By Sushil Kutty
The most powerful nuclear bomb ever was the Tsar Bomba, a thermonuclear weapon the Soviets tested. It was a three-stage hydrogen bomb. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi says he’s going to detonate a hydrogen bomb soon. Rahul’s hydrogen bomb is political and will fall on NDA aspirations.
The Soviets tested their nuke in 1961, when Rahul Gandhi was nowhere on the planet. Today, Rahul Gandhi is the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and he’s saying he has a the Congress “hydrogen bomb” up his sleeve to test the Narendra Modi government and spill damaging “revelations on vote theft” by the ruling dispensation.
The Gandhi scion has been insisting that the BJP is in cahoots with the Election Commission of India, a constitutional body supposed to be impartial and aboveboard. The Election Commission took grave objection and sought an “apology” from the Congress Member of Parliament of Raebareli.
The apology is still awaited. In the meantime, Rahul Gandhi’s “Vote Chori” campaign has done damage to the BJP-led NDA in Bihar. “Vote Chori” trended in streets across several parts of India but really went hammer and tong in Bihar, where assembly polls are round the corner.
The opposition INDIA bloc is making a concerted effort with Rahul Gandhi in the eye of the electoral cyclone which has been gaining twister-like force. Will the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ gain from the “vote Chori” campaign with RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi at the vanguard of the no-holds barred diatribe against Modi.
Modi isn’t being spared and neither are his “relatives”? Modi is the prime target of Rahul Gandhi and the 55 year-old is getting on BJP nerves with only devastating garble to show from NDA rank and file.
Rahul Gandhi has claimed that Prime Minister Modi would “not be able to face the country” once the “hydrogen bomb” reveals the truth. Rahul’s hydrogen bomb remark came in Patna at the close of INDIA bloc’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, “a show of strength against the alleged manipulation of electoral rolls in Bihar.”
The ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra” made waves on the roads of Bihar and gave a feeling of ‘choc-a-bloc’ with people holding party and India flags marching to raucous slogans. The ‘Yatra’ started from Sasaram on August 17. In 14 days it covered 1,300 km across 110 assembly constituencies in 25 districts.
The mood of the voter has changed in these districts. Is the BJP rattled? After the initial euphoria over SIR and “ghuspetiya out2”, and the simultaneous launch of “Voter Chori” followed by the “Vote Adhikar Yatra”, the BJP did seem to lose steam, which SIR and “ghuspetia out” did not resurrect as expected, not to the fullest impact.
Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the state put the focus right and centre on the Bangladeshi infiltrators issue but, “hey, what has your government been doing all these 11 years?” stumped the ruling party/alliance.
On September 3, INDIA bloc leaders, including Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani, CPI (ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI (M) general secretary MA Baby, CPI’s Annie Raja, TMC MP Yusuf Pathan and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut came together and joined the final stretch of the ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’.
Analysts say the ‘Yatra’ targeted the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and many of them agreed that SIR was brought to “disenfranchise” large numbers of Muslim voters.
Rahul Gandhi called SIR a threat to democracy, alleging “this is not just Bihar’s battle. It is about whether India’s democracy will survive.” “Saving Democracy” has been a work in progress for the Congress MP throughout 2024. Rahul Gandhi even petitioned foreign countries to come save democracy in India. The pleas went in vain, though.
Now Gandhi has started on his own, and he is drawing parallels between India’s freedom struggle and the current fight for electoral rights. The Congress alleged that the Monday protests were “stopped by government” but the INDIA bloc stood firm. “They tried to stop this yatra, but the people of Bihar stood strong. The message is clear. Modi’s politics of theft will be fought head on.”
The groundswell of support witnessed in stills and videos of the ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ says the ‘Yatra’ was a “success”, a display of opposition strength with people and posters displaying the enthusiasm backing the sentiment behind. Question rebounds to whether this eagerness will translate to actual votes cast and are there more than enough “secular votes” for the opposition to romp home after the SIR culling of opposition voters?
Like it or not, it’s Hindu Vs. Muslim and how many Muslims are required to offset Hindu votes? Has Hindu vote consolidation, which started from Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, climbed to enviable levels? What about the Muslim vote numbers, have “ghuspetias” really added to the opposition vote-banks of “secular parties”?
Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi return to make a communal difference to the poll outcome? Will there be polarisation of unprecedented level? Does the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ stand a chance? Will this SIR tainted/corrected election change the course of the elections held in the last couple of years? When will Rahul Gandhi’s hydrogen bomb explode, what all revelations are in store? (IPA Service)
