‘Maybe you find me strange.’ Rahul
Gandhi, the interviewee, says. ‘No, I don’t find you strange.’ Arnab Goswami,
the interviewer, says, during Rahul Gandhi’s first formal television interviewer
after beginning the active political career.
A line during the course of
conversation, or the interview, a line repeated to support the viewpoint, a
line repeated to help the other lines already spoken during the course of the
conversation, the line sums up the ‘politician Rahul Gandhi’ in clear terms.
It tells us something direct,
that subtle point about the politician Rahul Gandhi that the nation so desperately
wanted to understand. That interest, that necessity to know the politician
Rahul Gandhi is fading.
Multiple factors have been responsible
for it. Major among them are Rahul’s silence on many issues of national and
social importance, Rahul’s delayed and ‘not up to the mark’ act on many issues
and the mammoth scale of corruption attributed to the corruption of the Congress
party led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
But still, there is scope left
for us to know him, for he is the face of the oldest and the mostly widely
spread political outfit of the country. Even if not in office as the prime
minister, he, by his position, wields significant power in the country. That
applies for Rahul Gandhi and his party being in the opposition in the Parliament
as well.
The nation needs to know the
politician Rahul Gandhi.
And this line, during the course
of the conversation during his first formal television interview tells clearly
about who is the ‘politician Rahul Gandhi’.
On points where Rahul says that
the interviewer may find ‘Rahul’ strange based on his answers during the conversation
gives us a window to look into how Rahul thinks.
And what Rahul thinks constitutes
for strange has become frustratingly routine for India . Becoming of that a ‘routine’
has been ironical for India .
And it may well become ‘ironically routine’ for the Congress party if a
transformation doesn’t come.
To continue..
