I came across an article which talked about a ‘viral’ post on Facebook which ‘ripped apart’ those who felt Rahul Gandhi should quit. The piece sings praise for Congress President Rahul Gandhi who lost the third election straight since he took charge of the party in December last year. The viral post is by Peri Maheshwar, founder and CEO of Careers360, a career counselling firm.
But no, Congress President Rahul Gandhi deserves to stay.
It has been over 24 hours since Karnataka election results have been out and after high drama, BJP’s Yeddyurappa, with 104 seats, just took oath despite Congress and it’s post-poll ally JDS had well over the magic number to form the government. The Governor has given BJP 15 days to prove majority on the floor of the Assembly. And while Karnataka Congress was facing one of the major crisis, as a run up to 2019 elections where Rahul Gandhi wants to show himself as a serious prime ministerial candidate, Congress President was missing. It took him over 36 hours to make his first public statement, that too a tweet, devoid of any emotions. Here is why Rahul Gandhi deserves to stay.
– Because as captain of the sinking ship, he further managed to sink it lower by taking the seat tally in Karnataka Assembly from 122 in 2013 to 78 in 2018.
– Because with Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramaiah as an option, Karnataka brought BJP from 40 seats in 2013 to 104 seats in 2018.
– Because despite not having crossed the halfway mark, Congress, despite all the money and muscle power the grand old party has at its disposal, it is the BJP that is forming the government in Karnataka and not Congress.
– That under Rahul Gandhi’s esteemed leadership, Congress has lost 3 elections in six months time, Gujarat, Tripura and now Karnataka.
– Because whenever a time comes to own up to your failures, Rahul Gandhi is missing. After losing Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections, Rahul Gandhi went to watch Star Wars. During Tripura results, he was in Italy, ‘visiting‘ his Italian grandmother for Holi. And now, after Karnataka elections, Rahul is again missing in action. Even the call to H D Deve Gowda offering support to form an alliance was reportedly made by his mother, Sonia Gandhi.
– Because your caste-based divisive politics of declaring Lingayats a different ‘religion’, a ‘minority’ at that, didn’t work. It did help people see the true picture of Congress, though.
– Because your wild conspiracies of ‘aircraft malfunction’ didn’t get you the sympathy you thought would get. Perhaps he hoped to remind people of the death of Sanjay Gandhi in the aircraft crash in 1980.
– Because Congress dropped Siddaramaiah like a hot potato and crawled to JDS and declared Kumaraswamy as CM candidate should JDS choose to accept Congress’ support despite JDS having half the numbers of Congress. Shows it is not the public you want to serve but the power you crave for.
– Because you are an asset to the BJP because if the other option is you, anyone in right mind would choose the other. Unless the other option is even more terrifying like Arvind Kejriwal or Mamata Banerjee.
– Because Congress lost in 14 seats out of the 25 seats you campaigned in. Even the seat where your mother campaigned in, Vijayapura (Bijapur) City, lost out to BJP.
– Because your dream of becoming Prime Minister of India, just because you’re born in a particular family where you were brought up make-believing that post of the PM should be served to you on a platter, will remain a dream. Because democracy still trumps dynasty.
And so, Rahul Gandhi, you deserve to STAY.