Rahul Rises To The Challenge

Rahul Gandhi’s first speech in Parliament after the 2024 polls, clearly, stunned the ‘non-biological’ man, his best buddy from Gujarat, and his entire political party. Their shocked, crest-fallen faces told a story.

For the fake prophet, who has routinely flaunted his 56 inch chest, ‘red eyes’ and ‘ghar mein ghus kar marenge’ rhetoric, this is truly a fall from grace. Even his objections were so feeble and lame. So much so, his best buddy was seeking ‘protection’ from the Speaker – their own man – with an infamous record of brazen partisanship.

Ideally, Mr M should have gracefully accepted defeat and quit. He and his party have lost the mandate. That he did not point to other compelling factors – and not only the cliche that he is addicted to power. Powerless, one hundred old stories of solitude would have resurrected yet again, and those wouldn’t have been stories of magic realism!

In contrast, the entire Opposition in the INDIA alliance seems full of cheer, upbeat, buoyant. As if they have won the polls.

Indeed, they have, morally, emotionally, and psychologically, and this is no conspiracy theory!

Political observers believe that if the first two round of polling had been authentically accounted for in the Election Commission (EC) data, that is, if the final tally had not suddenly increased so drastically, soon after their initial disclosure – the results would have been quite different. Perhaps, the BJP would have failed to do even a ‘200 paar’!

Undoubtedly, it was the tremendous pressure exerted by civil society groups, the INDIA bloc, and eminent citizens that, perhaps, put the EC on the alert. The case unfolding in the apex court added to the gist. And ordinary folks were openly saying on the streets that Modi can only win if he fudges the EVMs!

Now, each day, there is new social-psychological pressure being exerted on the BJP leadership. Lalu Yadav has suddenly asked all in his party to be ready for assembly polls. He added to the suspense by claiming that this propped-up regime will fall in August. There have been whispers that the government can fall any day. Even Mukesh Ambani’s visit to meet Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, in a season of obscenely lavish pre-wedding indulgences, has made the gossip-mill go on an over-drive.

Now, Gujarat, has been added to the list. Rahul Gandhi told the BJP in Parliament, that they can take it in writing – they will now lose Gujarat! For a party, which has somehow managed to break the BJP citadel by winning one MP seat this time, this is like promising a utopia. The BJP will be defeated because the “balloon of Modi’s vision has burst,” said the Leader of Opposition (LoP).

By defeating the BJP in Ayodhya, INDIA bloc has defeated the Ram Mandir movement that was launched by LK Advani. “What I am saying is something very big…” he said. “Congress party and INDIA bloc defeated them in Ayodhya… In Parliament, I asked the prime minister as to whether he was a human being, as he himself said that he was non-biological, and has a direct connection with God. If you are directly connected to God, then how were you defeated in Ayodhya?”

“You could not have imagined that BJP will get defeated in Ayodhya or that Modi will win Varanasi by a small margin. They are going to be defeated here in Gujarat like they were in Ayodhya. All you have to do is to ask the people of Gujarat to not be scared,” he said.

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He has added another twist to the tale. He has claimed that Modi wanted to contest from Ayodhya (considering the grandiose hyperbole created around the ‘pran pratistha’ ceremony, and the huge hype by the stooge media), but he was told by his advisers that he will face certain defeat. “That is why, he (Modi) did not contest from Ayodhya, but opted for Varanasi. In Varanasi, we made a few mistakes, or else, we should have defeated him there as well,” he said.

This is like the proverb of both heads and tails of the tossed coin falling in the lap of the LoP. And this LoP is no run-of-the-mill guy!

So, soon after the electrifying speech in Parliament, what did he do? He went to share the life experiences of the working class and skilled ‘mistris’ who build homes and buildings with their bare hands and back-breaking labour, on abysmally low wages. Every picture clicked with them reeks of a certain honesty not seen among the political class in India since decades.

Then Rahul Gandhi went to meet railway drivers and loco pilots from across the country in Delhi, who work in hard shifts, who are over-worked, stressed out and lack proper sleep, and who take rest in not-so-comfortable spaces with lack of washrooms. Despite thousands of vacancies, the railways are reportedly not hiring staffers. Besides, there is a massive privatization spree happening.

The drivers poured their heart out to him. Soon after, railway officials rushed to meet the drivers and their union leaders, promising to do what they have refused to do all these years.

This visit is to be measured in terms of the series of deadly train accidents which have occurred in the recent past. In the last case near Darjeeling, the overworked railway driver has been reportedly blamed. Under Ashwini Vaishnav as Railways Minister since 2021, 329 accidents have reportedly occurred, including the death of 296 passengers in Balasore, Orissa, last year.

In another interview , Rahul Gandhi said that he showed the ‘abhay mudra’ in  Parliament, that most people in India work with their hands, but they get nothing in return. “Instead, we want to give them respect, appreciation and protection. This is our thinking.”

While the PM must have forgotten about Hathras, Rahul Gandhi was there immediately after the ghastly stampede killed around 120 people in an overcrowded show held by yet another ‘godman’. He consoled a little girl, while holding the hand of another, listening to them, sharing their grief, seeking compensation.

In September 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit girl was gang-raped by upper caste men in a village in Hathras. Her body was burnt by the cops in the night in a hush-hush manner. Even her parents were not allowed to do the last rites. The Delhi and UP police blocked all the highways with barricades. Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi braved their lathis, broke the barricades and reached Hathras. The heart-rending pictures of Priyanka hugging a grieving mother became viral — a moment of deep sorrow.

On Monday, July 9, 2024, Rahul Gandhi was back in Manipur. This is the third time he has visited the ravaged state which has lost its peace of mind, with thousands in refugee camps, scores of dead in the conflict zone, and the nightmare of  two women being brutalised, stripped and paraded naked by a mob still haunting the conscience of the civil society. He has now visited the relief camps in Jibram and Churachandpur districts.

Significantly, the PM has not visited Manipur till this day. Why?

No one knows.

The truth is, now, it does not matter. He has lost the game. The game is over for him. And every day, in popular consciousness, his image is sinking deeper into a lower abyss. It seems, ‘acche din’ has finally arrived for Mr M. 

Besides, as he flies to Moscow, its people suffocated by another life-long megalomaniac-dictator, he should analyse the poll results in the UK and France. Left-of-Centre Labour Party and the Left solidarity alliance of the New Popular Front has won decisive victories out there — defeating the Right-wing, including the Neo-Nazis in France. Even in Iran, the hardliner Islamic fundamentalists have lost to a proven reformist.

The winds of change, cool and soothing, they often arrive, suddenly, quickly, and undetected. However, when they do arrive, they refuse to go away so soon. These days, it seems, they have come to stay.

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