In the last few days, Indians witnessed an event that they all had been waiting for the last 5 years.
Rahul Gandhi, after giving a glimpse of his competence in 2014 in an interview with Arnab Goswami, after which he never gave a political interview other than the interview with his fangirl who was more interested in meeting his ‘Pidi’ rather than asking any relevant questions, finally gave a couple of interviews in last few days.
The interviews were short, not more than 15-16 minutes, but one should be happy with whatever one gets when it comes from the Royals. People at least got a chance to see for themselves whether he has “come of age” like Congress ecosystem had claimed many times in last 5 years or he is still the same incompetent man that they witnessed in 2014 if they not already had made up their mind obviously.
If you want to understand what ‘pliant’ journalism means you should watch these interviews, one of which mysteriously became a text interview. The journalists, I don’t know whether we should use that word for this kind of work, do everything in their capacity to make him look good. They refrain from asking any tough questions, they let him run away with numerous lies, they forget to counter question (which many of them have started saying after PM gave interviews to almost every news channel – how many would you tag as ‘Bhakt or godi media’), and even help him when he falters, sometimes going to the extent of being boorish.
However, as it turned out, for a person as shallow and talentless as Rahul Vinci/Gandhi, even these few ‘fixed’ interactions were enough for the people to see that the prince has not only not “come of age” but has also turned into a blubbering mess who is on a political suicide mission by lying through his teeth and mouthing of platitudes that mean paltry little.
He came across as incompetent, visionless, bitter, liar, spoiled brat – basically everything that a politician should not be.
Let me illustrate with some of the excerpts of the interview because we like to talk on facts and not on someone’s figment of the imagination.
When asked about his pet idea ‘Nyay’, he said“It is about remonetisation of the economy… Tested the model… When the poor get the money, shops and factories would get opened… I keep my promises..”. Such lack of information, lack of intellect, combined with utter lies. But we must counter this. Point by point.
Which remonetisation is he talking about? The liquidity in the market has reached similar levels as before demonitisation. How would shops and factories open by giving Rs. 6000 to every poor person or family? The whole point of giving money is to make sure they can sustain themselves so how would that money help in opening new shops? Where has he tested this model? MP, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Punjab, Italy – where exactly have he tested this model? And if he has, can he provide some more details about the same? When exactly has he kept your promise? He promised farm loan waivers to the farmers in the 3 states in the recent assembly polls. he counted the days on his fingers from 1 to 10 and claimed that he will change the Chief Minister if it is not done in 10 days. Has it happened? Have you kept your promise? None of these questions was asked, of course.
When asked about what is his vision for the farmers, he said “the first thing we will do is to talk to them.. we will tell them beforehand how much they are going to get through Kisan budget so that they can plan ahead.. ‘Kanoon banwaya’ to decriminalize farm loan defaults..”.
What was he doing for 70 years or for that matter in the 10 years of the Congress government where he had the same status as Sanjay Gandhi had in Indira Gandhi’s government? Didn’t he get a chance to talk to farmers in those 3650 days? Why were so many committees appointed by his government on agriculture when all he had to was to talk to them?
The money mentioned in the budget is not going to be spent by the farmers but by the government so it does not make any difference to a farmer whether he knows it beforehand or not. At least he should understand how basic governance system works? None of these questions was asked, of course.
On being asked on terror and Kashmir, he said, “terrorism in Kashmir was at its peak in 2004 and we eliminated it completely by 2014.. we conducted panchayat elections.. we gave women bank accounts.. we got the youth with us by showing what a great country India was back then.. we made Pakistan a pariah state, labelled them as terror supporter all over the world..”.
Whether its a lie or his lack of knowledge, my mind is completely blown either way. Is he saying that terrorism in Kashmir was the same in 2004 as it was in the early 90s? Is he saying that he or the Congress government had solved the Kashmir problem by bringing everyone along and bringing this amazing development and vision to the people of J&K? Is he saying he conducted peaceful and fair Panchayat elections (which happened just once in 2011 in 10 years that too in much lesser number of blocks as in 2018, that too with negligible violence compared to 2011) in J&K?
Did he or the Congress government make Pakistan a Pariah state? Did he send them to the brink of bankruptcy? Did he isolate them globally on each and every forum? The Congress government was busy indulging in “Aman ki Asha” at the cost of Indian lives, they were busy looting the nation while our country was being bled by bomb blasts every fortnight. Is he is saying you had eliminated terrorism? How does he even come up with such blatant lies? Does he really have no regard for your credibility or you know the ecosystem would protect you at all costs? Does he remember that he was partying right after the ghastly 26/11 terror attack? None of these questions was asked. None.
On the economy, he said, “Economic miracle that India was has been stumbled”. How bad a memory does this person have? India was a “Fragile Five” economy in 2013 which could have collapsed at any time led by an economist, which has been brought to the fastest growing major economy by a Chaiwallah’s government. The “journalists” kept silent.
On his favourite topic Rafale, he said “I asked people what is PM’s strength, they said his honesty, integrity… I said I will attack his this image itself and tarnish him.. French President said that PM asked him specifically that the contract should go to Anil Ambani.. 30000 crores were transferred to him by the PM..”.When asked on proof on any money trail, he said “French Govt. has given a huge tax rebate to Anil Ambani. He has also been given some lands nearby worth some hundreds of crores..”
Where should I begin? All his lies on Rafale have already been exposed multiple times and he repeated some of those lies again with impunity in front of ‘pliant’ journalists. But the shocking part is, he seems to know what is he doing by constantly bringing up Rafale. He knows there is no scam but he wants to tarnish the image of an honest person just because he cannot fight him politically or ideologically, disregarding the needs of the defence forces and national security. Such a sick mindset and he wants to be the PM of this holy land.
An OpIndia report reads:
French Ambassador clarified that a global settlement was reached between the French tax authorities and Reliance Flag in a tax dispute pertaining to the period 2008-2012. He said that it was done as per common practice in tax administration, and it was done as per laws and rules of the country, denying any political influence in the decision.
Earlier, Reliance Communications had rubbished the report saying that the tax dispute with its French subsidiary pertained to the year 2008 and it was settled as per local laws. The company said that “the tax demands were completely unsustainable and illegal. Reliance denies any favouritism or gains from the settlement.” A statement issued by the company said that Reliance Flag settled the tax disputes as per legal framework in France available to all companies operating in France.
The statement added that Reliance Flag was running in operating loss in the relevant period, and the tax demand by France was unjustified. “During the period under consideration by the French Tax Authorities in 2008-2012 (nearly 10 years ago), Flag France had an operating loss of Rs 20 crore (2.7 million euro)”, the company said. They added that “French tax authorities had raised a tax demand of over Rs 1,100 crore for the same period. As per the French tax settlement process as per law, a mutual settlement agreement was signed to pay Rs 56 crore as a final settlement.”
This was not brought up. The journalist kept mum and just accepted the lies mouthed off by Rahul Gandhi.
Another report sums up the Rafale saga perfectly:
Rahul Gandhi once lied blatantly on the floor of the house, claiming that the French President had spoken to Rahul Gandhi personally and told him that there was corruption in the Rafale deal. Later, in a massive embarrassment, the French government had to issue a statement, essentially saying that Rahul Gandhi lied and no such meeting ever took place.
In his desperation to prove that Rafale deal was a scam, Rahul Gandhi even pretended to visit ailing Manohar Parrikar as a courtesy visit. That “courtesy visit” was later turned into a ploy to attack the Rafale deal. Rahul Gandhi used a visit made to an ailing Chief Minister to claim that Manohar Parrikar had himself told Rahul Gandhi that he had some files on the Rafale deal and that there was a scam in the deal. Parrikar, suffering from cancer, had to come out and issue a statement calling out Rahul Gandhi’s lies. In fact, even after Manohar Parrikar lost the battle to cancer, even in death, Rahul Gandhi lied in Manohar Parrikar’s name.
The changing numbers of the “scam” amount, the fact that his allegation of the amount “Modi gave to Ambani” is greater than the entire offset amount, the shoddy audio tape that was thrown out by the parliament, the fact that the Supreme Court itself gave a clean chit to the deal and the fact that he admitted that the Supreme Court had made no observation of ‘chowkidar chor hai’ as he had alleged are all facts that have been put forth a number of times. Rahul Gandhi was forced to apologise.
The journalist just kept mum. Rahul Gandhi, the Prince, was not confronted with any of these details.
When asked whether Rafale is gaining ground among public or not, he said: “when we started 20% of people believed it was a scam, now 67% do”. Even the ‘pliant’ Sreenivasan Jain got surprised but was shut down rudely by the monarch. Rahul Gandhi told him, “yes, that’s our number”. End of story. ‘I will decide what the number is and everyone has to accept that because I decide what is fact or not, what is truth or not.’ The air this entitled prince has can be felt from a distance.
He confirmed his sister’s statement that in UP, Congress is fighting to cut BJP votes rather than to win, on which his sister had made multiple U-turns in just a few hours. He coined another new phrase “Aloo ketchup”. He uttered multiple lies himself and attributed another lie to Narendra Modi by saying that he had promised “Loan Waiver” to the farmers in 2014. After harping on Rafale most of the time, he said the issue in these elections are “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs and Jobs… And Economy (as an afterthought)”. Then why are you harping on Rafale so much if the only issue is Jobs?
He had a smirk on his face most of the time which was bordering on disrespect and contempt for everyone else. Even a staunch leftist like Sreenivasan Jain; who is at least competent in his ideology and propaganda, however wrong that is; seemed uneasy. I am sure it is difficult for any competent person, irrespective of his ideology, to listen to someone of his level and intellect. But the Monarch could not be questioned. Never.
Whatever little doubt people had should have been cleared after these friendly interactions from Rahul Gandhi. He is nothing but an entitled prince who has no vision, no ideas, no ideology, no depth, no knowledge and just wants to sit in the chair that he thinks is his birthright and to achieve that, he will not shy away from lying through his teeth, tarnish someone’s image and make false promises.
But the media… the media will play along. Always.
