By Sushil Kutty
Rahul Gandhi in the USA is proving to be a nightmare for the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government. Also to India that is Bharat. His statements made abroad do not make him a patriot. But patriotism is the last refuge for scoundrels. So, whoever is writing the script for Rahul Gandhi should be given a one-way ticket to the farthest town in the hemisphere.
The three-day ‘Rahul Gandhi In The USA’ show featured scoundrels like Gurpatwant Singh Pannu of the banned ‘Sikhs for Justice’ outfit and US Congresswoman Ilham Omar whose links with many anti-India groups are known. The Somalia-born American politician does not think much of the Modi government and had boycotted Modi’s address to the US Congress.
Ilham Omar was also a guest of the Pakistani establishment in 2022. Escorted on a grand tour of Pakistan, Omar went to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and proclaimed “India’s integral part” as Pakistan’s real-estate! Omar’s villainous ears prick up every time ‘India’ is spoken. The only grace is enemies of the Modi regime love Ilhan Omar.
What bothers the Modi government is that Rahul Gandhi’s conviviality with Ilhan Omar and Gurpatwant Singh is infectious. And BJP leaders and BJP spokespersons are rattled. Rahul Gandhi’s itinerary and guest list aren’t the Modi government’s to scrutinise. Rahul Gandhi has every right to bang heads with India’s enemies. If Prime Minister Narendra Modi could fly into Pakistan and meet Nawaz Sharif, why cannot LoP Rahul Gandhi trade smiles with Ilhan Omar?
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Mohabbat Ki Dukaan’ is open for everybody except the Sangh Parivar, which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rahul Gandhi criss-crossed India, first with the south-north Bharat Jodo Yatra and then with the east-west Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, both of which were grand successes and the reason why the Congress doubled its score to 99 Lok Sabha seats, and the BJP was stopped at 240!
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge spoke of how with another 20 seats to the Congress tally would have sent Modi and Shah behind bars! BJP President JP Nadda couldn’t have said it better. Mallikarjun Kharge doesn’t mince words when it is about the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For three days in a row, the BJP has been slamming Rahul Gandhi for talking recklessly on issues such as reservation from foreign soil. Union Home Minister Amit Shah caught Rahul Gandhi’s barefaced lie on the issue of reservation. “Everybody saw the Congress’s anti-reservation face,” Shah said. The Union Home Minister accused Rahul Gandhi of “conspiring to divide the country with anti-national statements”.
Is Rahul Gandhi deliberately trying to stir up controversy with provocative remarks? Rahul Gandhi’s unsolicited tirade on behalf of the Sikhs, for instance. Do all Sikhs in Punjab have the Khalistani dna? Will the Sikhs vote for the Congress after Rahul Gandhi’s comments on the state of Sikhs in Narendra Modi’s India, how Sikhs were being forced to give up their religious and cultural symbols?
Rahul Gandhi’s political strategy is dodgy for the average human to grasp. His ideas contrast with those of other politicians, including Congress politicians. Rahul’s complete lack of empathy for the Hindu majority is startling! Rahul Gandhi has put all his eggs in the Muslim basket and Rahul Gandhi is not bothered that there would be a Hindu backlash.
There’s no guarantee that Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA will come up trumps twice in a row. The 10 UP bypolls will test Akhilesh Yadav as well as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath but Rahul Gandhi’s newfound inclination for new politics will not help the Congress in the state which elects India’s Prime Minister. It is obvious to all and sundry that Rahul Gandhi is being built up as the “PM-Face” of the INDIA Block. Even the so-called ‘Godi Media’ has fallen in line.
It is, therefore, confounding why Rahul Gandhi is hell-bent on painting himself as a “traitor”; why is he using foreign locales to hit out at India, and Indians, left, right and centre? The Modi-led NDA Government can fall any day and, frankly speaking, Rahul Gandhi is mired in controversy and uncertainty. Rahul Gandhi is giving contradictory signals.
Why is Rahul Gandhi dead set to present himself in a controversial mode? Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has taken note of the “kind of claims” that Rahul Gandhi has made on the “soil of America regarding the India-China border dispute”. And while Rajnath Singh speaks of Rahul’s comments on India-China, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is talking of Rahul’s falsehood on “abolishing reservation.”
LoP Rahul Gandhi is hard to read, and decipher. His contradictory views and stands will not help the Congress. He speaks as if he is in a different and alternative universe. His confidantes and advisors don’t have the inclination, or the raw courage, to sit Rahul Gandhi down and get him to listen to reason.
The impression given is the LoP is not bothered about the dangers of flirting with “India-hater” Ilhan Omar and her “narrow-minded politics”, which openly threaten India’s “territorial integrity and sovereignty”. The talk doing the rounds is that Rahul Gandhi is more Italian than he is Indian.
“Rahul Gandhi is causing rifts on the lines of regionalism, religion, and linguistic differences” is the common man’s take on the Congress’s loose-cannon called Rahul Gandhi. Ilhan Omar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannu have their goals set, what is Rahul Gandhi’s goal? (IPA Service)