What should RaGa sing next?

Little is known about what Gandhi thinks about the important issues of the day

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness … … … So begins Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. That is probably the way voters perceive India ahead of the general election.

 

For Rahul Gandhi, it was just another embarrassing stumble. Political analysts who are closely following the Congress vice-president see his personality take a 360-degree turn — from an introverted young man to an angry man. These days O is O for onions. O for oratory. O for ouch! Little is known about what he thinks about the crucial issues of the day and what he would do if he were to become PM.

 

Candidly, his anti-communal campaign is an act of political desperation. From the standpoint of pure politics, the movement is an unmitigated disaster. It alienated a large numbers of Muslim voters who saw the crusade as an attempt by the Grand Old Party to unnecessarily question their integrity. 

 

It is Newton theory that works as an adhesive between Gandhi and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Modi demanded that Gandhi — whom he addressed as shehzada or prince — disclose the names of youths that the ISI was allegedly working on. If he did not have the names, he owed the Muzaffarnagar youths an apology. 

 

The Hindutva mascot went on to add that he understood the shehzada was angry when his grandmother was killed. What happened to that anger when the Sikhs were eliminated?” asked the Gujarat Chief Minister. Modi made an attempt to retain his image as a hardcore Hindutva leader by obliquely justifying the post-Godhra massacre as a reaction to the attack on the kar sevaks allegedly by Muslims.

 

The more Gandhi talks, the more he keeps a whole lot of folks busy: television debaters who have to decode what he said; the Congress spokespersons who have to figure out how to defend him; bloggers and social media junkies who have to give up sleep to tweet, blog and get creative with jokes and eulogies; and political analysts who have to struggle to keep pace with the RaGa controversies.

 

Gandhi, 43, stayed largely invisible and silent for most of the nine years that he has been a member of Parliament, and has created too much confusion about whether he wants to be prime minister or even a politician. The Amethi MP’s speech, naïve, sincere, and laced with a few odd stories, would have been fine if he was just starting out, say in his early 30s. On Twitter, reactions to his speeches were mixed. The hashtag #Pappu starts trending after his speech. The mixed reception for Gandhi's speech is likely to renew speculation about possible Congress party alternatives for prime minister. 

 

Gandhi draws attention to the violence that has shaped his life, Modi prefers not to discuss the violence that has marked his career as Gujarat CM. The comparison between Modi and Congress heir apparent is unavoidable. Barring one or two occasions, Gandhi failed to connect with the crowd the way Modi did.