Rahul Gandhi likes to make his team work. He speaks his mind, whichever of it is left, and then leaves it on his team to not only clear the mess, but even defend it.
Something similar happened today. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was addressing students at University of California, Berkeley, speaking on ‘India at 70: Reflections on the Path Forward’.
India was under the British Crown till it attained independence in 1947. Following which, for major part of those 70 years, India has been governed by the Nehru-Gandhi family members representing the Indian National Congress party.
We went from monarchy to dynasty even as we called ourselves democracy. However, many people have been vocal opponents of dynasty politics and nepotism in politics. The Indian politics today is so dynamic that those who condone dynasty politics are looked down upon, even ridiculed. Even if it is the Vice President of the same Indian National Congress.
Rahul Gandhi claims that the BJP, that is the ruling party, is doing what Congress had thought of.
#RGinUS | “Most of the things BJP is doing, they are things we said,” says #RahulGandhi at the University of California, Berkeley pic.twitter.com/3gCKOqgjtM
— Republic (@republic) September 12, 2017
One wonders if things they ‘talked about’ didn’t happen in the 10 continuous years they ran the government at centre, how long would they have sat on ‘ideas’? Governance was also about implementation of ‘ideas’.
Gandhi claims to have managed to ‘break the back’ of terror by 2013 (after 9 years of being in power) and he hugged the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on this achievement.
By 2013, we basically broke the back of terror, I hugged PM Manmohan Singh and told him it was one of the biggest achievements: R Gandhi
— Republic (@republic) September 12, 2017
Let me remind Mr. Gandhi about the serial blasts in Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and even the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, which took place because of lack of credibility and capability. And even then, terror attacks like the bomb blast in Hyderabad took place in February 2013 for which Yasin Bhatkal, the co-founder of Indian Mujahideen, was sentenced to death in December, 2016. Even after being in power for so long, UPA government could not contain terror attacks on Indian soil.
And the same government was also spooked by an imaginary ‘coup‘. Here is a virtual hug for Gandhi so he can cope up with the jokes.
And then comes the inevitable: will he take over the role of the President of the grand old party?
I am absolutely ready for that, but our party works acc to organizational elections: Rahul Gandhi in #UCBerkeley on taking up executive role
— ANI (@ANI) September 12, 2017
Of course, he is ready, but Congress has organisation level election. Except, dynasty trumps democracy.
Most of the country runs like this, so don’t go after me, Akhilesh Yadav a dynast, Mr Stalin a dynast,Mr Dhumal’s son a dynast:Rahul Gandhi pic.twitter.com/eIDsvnlxtp
— ANI (@ANI) September 12, 2017
Takes a dynast to defend dynasty politics. This shows that Congress condones the bourgeois mindset and favours nepotism over capability.
He then goes about discussing how Congress party makes policy decisions over dialogue, and it is very democratic in the process.
Congress decides policy and vision through conversations and not by imposition: Rahul Gandhi
— ANI (@ANI) September 12, 2017
Except, even the ground reality in the hall where he was making the speech was quite different.
A lady from crowd heckles moderators at Rahul Gandhi prog ,”how is this free speech if you are controlling what is being asked?” #UCBerkeley
— ANI (@ANI) September 12, 2017
Seems like champions of free speech didn’t anticipate people actually exercising the right to free speech.
Meanwhile, in a while answering a question on Lok Sabha, Gandhi got the number of seats wrong. He said the number of seats in the Lower House of Parliament were 546 instead of 545. Rahul Gandhi is a 3 time Member of Parliament and his father, grandmother and great grandfather have all been Prime Ministers of India.
He then accused the Prime Minister of being the brains behind spreading ‘abuses’ about him.
There is a BJP machine,about 1000 guys sitting on computers&telling you about me: Rahul Gandhi on question of being a reluctant politician pic.twitter.com/JzyJj6CU6c
— ANI (@ANI) September 12, 2017
But seeing his speech today, one can say that the BJP doesn’t need 1000 people behind computer to do so. One of his speech will do the trick.
