such as Rahul Gandhi being the prime ministerial candidate in 2024. Some such statements by Congress leaders compelled Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communication, to clarify that the yatra is not intended to position Rahul Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate in 2024.

There are two conundrums that the Congress must grapple with, and the answer to one would depend on the personal decisions of Rahul Gandhi. First, it would be a case of putting the cart before the horse to project him as a PM candidate. There is still a very large constituency, even within his party and Congress supporters, that does not see Rahul Gandhi as being the right person for this role. There has always been an argument that without the Gandhis, the Congress may be in upheaval but could eventually fare better as a new leadership would willy-nilly be forced to emerge. But since it is clear that the Gandhis are very much there, it is to the benefit of the party that they perform.

Also Read | Media notices my T-shirt, but ignores poor farmers, labourers in torn clothes: Rahul

Rahul has indeed done well with the Bharat Jodo Yatra as he possibly thrives in mobilisations that combine his own extraordinary physical fitness levels with his interest in philosophy, morality and his struggle to understand his own family’s history. But he has not shown the temperament to enjoy power politics or be committed to it full-time. To date, allies, existing or potential, talk to his mother, Sonia Gandhi, although both Rahul and Priyanka have their chosen individuals in the party. Many of the old Congress leaders who abandoned the party complained about Rahul’s inaccessibility and erratic approach to the full-time business of being a politician.

So far, the Congress has said that the yatra is not about electoral mobilisations. But now that it will soon end, politics and elections will again come centre-stage as they indeed should. The Congress should put all its energy into structure building and mobilisation in election-bound states, the first of which is Karnataka, of crucial importance for what will then follow. The kind of precise management and organisational skills seen in the yatra now need to be applied to state elections that come in 2023.

Rahul should also make it clear that he is not in the prime ministerial race and that any fightback against the BJP is only possible in a combined strategy with regional parties. But first, post-yatra, the party must fight for the states even as Rahul Gandhi should start a plan for an East-to-West Bharat Jodo Yatra sometime in 2023.

(Saba Naqvi is a journalist and author)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.