Being graceful in defeat is not a virtue which Rahul Gandhi possesses. Instead of blaming leaders of his own party; the young leader could have simply taken responsibility for the electoral dubbing. But Rahul did just the opposite. Congress drew a blank in as many as 17 states and Union Territories of the country. The Lok Sabha elections is when the performance of a party at the national level is scrutinised by the electorate. This fact clearly proves that the party’s top leadership is to be blamed. There can be no second opinion about it.
It is still vivid in memory when Rahul Gandhi took credit for the Congress victory in three Hindi heartland states just seven months ago. At that time contributions from the state units were not mentioned even once. But as soon as the tide turned against him Rahul wilfully forgot the contribution of these leaders towards the party levelling all sorts of allegations against them ranging from nepotism to infighting. Was he not aware about such ills when he took over the reins of the party? Was it not in his knowledge that Congress leaders offer more time to promote their families rather than working to strengthen the party? What was he doing when Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashoke Ghelot was camping in Jodhpur for ten days to ensure the victory of his son? Or what was he doing when leaders like P. Chidambaram or Kamal Nath threatened to leave the party if their sons were denied tickets? Last but not least, why is he sparing his sister Priyanka who was in charge of Rahul’s parliamentary constituency Amethi? If state leaders are to be ridiculed for the failures of Congress party, Priyanka’s role should also be criticised in the same breath.
Sadly, Rahul in his efforts to take a high moral ground is simply playing a sentimental game. If he is determined to resign from his post, no one can prevent him. But his game plan is different. By offering to resign, he just tests the water. Rahul knows well where he has failed. As the leader of the principalopposition party, Rahul has failed to set counter narratives to Modi’s narratives of nationalism and corruption. If his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ slogan has flopped, it is because his ignorance about the history of independent India where corruption is more or less institutionalised.
So no one took Rahul seriously when he promised to root out corruption. Similarly, when Narendra Modi and BJP claimed that India is safe under the present regime, Rahul never uttered action against perpetrators.
So in case of national security, Congress has a better record than NDA. In fact what he stated during the entire election campaign is yet to be decoded by the electorate as it sounded hollow in the first place. Besides, Rahul’s party was fighting to regain lost power. But quite strangely, while the Prime Minister addressed more than 160 rallies during campaigning, Rahul participated in only 115 rallies. Shouldn’t he be more active and aggressive?
No one supports a timid leader. So, Indian electorate once again has kept faith on Narendra Modi. On the other hand, if Rahul has learnt a lesson from this failure, without wasting any more time, he should start combating the Prime Minister directly; built a narrative and make his party strong. Otherwise, Rahul Gandhi will never be able to establish himself as a leader.
