THE ‘SO
SIMILAR’ STREAK CONTINUES!
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
I cannot say whether Rahul Gandhi and his ‘Team RG’ took note of
such reports and went back to women like Kalawati, but even this one
rightly puts Rahul Gandhi in the dock, and so his team of strategists.
Another oft-quoted thing in Rahul’s speech is his
experiences about Dalits and his visits to the rural hutments when he targets
the Dalit vote bank. But after examples like ‘Kalawati’, poor show of Dalit Congress candidates in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh assembly
election and Rahul’s discriminatory response on farmers’ miseries in Bhatta
Parsaul and Maval, every such assertion starts looking just empty.
If one googles, one can easily find what Rahul had been
saying on his visits to the Dalit hutments or in the Dalit-targeted rallies.
The observation in the Business Standard report flats out the logic behind
every such speech or statement.
He had a series of such visits but the accumulating
quantum of a past of ‘not walking the talk’ proved him wrong even if he
campaigned hard in the immediate context.
He spoke similar and he didn’t look to act, equally
similarly.
Rahul Gandhi does it again, visits Dalit village in Allahabad
1 Aug 2012 (http://m.indiatoday.in/story/rahul-gandhi-visits-dalit-village-in-allahabad/1/211383.html)
Rahul's post-poll lesson on Dalit politics
Business Standard, April 11, 2012 (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/rahuls-post-poll-lessondalit-politics/470934/)
The Business Standard report highlighted how badly the
Rahul Gandhi’s Dalit strategy had worked: The young Gandhi had travelled across
half the 85 reserved constituencies in the state, highlighting to his Dalit
audiences the allegedly corruption-ridden BSP regime. Yet, of the 89 Dalits
fielded by the Congress (including the 85 on reserved seats), it won only five.
This was a fall from even its 2007 tally, where it had managed to win seven.
Gandhi had spent several nights in Dalit homes, sharing
meals with their families on his visits to community hamlets. Yet, it wasn’t
enough. Still, in his interactions with party leaders from the state, he has
advised them to focus on winning over Dalit support.
Rahul Gandhi's Dalit chant turns out to be election
gimmick
March 21, 2012 (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rahul-photo-op-moments-in-dalit-households-exposed/1/178654.html)
Rahul Gandhi all set to dent Mayawati's dalit bastion
Rediff, April 14, 2010 (http://www.rediff.com/news/report/rahul-storms-mayawati-bastion/20100414.htm)
He had said while flagging off Chetna Yatra in Uttar
Pradesh’s Ambedkarnagar district: “I am here to change that politics; what
UP needs is the politics of youth, the politics of development and employment.”
Accepted it is norm to do all
such things for political survival and Rahul didn’t do anything wrong. But he
indeed was wrong for he didn’t have to do the things the way other politicians
used to do or were doing.
He had to be extremely careful
to see what he was speaking. He needed to see if the content was localized and
his words were going to see the light of the day.
His political survival and
ascension was dependent on the ‘innovation factor’ that he had to bring to his
personality and his ‘politics’.
He just had not to target
Mayawati or any other established Dalit leader, he had to emerge as a leader of
words, someone who would never be seen in the league of Mayawati or the likes
but it is Mayawati who (along with Mulayam Singh Yadav), has been saving the
UPA government, most recently during the retail FDI vote in the Parliament.
That is not a value-based
politics. But, Rahul had begun with generating such high hopes only.
To continue..
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
