However, what truly caught the attention of social media users, including among the dwindling tribe of Congress supporters and IT cell, was Kishor’s withering yet honest remarks on senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
When asked to list the strengths of Rahul Gandhi, Kishor said, ‘I haven’t had the opportunity to work with Rahul Gandhi for too long, but for whatever time I had worked, I was pleasantly surprised by his temperament. He has nerves of steel because after losing so many times, to maintain positivity.”
“This is Rahul Gandhi’s strength that even after losing 90 per cent of elections in the last 10 years, he is convinced that he is on the right path,” Kishor said.
No sooner did the video start doing the rounds on X, formerly known as Twitter, than Congress supporters made a beeline to project it as a compliment showered on their leader. A raft of Congress supporters took to X to heap praises on Rahul Gandhi, an exercise they routinely indulge in, sharing the snippet to claim how a political leader not linked with the Congress party of the Gandhi family has kind words for the Gandhi scion.
While lavishing praises on Rahul Gandhi and Congress could be par for the course for its supporters and even monetarily rewarding, it nevertheless demonstrates the desperation among the ecosystem to seek validation for the competence of their leader despite his decades of experience in social and political life. That they still yearn for acknowledgement from their opponents and political strategists is a scathing indictment of their leader and the collective psyche of the ecosystem that could, at best, be described as clutching at straws as PM Modi takes strides towards his third term as the Prime Minister.
But then, the intelligence of a group is only a reflection of its leader’s intellect. For someone like Rahul Gandhi, as Prashant Kishor observes, being convinced to follow the same path, which has yielded him failures 90 per cent of the time, reflects his obduracy to mend ways and pursue a narrative that strikes a chord with the majority of this country, for India is a democratic nation with universal suffrage and not a personal fiefdom where individual beliefs or dogmas held by the minority trump the majority sentiments.
Rahul Gandhi’s stubbornness to follow the same path that he is following without getting favourable results shows that he is not ready to accept his mistakes—a trait common among fascists—allegations of which his supporters and Congress propagandists loosely hurl at the Modi government to discredit their democratic legitimacy.
Rahul Gandhi’s stubbornness to follow the same path that he is following without getting favourable results shows that he is not ready to accept his mistakes—a trait common among fascists—allegations of which his supporters and Congress propagandists loosely hurl at the Modi government to discredit their democratic legitimacy. A leader claiming to work for the welfare of the people can’t afford to be rigid in his political ideology, typically when consistently not yielding the desired result and handing him and his party one ignominious defeat after another.
This inflexibility to not learn from mistakes is then covered up using absurd allegations that ‘EVMs are hacked’, ‘The BJP played the communal card’, and ‘Pulwama attack was a false-flag operation’, which are eagerly lapped up by his supporters who probably care little than the bread crumbs thrown at them for defending their leader and deflecting criticism directed at him.
Perhaps this is why his supporters are rejoicing at the sharp observations made by political strategist Prashant Kishor. They are conditioned to believe that their leader is on a noble path and the roadblocks on the way are just stepping stones towards ‘greater glory’—a poison that keeps them alive and indifferent towards the writing on the wall, which is to scrap their historical bent towards minority appeasement and socialist policies, which have wreaked havoc on the country for over 6 decades while being in power.