BENGALURU: Congress leaders have taken to streets and social media sites to protest against the Centre and to defend party senior leader Rahul Gandhi, who has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorates for questioning in the National Herald case. Former social media head of Congress and former actor Ramya aka Divya Spandana took to Twitter to give a character certificate to Rahul, saying, “Worked Closely enough to confidently say Rahul Gandhi is not Corrupt. He is not greedy, grasping or acquisitive. The allegations and tactics are to discredit/disrepute him.”
But political analysts pointed out that the Congress strategy of projecting their leader as “good” is not sufficient from the political point of view, though it may be enough to gain sympathy. Considering that Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka are going to the polls in the near future, this plan will not work in favour of the party.
Analyst BS Murthy said, “Would it not be better if Congress had rebutted ED charges point by point over the last 20 days, from the time the notice was served to Rahul? Would it not be better if they had given this rebuttal on social media, and then gone on the nationwide protest? It would have made sense if they had first informed people about the ‘alleged injustice’ meted out to their leader. Now, though party leaders are protesting, the public is not taking part in it as not many know the full facts of the case and charges against Rahul. Giving newspaper advertisements to explain their point of view would have also helped.”
Prof Kiran Gajnur said, “Congress should have projected it as a protest against the misuse of power and vendetta politics. The party has missed an opportunity because they failed to do their homework and inform the people. That is the reason the participation of people is poor.”Some others said people taking to the social media to express their unhappiness over these protests is a sad reminder of the disconnect between the party and the public.
A popular columnist summed it up in her tweet, “The total absence of popular support for the protests by the Congress leaders over Rahul Gandhi’s interrogation by the ED that have gone on for three days tells its own story.”