New Delhi: Through the course of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Rahul Gandhi’s poll pitch has undergone a sea change, with the Congress president shifting the focus of his speeches from the Rafale deal to Nyay, the minimum income scheme through which his party has promised Rs 72,000 annually to “India’s poorest”.
After the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) kicked in on 10 March, Gandhi held his first rally in Gujarat on 12 March and spoke on the 14 February terror attack in Pulwama, industrialist Anil Ambani, and fugitive businessmen Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.
A large part of his speech, however, was dedicated to the Rafale deal. It was a recurring theme in all of his speeches in March as he discussed the nitty-gritty of the deal — the amount involved, of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi allegedly indulged in corruption, and the fact that the Congress had pressed for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe on the deal.
The Rafale phase
Sources in the Congress said that the party had then decided to focus on corruption and felt that the Rafale row would resonate with voters.
The subsequent public rallies in Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh followed the same trajectory. ThePrint looked at Rahul Gandhi’s speeches and found that initially the minimum income guarantee promise, which later became the party’s main poll pitch, was only touched upon.
The focus remained on Rafale, corruption, demonetisation and the industrialists who allegedly looted the nation and ran away.
“Anil Ambani, Rs 45,000 crore, he owes the Indian banking system. His brother had to save him from going to jail. His brother had to pay to stop him from going to jail because he cannot pay his debts and that is the man that Narendra Modi chooses to give the biggest defence contract in the world, to give India’s security to a thief,” Gandhi said in a speech at Imphal on 20 March.
“A man, who cannot pay his own bank loans, who owes Rs 45,000 crore, who owes Rs 45,000 crore to the Indian banking system, Narendra Modi gives him the Rafale contract,” he added
He further gave a detailed account of the deal, on how the jets were allegedly worth Rs 526 crore and bought for Rs 1,600 crore, and that the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL), which he said should have been given the contract, was left out of the deal.
In most of his speeches during this period, Gandhi would address the crowd with: “Rafale ke baare mai thoda bataana chahta hu (I would like to talk about Rafale).”
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Nyay takes over Rafale
It was from March end, when he delivered a speech in Haryana and especially in Zaheerabad, Telangana, on 1 April, when Rafale took a backseat and the Congress president dedicated a large chunk of his address to the Nyay scheme.
He went on to explain how it was proposed within the party and how it materialised and was given the final shape. It is here that he began talking more about other pressing issues such as unemployment, farm loan waivers and a separate budget for the “kisan”.
Under Nyay, the scheme announced by the party in its Lok Sabha election manifesto, the poorest 20 per cent in the country will be assured an income of Rs 6,000 a month.
A senior Congress leader explained the change in strategy: “As part of the election strategy it is our job to see what issues are resonating more and it was found that though Rafale was an important issue, one had to raise issues that are essentially linked with people’s daily life,” said the senior leader who did not wish to be identified.
“We had already done loan waivers in three states so we felt it was important to highlight that as well as the Nyay scheme. His speeches, therefore, reflect that over the different phases of the elections,” the leader added.
Gandhi also started to begin his speeches with ‘chowkidar chor hai’ in a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For instance, on 24 April, at a rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district, Gandhi began with the slogan “Chowkidar…” prompting the crowd to respond with “chor hai”.
This then became the starting point for a number of his speeches as he went on to say that though the idea of depositing money into the accounts of poor people came from Modi, his team spent months on helping it materialise by coming up with a realistic number on his directions.
Farmers and loan waivers a key focus area
Apart from Nyay, another key focus of Gandhi’s speeches was the loan waivers for farmers, a separate budget for them and the provision of not sending them to jail in case they default.
His speeches also took potshots at the Modi government’s promises to create two crore jobs, highlighting the issue of unemployment. In a number of speeches, he talked about how it was farmers who gave him directions to have in place a separate kisan budget.
Another key highlight in his speeches is the example of the three states the party won recently: Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
On 11 May, at a rally in Shajapur, Madhya Pradesh, he mentioned former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accusing the Congress of not carrying out farm loan waivers.
“Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said the Congress party is lying. But Kamal Nath then took out names of those whose loans have been waived,” he said.
“On this, Chouhan said there must be some misunderstanding. Kamal Nathji took out the form and showed the signatures of all those whose loans were waived off,” Gandhi added.
According to another senior leader, his speeches reflect the mood of the public too, as they primarily focused on Nyay, issues related to the farmers and unemployment.
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Ra Ga is an idiot.His NYAY scheem is not usfull for national security. Rafel is definitely a nationalsecurity. this stupied does not understand. he talks withoit proof. people of india dhould drive him out of india as he thinks national secirity is not important than helping poor. actually helping poor is only s drama. inira gandhi said garobi hatao, then where is gabib now.
1. What I feel is that Congress President and senior Congress leaders, who are never known for self-introspection, must find out why Congress is facing its existential crisis of sorts. It is in a bad situation, cornered by opponents who claim to be opposing BJP but they are actually wishing for defeat of Congress too in this year’s Lok Sabha election. 2. Senior Congress leaders know very well that theirs is a political party, established in nineteenth Century, in 1885, to be exact but my question is this: do they recognize threats to the party and do they wish to know why their party finds itself in a situation in which it has to seek to support from regional parties (like RJD, NCP, DMK) whose leaders have a agenda of defeating BJP (perhaps, Congress too) and whose survival is based on caste-based politics. 3. When Congress President offered minimum income guarantee scheme or Nyay he did not feel like taking about its viability or about resources to fund the scheme. Similarly, even Rahul Gandhi was speaking about corruption in the Rafale aircrafts’ deal he was silent about corruption in all defence contacts. 4. When Congressmen criticise PM Narendra Modi and NDA government for whatever reasons, they should not forget that credibility of Congress party as a national party would not be regained by merely saying that PM Narendra Modi is corrupt or that he has done injustice to people of this country. 5. I think wining 100 Lok Sabha seats has become big challenge for the Congress party. Why it is that Congress is facing such a situation? Fact is that there are very few leaders in the Congress party who wish to strengthen the organisational structure of the party? Everyone desires to hold office of profit.
I Wonder if you are aware of the Agricultural Produce Statistics from 1960 – 1970 , 1970 – 1980 ,
1980 -1990
1990- 2000
2000 – 2010
Kindly refer our national stats.
Milk production , In Agricultural outputs in Rice , Wheat , Pulses etc we are the Leading country in the world.
BJP is a Jumla Party the hope for rich and the famous
A completely botched up Congress campaign for which the blame rests entirely on Raga and his aides and advisers. Also his sycophants who applauded his every inane jibe and abuse at Modi and fed him with the belief that constantly attacking Modi with cheap and elementary school boyish taunts and acronyms was all that he needed to grab the PM’s chair. Neither he nor PGV rose above this level during seven months of this campaign. PGV entered with a bang and left with a whimper. It was expected that she will be more polished and articulate compared to Raga and will get the voters to listen and respond. But she too succumbed very fast to the “Abuse, revile, demean, humiliate and attack Modi, personally” strategy ( if that is what it was) and ended up being painful to one’s ears, and only causing ennui. Congress had SOME scope to create at least an interesting finish and exciting result in 2019. But it threw away all its chances with Raga’s obsession with Modi and his single minded direct, personal attack on the PM to the exclusion of ANY meaningful communication to the voters (which PGV, in her turn, only reinforced).
In 2019, as in 2014, the challenger was spoilt for choice, so many issues to take up.
This is poll gimmick only and people of India knows that congress has betrayed the farmers always that is why still India could not become self sufficient in food production yet and bjp.will only take India to make India self sufficient in food production