IPA Newspack
  • Home
  • now
  • politics
  • business
  • markets

IPA /

IPA Special

IPA Special

Winning The Hearts Of Foreigners Abroad Is Not Going To Help Rahul Gandhi

By Sushil Kutty

Sitting abroad and lashing out at the government, is not going to help the Opposition win the people at home over to its side. The ploy will boomerang even before the opposition leader tightens his seat belt on the return flight. Similarly, a pair of journalists writing anti-Modi pieces in the New York Times, and the Washington Post, isn’t going to win elections for the Congress.

Rahul Gandhi thinks otherwise, perhaps. Maybe he thinks that taking potshots at Narendra Modi from the UK, and the US, will do to Modi what Joe Biden did to Donald Trump. That is a pipedream sold at Congress Chintan shivirs. Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that no one in India is allowed to speak does not click at home, simply because Gandhi has been lashing out at Modi with impunity, and nobody ever stopped him.

In fact, the BJP/RSS ecosystem believes the more Rahul harangues Modi abroad, the bigger the advantage to the BJP. Rahul Gandhi should stop telling foreigners—especially the British—that Modi “should listen”. The captive domestic media always presents Rahul Gandhi as the fly in India’s ointment.

The allegation sticks. A Gandhi story that never misses publication is about his frequent trips abroad, to Italy, Bangkok or some such holiday destination. Like the recent one to Kathmandu, where he was spotted and video-graphed at a Kathmandu nightspot. What he spoke there no one heard, but what he must not have spoken was told, and retold with vicarious relish.

That said, the things Gandhi highlighted about India and Modi demands reflection. The important thing is not that Modi should “listen”, the important thing is he should be made to answer specific questions—divulge more than what he lets out in his weekly ‘Man ki Baat’.

Rahul complaining to foreigners that you “can’t have a country that’s not allowed to speak…and a PMO that can’t speak freely” isn’t going to strike a chord if spoken from abroad. Rahul Gandhi should be telling this directly to the people at home. He should call the domestic press and speak his mind.

Also, since when has attacking the BJP, and the RSS from foreign climes done wonders to Congress prospects at home? “We believe India is a negotiation between its people. The BJP and the RSS believe India is a geography. That it is a ‘Sone Ki Chidiya’ whose benefits should be distributed to a few, according to the Karma,” Rahul told his friendly foreign interlocutor.

Statements like these do not resonate with people at home, especially when the BJP is driving home its ideology and philosophy to the electorate sitting at home. Rahul Gandhi’s “we believe everyone should have equal access—whether you are a Dalit, Brahmin. That’s the real conflict” should be told directly to the people from home, face to face.

Statements such as “Indian democracy is the central anchor” for planet earth, and “democracy in India is a global public good” are all good and fine, but they sound like bitter complaints when it is known that it is to a foreign audience that Rahul Gandhi was appealing to!

And this, when the BJP is driving into its core constituency that foreigners (aakranta) had invaded India, and looted India’s resources for hundreds of years. Also, people in India are not about to believe that democracy in India will “crack”, and why is Rahul Gandhi telling London that if Indian democracy cracks, it will be a problem for planet earth.

The problem for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi is that even if the Modi government is “attacking the Constitution”, the Opposition has failed to prove this. Elections are being held, and results are declared without “fear or favour”. Also, the “systematic attacks on the institutions that allow conversations to take place” haven’t been proved. What is apparent to the eye is business as usual. Nobody is being dissuaded from taking contentious issues to court.

If anything, the Modi government is careful not to step outside the perimeters of the law. It is acting through the courts, and within the limits set by the Constitution. Like the ongoing Gyanvapi Mosque case. Gyanvapi and Mathura are geared for 2024. But the only parties all out in the field are the BJP, and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM. Mamata Banerjee labelling Gyanvapi and Mathura as ‘Tughlaqifarman’ will not help. Everything in the run-up, from hijab to halal, loudspeaker to bulldozer, were preludes to the mega show—“Kashi-Mathura baaki hai!” (IPA Service)

IPA Special

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren Is Under Siege By BJP Leadership

June 30, 2022
IPA Special

Testing Time For Uddhav Thackeray As The Battle For Shiv Sena Control Begins

June 30, 2022
IPA Special

Pakistan Struggling Hard To Secure Emergency Financial Aid From IMF

June 30, 2022
IPA Special

Punish Culprits For Gruesome Killing Of Tailor In Udaipur

June 30, 2022
IPA Special

Samajwadi Party Takes Lessons From Defeat In Bypolls In Uttar Pradesh

June 30, 2022
IPA Special

Crypto Market Crash Poses Many Questions About Digital Currency

June 30, 2022
IPA Special

Colombian President Gustavo Petro Has Offered A Pro-People Programme

June 30, 2022
Politics

M’rashtra adds to BJP boon before 2024 Lok Sabha polls

June 30, 2022
Happening Now

Uddhav Thackeray, sons visit temple after resignation

June 30, 2022
Politics

Stung by poll loss, Mann takes aim at ‘corrupt’ ex-ministers

June 30, 2022
Happening Now

Actor Swara Bhasker receives death threat letter

June 30, 2022
Politics

AIADMK leadership crisis mars civic poll chances

June 30, 2022
IPA Special

Udaipur Murder Of A Tailor Is A Horrific Hate Crime Needing Urgent Action

June 29, 2022
IPA Special

BJP Game In Maharashtra Is Now Open – Fadnavis Determined To Be Back Again

June 29, 2022
IPA Special

NDA Presidential Candidate Droupadi Murmu Has A Strong Personality

June 29, 2022
IPA Special

BJP Leadership Planning Regime Change In Jharkhand Before 2024 Polls

June 29, 2022
IPA Special

Oil Bears See $50 Barrel As Within The Realm Of Possibility

June 29, 2022
IPA Special

Myths And Superstitions Have No Place In Modern Healthcare System

June 29, 2022
Happening Now

Muslim body chief condemns Udaipur killing as un-Islamic

June 29, 2022
Happening Now

Owaisi condemns killing, but with a rider

June 29, 2022

An appeal

The legacy of IPA, founded by Nikhil Chakravartty, the doyen of journalism in India, to keep the flag of independent media flying high, is facing the threat of extinction due to the effect of the Covid pandemic. Only an emergency funding can avert such an eventuality. We appeal to all those who believe in the freedom of expression to contribute to this noble cause.
Click here to learn more

Share

Reply

  • 0
More on IPA

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren Is Under Siege By BJP Leadership

June 30, 2022 4:07 pm | IPA Staff

By Dr. Gyan Pathak Having emboldened by the success in Maharshtra, the BJP has just started its political game in Jharkhand to destabilize the Mahagathbandhan...

IPA Special

Testing Time For Uddhav Thackeray As The Battle For Shiv Sena Control Begins

June 30, 2022 4:05 pm | IPA Staff

By Sushil Kutty What next for Shiv Sena? Will the Eknath Shinde faction grab the party from “rightful owners”, the Thackeray’s, and run with it?...

IPA Special

Pakistan Struggling Hard To Secure Emergency Financial Aid From IMF

June 30, 2022 3:41 pm | IPA Staff

By Anjan Roy About a week back, Pakistan’s Finance minister was urging its citizens to consume less tea as the country was scraping the bottom...

IPA Special

Punish Culprits For Gruesome Killing Of Tailor In Udaipur

June 30, 2022 3:02 pm | IPA Staff

By Sitaram Yechury The horrendous killing in Udaipur has been universally condemned. While the authorities have acted in rounding up those involved, the culprits must...

IPA Special

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren Is Under Siege By BJP Leadership

in IPA Special
Jun 30, 2022   ·  

Testing Time For Uddhav Thackeray As The Battle For Shiv Sena Control Begins

in IPA Special
Jun 30, 2022   ·  

Pakistan Struggling Hard To Secure Emergency Financial Aid From IMF

in IPA Special
Jun 30, 2022   ·  

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Follow us on
Up Next: Learning Poverty In India To Induce Huge Loss Of Jobs And GDP
©2020 -2021 India Press Agency, All Rights Reserved
Newspack by India Press Agency
Posting....
logo
  • Home
  • now
  • politics
  • business
  • markets