Why Pappu hasn’t defined Rahul Gandhi yet
No tomb raider would have rummaged through the remains of a lost city as much as the Indian National Congress has examined its presently distressed soul. After its rout in Haryana and Maharashtra, its soul searchers are seeking introspection: which, in partyspeak means Rahul Gandhi is the suicide bomber who blew up his own chances to be PM. They may be bang on. Until Rahul came along, the Gandhis were clearly defined characters in the political theatre. People knew what they were and what they stood for.
Jawaharlal Nehru, Cosmopolitan Contradiction: He is the ultimate winner-loser combo. The freedom fighter and iconic prime minister who laid the foundation of modern India was diplomatically naïve, losing two wars and part of Kashmir to Pakistan, and to China parts of Ladakh and the UNSC seat.
Indira Gandhi, Mother Superior: She was Democracy’s Durga who liberated Bangladesh. She set the precedent for authoritarianism by declaring the Emergency and promoting her offspring and inexplicably lifting it in 1977. As India’s strong (wo)man, she sent the Army into the Golden Temple with fatal consequences. Her machinations within and outside the party were the reasons for the dynasty’s infirmities today.
Rajiv Gandhi, India’s Hamlet: A tragic figure whose dimpled charm faded in the storm of scandal; he is the first prime minister to lose an election following kickback allegations. His misadventure in Sri Lanka was a harbinger of doom, ultimately costing him his life in a suicide bombing.
Rahul Gandhi, Heir Apparently: Rahul’s flaw is the absence of specificity. What Modi stands for is clear: rhetoric, nationalist machismo, global influence, personality cult and retaliation. The same cannot be said about Rahul. His identity until the Bharat Jodo Yatra was Pappu; in a sense, Modi’s ‘Hindu Hridaya Samrat’ was seen in context with Pappu’s mohabbat ki dukaan which sounds like a shoddy grocer in a small town in Uttar Pradesh. The Yatra however diffused the Pappu image, but that was it.
Meanwhile, Modi’s self-deification during the Ram Temple consecration and mono-focus optics diluted the PM’s hold over the people as was evident in the BJP’s poor show in the 2024 elections; and to an extent on the saffron ecosystem, which had been kept at bay by the sheer force of his personality. Still Modi remains Modi because ‘it is difficult for a ruler to be both feared and loved’, as Machiavelli put it. And Rahul, wandering the fertile fields of self-satisfaction and assured optimism doesn’t seem to acknowledge that Pappu needs a Thesaurus pronto.
Excerpt from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli: “Since it is difficult for a ruler to be both feared and loved, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two must be lacking. For this can generally be said of men: that they are ungrateful, fickle, liars and deceivers, avoiders of danger, greedy for profit; and as long as you serve their welfare, they are entirely yours, offering you their blood, possessions, life and children.”
Hindus believe Modi serves their welfare. Rahul may be loved, but is not feared like his grandmother, or even his mother who still rules the Congress with an iron fist.
In short, the great beast of democracy cannot be controlled with love alone, because it will devour whom and what it doesn’t fear. Rahul is an idealist in the purgatory of politics, without an exit plan for salvation. He is just a Good Samaritan in a bad situation. Pappu’s image hasn’t got a replacement yet. Pappu was always the Clown Prince in a populist power parody. What Rahul Gandhi will be from now on is a decision he alone can take.