Can ‘Shoot-And-Scoot’ Neta Rahul Gandhi Do A Margaret Thatcher To Redefine Congress?

What does Rahul Gandhi stand for? Is the image of a shoot-and-scoot politician sticking to him? Or is he working to earn this tag? The BJP certainly is working on this perception about the Congress leader and Gandhi, at times, makes it easy for them.

On Monday, during his motion of thanks in Parliament, Gandhi made three accusations — including some that have been made earlier. For instance, when he said BJP’s OBC and Dalit MPs are not allowed to speak in the party — conveniently forgetting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an OBC himself.

Not just this, in the past too, Gandhi has often given anecdotes to make the point that he meets BJP MPs who tell him that they are stifled in the party. However, despite being repeatedly asked, he failed to give details of who said what.

To top all this are the two big accusations he has made — One, that external affairs minister S Jaishankar pleaded thrice to the Americans to invite PM Modi for US President Donald Trump’s oath-taking. This chatter on social media was scotched by the BJP but Gandhi’s move to bring it to the floor of the House earned him criticism that he does not understand the gravity of the post of the LoP. This is why the government wants strict action against him.

The second gaffe was when he said the Army has contradicted the prime minister’s claims of no encroachment by Chinese into Indian territory. When Gandhi claimed that some army men had told him of encroachment, defence minister Rajnath Singh had to stand up in Parliament to rubbish the news. In fact, Gandhi’s comments were seen as giving a handle to the Chinese.

Also, during the conventional halwa ceremony before the budget work begins, Gandhi alleged that no Dalit or OBC was ever a part of the “pointless ceremony”. The BJP then released pictures to show that a similar ceremony was conducted during UPA times.

Long back, when Congress was discussing an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Gandhi — and many of his supporters — had said that Arvind Kejriwal indulged in shoot-and-scoot politics. “We are a national party, we need to be more careful and stronger in facts,” they had said. Today, the same charge is beginning to stick on the LoP.

Gandhi’s speech in Parliament was high on philosophy and technicality. This raises many questions. Has he been able to communicate the idea to the masses in an idiom they can understand or is he someone who fancies himself as a philosopher politician, who sifts from one idea to another? Is he not fleshing them out enough or perhaps even deliberating if these are positions he will be able to hold on to even few months later?

Many in his party feel that Gandhi’s failing as a politician and leader so far has been his lack of clarity about where he wants to be and pursuing the prime minister’s office alone won’t suffice.

The top political office, in all probability, is a by-product of a long political trajectory and not an entitlement. Can Gandhi redefine his and Congress’s politics, much like the Labour did under Margaret Thatcher? Can he purge his own leadership and re-analyse the Congress in today’s times?