Rahul Gandhi has changed in the last few years. He’s no longer the namby-pamby-bubba log type. Instead, he’s now a macho man wearing an aggressive T-shirt. He speaks aggressively and acted aggressively last week as he tried to enter Congress.
The changes didn’t help much. His party still continues to lose elections, of course to the BJP, but also to other much smaller parties.
Indeed, the number of parliamentary seats increased from 54 in 2019 to 99 in this year’s general election. However, this was behind the big lie that the reservation would be lifted if the Bharatiya Janata Party gained a majority. The adage that the bigger the lie, the more likely it is to be believed is proven.
But there’s a problem. Rahul cannot lie and claim credit. And all his political partners know it. Not only them, but even his own party knows it.
These two facts, his loss of the election and his inability to claim credit for the success of his strategy, led to a general consensus that he needed to retire from politics. . It is this pressure that he will have to contend with from now until the next general election.
So my question is, who is he really fighting with this attitude, the BJP or his own party and its allies? Few people realize that while internal danger is always present for political leaders, external danger regularly occurs during election season.
No major leader, even Mr. Modi, is immune to influence. Look at history and look at the reactions of the leaders in question.
Please make sure to turn left
Until 1956, Jawaharlal Nehru was under pressure from the conservative wing of his party. So what did he do? He turned the Indian economy into a laboratory of socialism. All large-scale industrial investments will be made by the government. And many large companies will be nationalized.
Indira Gandhi did exactly the same thing. In 1969 she nationalized 14 private banks, splitting Congress under threats from her party’s more conservative predecessors.
This was Constance’s approach, so to speak. Challenge your opponent to battle.
In 1987, Rajiv Gandhi followed the strategy when he faced criticism from Vice President Singh and others. He abandoned reforms, turned to populism in earnest in his 1988 budget, and began running even larger budget deficits.
Sonia Gandhi learned her lesson well. She started in the same way as the CPM after coming to power in Bengal in 1977. The focus was on distribution. The result was MNREGA.
It halted the party’s decline for 10 years. Manmohan Singh objected to this, but it was firmly rejected.
Narendra Modi was no exception. He has taken populism to a different level, recognizing that there are opponents within the BJP.
But he made sure to set his targets well to get more profit per dollar. Apart from providing free food to 800 million people, populism is not his broad-spectrum antibiotic.
Rahul’s turn
This created a problem for Rahul. When it comes to candy for voters, Mr. Modi is hard to beat. So he was advised to look for something that would give the Bharatiya Janata Party a boost.
And that something is caste. This is because the number of non-upper castes far exceeds the number of upper castes. Hence, the demand for caste census arises. This has always been the case, but now political party power has shifted away from the upper castes. There is also the issue of the rights of the sub-caste, or Jati. Their number is also increasing and becoming politically important.
Rahul therefore had no choice but to grasp the lifeblood of this caste. And he used it very well. Gone is the rhetoric of “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.” I no longer have to worry about income.
Now it is entirely about giving caste-based rights and transferring Jinnah’s “Islam is in danger” strategy to “you will be crushed” rumors.
Rahul believes this will make him invulnerable to attacks from within his own party. But for that to happen, the party must win at least one election on its own to stay below 172 seats.
Otherwise, his party and his sponsors, who are aware of some of his weaknesses, will replace him. Otherwise, the party will split. Only Sonia Gandhi is slowing down the rapid dissolution of the glue.
After all, politicians want to make money, and they can’t afford to be out of power for so long.
