Narendra Modi is not a politician who will give up easily and let someone else take his crown away.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi refuses to learn one cardinal rule of politics – timing. And this stubbornness has proved his detractors right, time and again.
Rahul is off to a fortnight-long Mansarovar Yatra when he should be leading the Congress’ charge against the Narendra Modi government on a range of issues, from the failed demonetisation gamble to the escalating price of petrol, and the rising atrocities against Dalits-minorities.
Like Rahul, his party workers also suffer from an inability to seize the right time to do the right thing.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi finally finds the time to visit Kailash Mansarovar
Nothing explains this syndrome better than the Youth Congress workers staging a “massive protest” outside 7 RCR, the Prime Minister’s residence, Thursday against the Rafale scam. The PM by then had already left for Nepal on a two-day visit. Wasn’t there anyone in the Congress who could have asked the workers to protest when the PM was at least in India?
Twitter politics alone can’t help
Surveys and polls, whose sample size is questionable, say Modi is losing popularity, but the fact remains that he is still by far the tallest leader on the political horizon.
To take him on, one needs a solid plan to change the narrative from Hindu-Muslim, India-Pakistan and Kashmir-versus-rest, and bring the focus back on the government’s failings on the social and economic front. Modi is not a politician who will give up easily and let someone else take his crown away.
Yet, between 2014 election campaign and the 2017 Gujarat elections, ‘vikas’ has fallen off the grid for the BJP leaders as their statements at public rallies and in TV studios show. It seems to have been replaced with an ‘otherisation’ campaign.
This deviation from the promised path is something that the opposition needs to highlight.
If the Congress has to put up a semblance of a fight against the politically belligerent duo of Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, it needs to understand that Twitter gets you followers not voters. Rahul and his party need to stop their Twitter politics and instead take to the streets, highlighting the government’s failures.
Also read: In the Rahul vs Modi battle, why Shobhaa De would choose duffer over demagogue
They need to talk to people, especially those who are undecided or angry with Modi but may still vote for him because they feel that he at least has a plan, however flawed that may be, while Rahul has offered none.
If Twitter and social media could win a party elections, Divya Spandana and the Congress IT cell’s caustic memes and clever questions would have ensured that Siddaramaiah and not H.D. Kumaraswamy was the Karnataka chief minister. Is it even a consolation for the Congress that despite being the larger party, it is the minor partner in the coalition government?
Rahul needs to learn from young Tejashwi Yadav who, in the absence of his father Lalu Yadav, is keeping his party cadre galvanised. If not for him and his attacking politics, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar may not have been dealt the strongest blow in a long time through the exposure of the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes. While Tejashwi did vent his anger on Twitter, it was the public protests that helped build a narrative against Nitish.
A study in contrast
Both Modi and Shah are now busy firming up their party’s strategy, first for the assembly elections in four states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram – and then the big battle next year. The BJP will leave no stone unturned, and will raise every possible slogan to drill it into the voters’ mind that Modi and not Rahul, or a mishmash of opposition parties, is the answer to New India’s woes.
Contrast the BJP’s war-room action with the scenario in the Congress camp where Rahul’s supporters seem to suggest that there is still time before the voter enters the polling booth in 2019. In doing so, they possibly seem to ignore the fact that the groundwork for the Lok Sabha elections will be laid in the coming assembly elections.
If, for instance, the results are divided in Rajasthan – it is a state that seems ripe for a change – one can bet the last dollar (since everybody’s faith in the rupee seems to be eroding on a daily basis!) that the BJP will use every trick in the trade to retain the state.
The Congress may also have a real chance in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, but does the party leadership have what it takes to defeat the BJP in its own game?
At several gatherings, one finds people, who are keen to see Modi lose, getting exasperated with the Congress’ lack of can-do attitude.
The Congress, by now, should have finalised its alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Madhya Pradesh. Has it done so? We don’t know.
Also read: Only reason why Narendra Modi will return in 2019 is Rahul Gandhi
In Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot has done a wonderful job in revitalising the party. But, the final push will have to come from the AICC – in fact, it should have already come by now. But, maybe the Rajasthan unit will have to wait for Rahul to return after seeking Bhole Baba’s ashirwaad.
As a Congress supporter recently wondered at a gathering in Lutyens’ Delhi: “Current kab aayega?” It was, perhaps, both a question and a statement on the Congress’ prospects.