Rahul Gandhi is back from yet another vacation abroad. His political rivals get a chance to smirk and to taunt him yet again and as usual Congress cadre is out to defend the Gandhi scion. The usual line of defence is that Mr Gandhi has the right of privacy. No doubt he has that right but people also have right to form their opinion and express that without inhibition. We, after all, are part of the most vibrant democracy in the world.
Moot question is that why should there be so much uproar if somebody is vacationing abroad. It is pretty ordinary and routine things and thousands of Indians leave each day for such vacations. But then Mr. Gandhi is not just another Indian. He is controlling the oldest political outfit in the country and has an uphill task in hand to revive the sinking ship. The people of the country which Rahul aspires to rule have all the right to ask him the question on whatever he does, and to gauge Once my close friend who was a budding politician approached present JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav during late nineties. He requested Sharad Yadav to take him along and groom his political career. Sharad Yadav replied, “jo phooke apna ghar, wo chale hamare saath (if you are ready to sacrifice everything of yours, only then you should join politics)”.
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Sharad Yadav’s message to my friend was loud and clear. Politics is not a profession. It is a passion. It is 24×7 occupation; it is intoxicating. Politics isaddictive and those who are into this can’t keep themselves away from this.
Passion alone though is not the guarantee for a politician to reach the summit on his own but for sure a politician without passion cannot cause a turnaround or a political upheaval. A politician with the nsane passion only can sail through when tough gets going and going gets tough, he only can bring the landslide changes.After the umiliating electoral drubbing in 1977 General Elections, Indira Gandhi
After the humiliating electoral drubbing in 1977 General Elections, Indira Gandhi toiled out of her skin to turn the tables. At the age of 62, Indira travelled 40000 miles during two months campaign for the run-up of 1980 General Election. She touched upon 384 constituencies of LOK SABHA. As result, in 1980, she made an emphatic comeback.Rahul Gandhi made a positive start to Congress’s campaign in UP. He hired
Rahul Gandhi made a positive start to Congress’s campaign in UP. He hired Prashant Kishore and then travelled across the whole state. Some initial traction was there but then it all fizzled as perseverance was totally missing and lack of passion is the attributed root cause. If you are on a crusade to revive a party, who has 27 MLAs in an assembly of 403, half-heated and orchestrated events by your political managers would take you nowhere. Rahul could nothing from his own grand-mother.One may have all sort of discord with Lalu, Mulayam and Mayawati’s kind of
One may have all sort of discord with Lalu, Mulayam and Mayawati’s kind of politics, but it is hardly rebuttable that they are politicians with the passion. When Janta Dal was disintegrating in the nineties, Lalu and Mulayam carved their respective parties out of it and captured politics of two largest states of the country and that too for decades to come. It was their sheer passion. Mamta had conviction, passion and persistence to seize power from the decades-old rule of CPI(M).
One Rahul baiter gave a different but interesting argument. Rahul Gandhi is purportedly saddened with the plight of the people post demonetization; he is standing in ATM queue to share the pain; he is attacking Modi with all the ferocity on the issue but then he disappears for more than a week. If according to Rahul country is reeling in unsafe hands of Narendra Modi and his beloved citizens are in trouble, then how can he keep himself away from them? So just when it was time for him to up the ante, he vanished.
Politics is a game of maintaining uninterrupted pressure on your opponent; not to give them breathing space, especially when your survival is at the stake. How can Rahul be so naïve that he believes that a formidable politician like Modi can be cornered with such approach? If he is really so naïve, then situation is bad for
Congress; if he is not that naïve and still not mending his approach, then situation is worst.
One political commentator has rightly said that had Manmohan Singh rolled out such half-baked demonetization, then unlike Rahul Gandhi, Modi as opposition a leader would have ripped Congress apart and passion is the only differentiating factor in two situations.
As famous historian Ram Guha said that Rahul needs to bid adieu politics, he had a point (disclaimer – I am not making any such suggestion). There is no point in pursuing something you are not passionate about, and this particularly is valid in politics. Of course, had it been a business empire, RaGa sans passion could have in herited it and even would have thrived, but politics is a different ball game.
(The author in NewsMobile iJourno. Views are personal)