Lotus blooms when zero is hero

Rahul Gandhi is the gift that keeps on giving. He has developed a PR sideline in martial arts during this phase of Assembly elections.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posing for a selfie with a girl at a campaign rally in Karur on Monday. (Photo | Special arrangement)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posing for a selfie with a girl at a campaign rally in Karur on Monday. (Photo | Special arrangement)

Rahul Gandhi is the gift that keeps on giving. He has developed a PR sideline in martial arts during this phase of Assembly elections. Sometime ago, this column had suggested that RG, being a black belt in karate, should leverage his machismo to spin his image around from the Congress party’s ‘Pappu Pradhan’ to secular samurai, although there is no evidence that he heeded such unsolicited advice. Giving Aikido lessons at St Teresa’s College in Kochi last week provoked a chauvinist ex-Parliamentarian to warn girls to keep away from the ‘bachelor’. This is unfair to the gentlemanly RG, since he is only a bachelor in Political Science who has flunked all exams so far.

DMK chief MK Stalin’s suggestion that RG replicate the Tamil Nadu alliance model nationally no doubt would have brought cheer to the 50-year-old young black belt; though any Congressman with survival instincts would freeze in terror. I will let you into a secret—the BJP’s real leader is RG, since it is his presidentship of the Congress that contributed to the Modi Wave. It is folly to call Amit Shah the sole architect of the saffron victory—the credit goes to RG too. 

He continues the BJP’s good work in Bengal. He sent failed royal politician and sidekick Jitendra Singh to forge an alliance with Islamic fundamentalist cleric Abbas Siddiqui to whack Mamata Banerjee’s TMC, and redefined secularism. Although the Congress and the Commies do not have a hope of winning the state polls, RG hopes to split the Muslim vote to oust TMC from Writers’ Building. He has taken ‘My enemy’s enemy is my friend’ to heart. Which is why Mr Stalin should immediately withdraw his suggestion. 

The glory of the Congress died in Tamil Nadu when it lost power in 1967 and piggybacked on Dravidian parties even when RG’s charismatic grandma was alive. In the 2011 Assembly elections, it contested 63 seats as part of the DMK alliance and won only five. 

It would be specious of RG’s ardent loyalists to claim that it was their boss’ political karate that brought the Congress to power in some states. In Madhya Pradesh, it was Kamal Nath’s electoral experience and cunning that won the day. In Rajasthan, it was Ashok Gehlot’s base and Sachin Pilot’s hard work. In Punjab, it is Captain Amarinder Singh’s force field that attracted votes. All these are veterans, not the hobby heroes of Camelot.

It is not the Opposition that Mr Modi and Mr Shah should worry about. It is the opposition within the Congress. RG being no longer in politics by 2024, will decide the difference between the lotus being in the hothouse or hot water. A national alliance led by him would be manna to Mr Modi, though it is not clear whether any serious Opposition party would want to commit suicide by hitching their star to RG’s bandwagon. One time Tamil Nadu Congress stalwart GK Moopanar’s fave line was “Within the Congress you go from hero to zero overnight.” But what if the hero is the zero? Do the math.

Ravi Shankar
ravi@newindianexpress.com

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