Rahul Gandhi takes government out of comfort zone

New Delhi: The statement he made as the opening speaker from the opposition benches to speak on the President’s address to Parliament clearly indicated that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has matured enough as a speaker to disturb the government out of its comfort zone. That the treasury benches were jolted by his words was apparent from the concerted set of responses from across the ruling establishment, from union ministers to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ubiquitous IT cell and across public platforms.

However, Gandhi’s speech, on record now in the parliamentary annals, will be difficult for the ruling BJP to wish away with the usual efforts to ridicule and denigrate him. He used government figures on various indices, including record high unemployment levels, to point out the lacunae in the presidential address given, as is customary, at the start of the Budget session of Parliament.

It is clear the treasury benches were taken aback by the scathing oratorical flourishes backed by facts and figures as Gandhi spoke of the “two Indias” which had been created by the government: “one for the poor and one for the rich,” the chasm between them increasing continuously. But having weathered Gandhi’s earlier “suit boot ka Sarkar” jibes, the economic criticism was manageable, with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal responding by saying that trade figures were high and showed that the economy was doing well.

What really scalded the ruling establishment was the reference to the destruction of the idea of India with a kingdom in which the “shahenshah” or king ruled without listening and how the government has sown hatred to centralise power to the extent that dialogue and conversation had broken down.

There are 2 competing visions of India. One, of a Union of States, where decisions are taken through conversation & negotiation – a partnership of equals. Another, of rule by a Shahenshah’s diktat. This hasn’t worked in 3000 years,” Gandhi said. “The idea of a king has come back which Congress removed in 1947. Now there is a shahenshah. Now the instruments of the conversations between our state and people are being attacked by one idea…. The farmers of Punjab can stand up but they do not have a voice. They died during the coronavirus pandemic during their protests. But the king didn’t listen,” Gandhi said in perhaps the most scathing indictment of all.

In election season, the reference to the year long farmers’ agitation and how there was no dialogue hit home very hard, with the government not being able to produce credible answers. Instead, the tenor of the tirade against Gandhi’s faculties has become more shrill, but still lacking in substance to counter his statements.

Since Gandhi, perhaps for the first time in the Lok Sabha, made intensely personal references to his own family history, including how his father was “blown to bits” and his grandmother was felled by 32 bullets, the ruling establishment has been unable to brand him as anti-national.

Underlying Gandhi’s entire address was the repeated assertion of India as a union of states, as envisaged in the Constitution, and a partnership, which has been ruptured under the current regime. Citing the steady erosion of institutions, Gandhi raised the issue of the use of the Pegasus spyware as an example of that rupture in the partnership between the government and the governed.

While it is something he has spoken of frequently earlier, Gandhi’s scathing indictment of the government’s perceived inability to counter the aggressive Chinese design had both the external affairs and defence ministers tweeting in supposed derision.
Even in a charged political atmosphere, with assembly elections happening in five states, Gandhi has managed, with one speech in Parliament, to establish a certain narrative whereby the government finds itself in reactive and not in proactive mode. That he had struck a chord was apparent from the fact that while others from the opposition benches, notably Mahua Moitra of the Trinamool Congress, tore into the government, there has been no effort to counter anyone other than Gandhi.

The government’s need to combine forces to take on Gandhi clearly indicates that the Congress leader has emerged and positioned himself near centre-stage and remains very relevant in today’s bitter political discourse.

—-INDIA NEWS STREAM