Some five days ago, on December 8
evening, after much cry, after much of the hoarse jugglery, after much
humiliation of the miserable of the lot that day, the Congress spokespersons,
Rahul Gandhi came forward, flanked and supported by his mother and the Congress
party numero uno, Sonia Gandhi, and he said (smiling but in his familiar
aggressive style, though without the gestures of his moving hands) it in a way
like making a grand proclamation.
And he said (quoting the Wall
Street Journal*): Through these
elections, the people have delivered a message. That message has been taken by
me and our party not just with our minds, but with our hearts. The Congress
party has the ability to transform itself, to stand up to the expectations of
the people of this country and the Congress party is going to do that.
I am going to put all my efforts in transforming the organization of
the Congress party and…give you an organization that you can be proud of and
has your voice embedded inside it.
I think the Aam Aadmi Party has involved a lot of people who the
traditional parties did not involve. We are going to learn from that and we are
going to do a better job than anyone else in the country in ways that you
cannot imagine right now.
And for aggression, another media
report (the Indian Express**) said: Rahul said he would work aggressively to
make the organisational changes that are needed.
Talking big, enumerating the
grand, it would have been so good for Indian politics but for the many let-downs
after the ‘Kalawati’ speech delivered by Rahul Gandhi in the Parliament in
2008.
And today was yet another.
Like always, there were demands
for Rahul Gandhi to get more communicating, more interactive, more involved,
after the drubbing of the Congress party in the assembly polls in Delhi,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
And surprisingly, Rahul Gandhi
did come forward on December 8, offering his vision of ‘days ahead’ in some nicely
spoken, introspective words the excerpts of which are in italics here.
So, when it was conveyed today
that Rahul Gandhi would hold a press conference on Lokpal in the evening, it
was interesting to watch what he was going to speak, whether the introspective
words spoken in the evening of December 8 were going to have any effect.
But, the tradition of ‘let-downs’
continued this evening.
The presser was a brief one with
Rahul speaking what we have been listening to and what we do not want to listen
to anymore (even the electorate spoke so this time). Even for Rahul to emerge
on the line of the expectations he had raised when he had begun his political
career, he needs to put a different approach in place now, moving in action,
and not just in words.
But worse, the second public
appearance, after the introspective words of December 8 evening sounded hollow
even on words.
He spoke to sound dismissive of
Anna Hazare’s ongoing protest Fast for the Lokpal Bill, AAP’s stunning success in
Delhi assembly election being a reason behind the sudden attentiveness in the government
to pass the Bill in the Winter Session of the Parliament, and thus the public’s
eagerness and the sense of urgency in looking for a political change away from
the mainstream political lot of the country.
Had it been for the validity of
the introspective words of December 8 evening, he should have accepted honestly
that these developments indeed were the primary factors behind the sudden spurt
in the attentiveness to get the Lokpal Bill passed.
Instead, once again, he chose to
shield the empty rhetoric of ‘everything good in India is by Congress’ with
empty claims of Congress enacting the RTI Act and UPA’s other anti-corruption
efforts. Listening to such claims again and again, from representatives of a
government that is undoubtedly the most corrupt
of the governments in India, makes all this so disconcerting, and goes directly
against Rahul Gandhi.
When would Rahul Gandhi and the
Team Rahul Gandhi understand it?
When would Rahul Gandhi and his team of strategists understand that they need to stop treating the voters as the perennial fools who cannot not think why the RTI Act took two decades of struggle to get passed and why the Lokpal Bill is still not there even after over four decades of 'history of debacles' in spite of Congress being in the government most of the time?
Accepting the faults gracefully and moving ahead accordingly (not just in words) would make him more acceptable among the youth and larger population base and he needs to realize it soon.
When would Rahul Gandhi and his team of strategists understand that they need to stop treating the voters as the perennial fools who cannot not think why the RTI Act took two decades of struggle to get passed and why the Lokpal Bill is still not there even after over four decades of 'history of debacles' in spite of Congress being in the government most of the time?
Accepting the faults gracefully and moving ahead accordingly (not just in words) would make him more acceptable among the youth and larger population base and he needs to realize it soon.
The humiliating defeat of the grand
old party of India, the Congress party, in the recently concluded assembly
elections, was yet another warning call for the party strategists. But are
there any takers?
..message taken with heart..expectations..transformation..pushing
aggressively..the words spoken on December 8 evening and now comes the December
14 afternoon!
This evening’s presser by Rahul
Gandhi, flanked by some senior ministers of the Manmohan Singh government says
NO.
Certainly not a way to involve
the ‘Aam Aadmi’, the common man of India, in the changing times!
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
