“Unka Sankalp, Vipareet Bharat”
“Sab ka Naash, Sab ka Vinaash”
By Aravind Bhatikar First they began calling him “Pappu” and “Rahulbaba.” They began misrepresenting his youthful looks and couldn’t-care-less style of talking, a childishness and immaturity. His frequent and piercing attack on Modi, often made during his foreign tours, was dubbed anti-national. His bold exposure of the alleged Adani-Modi nexus triggered resurrection of a 5 year old defamation suit in a Gujarat court. This had destined to throw him in jail for two years, and end his membership of the Lok Sabha.
It was only the Supreme Court’s timely intervention that gave him back his membership of the Lok Sabha and kept him out of the Gujarat jail. Whatever they did to destroy him has the opposite effect of making him more popular. However much they tried, the Pappu image did not stick.
When the pair of Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav began drawing unprecedented crowds in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Modi began calling them “Shehzadas” and publicly predicted that they would leave the country after June 4. The “Shehzadas,” far from leaving the country after June 4, remained to remind Modi-Shah and other BJP leaders that their days were numbered and that the BJP was incapable of winning even bye-elections in states ruled by them.
It has been the Modi-Shah’s habit to shoot the messenger and not the message. It is no wonder that a frustrated Modi, instead of speaking on substantive issues, referred to “balak buddhi” several times (ostensibly referring to Rahul Gandhi) during his speech in the budget session.
The “Pappu” and “Shehzada” has now become the leader of the opposition. His speeches in Lok Sabha are viewed by more Indians than the speeches of the non-biological Narendra Modi. Rahul Gandhi’s speech on the presidential address in the Lok Sabha had reportedly 10 lakh viewers as against Modi’s speech which had reportedly only about 90 thousand viewers.
The Modi-Shah duo have not reduced their 24×7 struggle to marginalize Rahul. There are more than 10 court cases pending against Rahul; these are meant to keep him busy running from court to court and reduce his time for politics; but like the other tricks of the Modi-Shah outfit, this has also boomeranged. He is drawing huge crowds wherever he goes. Whether it is Sultanpur in UP where he attended a court, a village in his constituency, where he went to visit a Dalit family to share his grief, or Jammu & Kashmir where he went to meet party workers and leaders of the Congress coalition, it was crowds everywhere.
The attack continues. You can see and hear Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla reminding Rahul that he has now become the leader of the Opposition and that he should behave like one. Speaker Om Birla never gives such an advice to Narendra Modi when the latter wastes hours in giving hollow speeches. “Goli Maaro” Anurag Thakur, the maverick ex-Minister of BJP insulted Rahul, without naming him by saying, “Those whose caste was not known should not take the trouble of asking for caste census.”
The more insults frustrated BJP leaders heap or Rahul Gandhi, the more he becomes popular. According to a survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), 38% of the respondents reportedly wanted Rahul Gandhi to be India’s next prime minister as against 34% who were reported to have voted for Modi as the preferred prime minister. The CSDS is an autonomous research and training Institute financed by the government of India.
Corporates or no corporates, ED or no ED, Godi media or no media, Election Commission or wrong mission — Rahul Gandhi’s juggernaut is marching on. The only question that now remains to be answered is when will Modi and Shah pack their bags and go back to Gujarat?
WE, THE PEOPLE, should ensure that they do so as soon as possible.
