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HomeOpinionNewsmaker of the WeekRahul Gandhi’s Parliament speech on Modi-Adani forces BJP to play on Congress'...

Rahul Gandhi’s Parliament speech on Modi-Adani forces BJP to play on Congress’ pitch

Rahul Gandhi's attack on Modi for his perceived collusion with Adani brought out BJP's big guns in Parliament. After a long time, BJP was responding to a narrative set by Congress.

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Indian Parliament this week saw fiery speeches from both the treasury and opposition benches. And after a long time, the treasury was responding to a narrative set by the opposition. After the first few days of the Budget session were washed out due to opposition protests, the House resumed on 7 February, and the “speech of the day” was that of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Back from a 4080-km walk spanning over nearly 150 days, Rahul Gandhi drew from his experience of the Bharat Jodo Yatra to criticise the Narendra Modi government on unemployment, price rise and also the Agnipath scheme. But Gandhi’s 49-minute speech was an all-out attack on PM Modi for his perceived collusion with business tycoon Gautam Adani. From brandishing a photograph of Modi and Adani on a flight together to pointedly questioning the number of foreign projects awarded to the Adani Group after Modi’s trips abroad, observers say that this may have been Gandhi’s best Lok Sabha speech in his two-decade-long stint as an MP.

Thereafter, 18 portions of Gandhi’s speech — references to the PM and Adani — were expunged from parliamentary records. Till the Budget Session ended, big guns from the BJP such as Nishikant Dubey, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kiren Rijiju took on Gandhi in the House, pulling back no punches. And unlike what the Congress has managed in the past, Modi too came to the pitch, mocking the Gandhi scion—though without naming him—across two speeches in two days. After a long time, the Congress was batting in a pitch it had created for itself and the BJP was forced to play with them.

And that is why Rahul Gandhi’s speech is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of The Week.


Also read: You saw a new Rahul Gandhi in Parliament. I saw the change in Kashmir itself


Rahul vs Modi personality contest

While Rahul’s ‘new’ avatar as a fiery opposition leader was noticed by even his harshest critics, they also point out his many attempts at ‘rebranding’ himself. After Modi’s speech in Lok Sabha Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi said that the PM was “shell shocked” and hence did not respond to any of his allegations on colluding with Adani.

Politically, another important thing to note would be the nature of Rahul’s attacks and that of Modi’s response. While Rahul spoke of Modi rewarding Adani for his “loyalty”, the latter used the 140 crore people of India as his shield.

“The blessings of 140 crore Indians is my suraksha kavach,” Modi said.

The implication was that Modi’s criticism was an attack on the collective conscience of the entire country. The almost cult-like following gathered in nine years was used by Modi as his biggest weapon. Without naming Rahul Gandhi, he stuck to the usual themes on which he’s attacked him for years — ‘pariwaarvaad’, ‘corruption’ and ‘bad governance’.

The dynamics of the BJP’s response is also interesting. While Smriti Irani attacked Rahul Gandhi for not doing any work in Amethi where he had been MP for three terms, Rijiju attacked him for ‘insulting’ the prestige of the House by making ‘unsubstantiated allegations’. Ravi Shankar Prasad, meanwhile, brought in Rahul’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra and accused the Congress of facilitating Vadra’s rise in wealth just like Rahul had accused the BJP of facilitating Adani’s meteoric rise to the world’s third richest person. While all of these attacks named Rahul and directly took on portions of his speech, Modi spoke of 2004 to 2014 (the time when Congress-led UPA was at the Centre) as India’s ‘lost decade’. He then compared it to his term. which he called ‘India’s decade’.

The messaging was clear—Modi was a man of and for the people, and Gandhi was just trying to tarnish his reputation, and attacking the nation in the process. While Modi chose the Congress’ weakest link to mount his attack, Rahul Gandhi chose to take on the BJP’s MVP. While it’s too early to talk of its electoral impact, it showed that Gandhi still has a long way to go in this personality contest.


Also read: Modi is opening BJP to minorities. We can thank Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra for it


How far can Congress take the Adani issue?

Since the report by US-based Hindenburg Research on Adani Group was brought to the public domain, the Congress has been reiterating that Rahul Gandhi ‘foresaw’ Adani’s fate. He has been talking about it for years, even in his poll speeches in Adani’s homeground Gujarat.

Since the report, the Congress has launched a daily ‘Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun’ protest series and all their communication since the report has been largely about Adani. But do citizens understand the Adani affair? Even Congress functionaries privately say the charges against Adani aren’t easily understood. The Congress did attempt to connect the issue to the masses by highlighting LIC’s exposure to the Adani Group. They protested outside LIC offices saying that the middle class policyholder will lose their money due to the Modi-Adani collusion. But look at the numbers and one would know that this angle is a non-starter. LIC money stuck in Adani shares is less than 1% of the corporation’s total assets under management, according to LIC chief MR Kumar.

A senior Congress leader contended that the public did not understand the alleged 2G ‘scam’ either. But it stuck and ruined the UPA.

As professor Chandrachur Singh of Hindu College pointed out at ThePrint’s Political Adda show, ‘corruption’ can be of different kinds. Most people may not understand white collar frauds like the one Congress is accusing Adani of, but something like the CWG scam is more comprehensible to them. The syntax is simpler to understand — a big, global event took place in India, and the ruling party’s politicians made money off it.

How Congress takes the Modi-Adani issue forward remains to be seen. Will it be able to sustain the pressure or allow it to be forgotten like the Vyapam scam? With about a year to go for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Congress’ time to figure out its main poll plank is now and then stick to it.

(Edited by Prashant)

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