Extending from:
TO 2014: NARENDRA MODI VS RAHUL GANDHI – WHERE MODI SCORES
http://severallyalone.blogspot.in/2013/02/to-2014-narendra-modi-vs-rahul-gandhi.html
There
are still some points where Rahul Gandhi scores:
BETTER
ACCEPTABILITY OF THE CONGRESS PARTY IN THE ERA OF COALITION POLITICS
In
a time, when the next general election outcome is probably going to be a hung
assembly, the Congress party may secure more partners than the BJP if both the
parties win seats in a similar range. Here, BJP’s record of communal politics
is certainly going to hurt its chances.
FACTIONISM
AND MULTIPLE POWER CENTRES: BJP’S INABILITY TO CASH ON THE DEVELOPMENTS
It
is a common observation of analysts that had it been for a united and oriented
opposition, the UPA government would have collapsed much earlier. The second
term of the UPA has been an utter failure with scams and price-rises running
riots. The coalition, too, has seen many near-collapse events with an important
ally, the Trinamool Congress, walking out.
Also,
just not within the BJP, but in the overall NDA, there are many power centres
who don’t accept a dominating political personality like Narendra Modi. The reason
is simple – either they harbour their own prime-ministerial ambitions or they
feel Modi would never allow them to grow in stature like he has done with other
politicians of his ilk in Gujarat.
Had
it not been for internal different in BJP and within the larger NDA, the UPA
government could not have survived for so long.
The
similar reasons could still help the Congress party and the UPA given the fact
the Modi is not acceptable to some of the major NDA names.
MODI’S
LARGER POLITICAL ACCEPTABILITY?
Modi
is, as the developments say, is the only winning card in the NDA fold but there
is a big BUT on his acceptability as the prime-ministerial candidate. Allies
like the JDU fear erosion in Muslim vote bank while others like the Shiv Sena
(or even the RSS) fear Modi’s absolute domination making others irrelevant like
he has done in Gujarat.
If
projecting Modi breaks the coalition, the upcoming election would be a more
open arena with more maneuverability.
The
blurred or malleable lines of the coalitions would make things difficult for
Modi if the BJP doesn’t score a convincing edge over the Congress party in next
Lok Sabha elections. In such a situation, it again comes to who scores what.
Outside
NDA, Modi’s image of a hardliner makes him almost untouchable to the major
regional political players like the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party, the
Bahujan Samaj Party and others who do a sort of ‘ideology politics’ (like the
Left Front)’ or who do the ‘Muslim vote bank’ politics (the other two). The
list with similar political compulsions with other political outfits who matter
electorally doesn’t end here. And in the age of coalition politics, such
outfits call shots in case of hung voting pattern.
AND
A PERSONAL ASPECT OF RAHUL – THE ‘UNEXPLORED’, THE POSSIBLE ‘UNEXPECTED’
Rahul
has been unable to make a mark in the politics yet. He has failed to win
elections. He has failed to win hearts. He has failed to identify and align his
thought process with the public sentiments when it mattered like the Lokpal
issue or the Delhi
gangrape.
Yet,
there remains a remote possibility, based on how he had begun in politics – an unorthodox
approach. He tried to create a way of his own brand of politics. He sounded
sincere. But somehow, on the way, the progress derailed. The unorthodox tone
sounded more like an empty rhetoric.
But
like the short duration of Rahul’s active career in politics, the derailment,
too, is of a short duration of four years, if we take the Kalawati speech as a
course-change point, from unorthodox to routine.
Should
the country expect that Rahul is going through an experimental phase of
political initiation and the widespread criticism would draw him to embrace and
adopt the style of politics he practiced in the pre-Kalawati speech time?
Would
Rahul come to realize that he needed to explore more the path he began with?
It
is a question that no one can answer, not even Rahul Gandhi. But it is the only
‘possible personal positive’ that can give him an edge over the ‘political personality’
Narendra Modi.
The
‘goings’ say the country should not expect it. Would Rahul give it the unexpected?