Poet Ramdhari Singh “Dinkar” wrote,
जब नाश मनुज पर छाता है,
पहले विवेक मर जाता है।
Congress President Rahul Gandhi is a sadist. The kinds who not only finds pleasure in inflicting pains on others but also enjoys watching them writhe in pain from the wounds he inflicts which is then followed by adding insult to injury.
A few weeks back, Congress President Rahul Gandhi visited Goa on a personal trip. He paid a courtesy visit to the then Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar who had been suffering from cancer. While Rahul Gandhi said that he was on a personal visit and Congress even confirmed that the dubious Rafale tapes were not discussed, Rahul later claimed that Parrikar had nothing to do in the new Rafale deal ‘orchestrated by PM Modi’ to ‘benefit Anil Ambani’. This came a day after he tweeted alleging that Parrikar is ‘in possession of explosive Rafale secrets’ which give him power over the PM.
Parrikar, who was recovering from pancreatic cancer, and was putting his heart and soul in serving the nation despite his health not cooperating, was used as a pawn by Rahul Gandhi because he could not fight on facts any longer.
In fact, stooping to a new low, Congress President Rahul Gandhi even dragged late Manohar Parrikar’s name to lie about the Rafale Deal in one of his election rallies held this week. Campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi declared in Nagpur that Parrikar had information of the corruption in the Rafale deal and hence he was distancing himself from the deal.
However, just when we thought Rahul Gandhi couldn’t get any more insensitive, he threw a surprise towards us. While addressing a rally yesterday, Rahul Gandhi said that Narendra Modi hit senior BJP leader L K Advani with shoes and pushed him off the stage. One would’ve thought it was perhaps a slip of tongue and perhaps Congress President didn’t really mean what he said. However, he repeated the vile jibe today.
Rahul Gandhi for reasons best known to him invokes ‘Hindu dharm’ and says, “In Hinduism, guru (teacher) is considered most important. Advani jee is Narendra Modi’s guru. Have you seen Advani jee’s situation now? Advani jee has been kicked off from the stage.” Rahul Gandhi was perhaps referring to the fact that this time, it will be BJP President Amit Shah who would be fighting from Gandhinagar constituency, a seat from where L K Advani has been an MP for 6 times.
To put things in perspective, L K Advani, born on November 8, 1927, is 91 years old. In last five years, he has hardly been involved in active politics. Should he be chosen as a candidate, at 91, he would have to face the harsh heat of Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar, participate in road shows, campaign. Moreover, it is only natural for people to retire after decades of active public life and make way for newer faces and leaders.
But to portray it as ‘unceremonious’ removal of Advani is an attempt by Rahul Gandhi to taunt Advani that the people who were trained by him have taken over and he is pushed in a corner. How can you push the 91-year-old stalwart who has been a strong pillar of a foundation of a political movement which changed the political landscape ‘off the stage’? To insinuate Advani’s retirement from active politics as being ‘kicked out’ and ‘beaten up by shoes before throwing out’ is not only insensitive but more disrespectful of the person he pretends to be respecting.
And speaking of respecting the elders, Congress President Rahul Gandhi could probably start from closer home. In December 1997 Sonia Gandhi joined Congress formally and addressed her first election rally in Tamil Nadu. Soon, Sitaram Kesri, who was the Congress party president, was being forced to step down to make way for Sonia Gandhi to become the party president. At 82, Kesri wanted to stick around as party president a little longer.
On March 14, 1998, Congress Working Committee decided to ask Kesir to step down so Sonia could take over. He was reportedly locked up in the bathroom at Congress headquarters in Akbar Road so he could not stop Sonia from entering the office with her supporters to take over as party president.
Clearly, Hindu dharma does not teach you to lock up an 82-year-old in bathroom to gain power, right? Neither does not teach you to disrespect the dead.
Former Congress President and Rahul Gandhi’s mother Sonia Gandhi loathed former Prime Minister and Congress President P.V. Narasimha Rao enough to not allow his mortal remains to enter the AICC (All India Congress Committee) compound. His body stayed parked in a carriage outside the gate. There was no state funeral for him, whereas Sanjay Gandhi, who forced sterilization during the Emergency and was just an MP from Amethi for little over six months got a state funeral and a samadhi in Delhi. Sonia Gandhi, it is believed, was ‘upset‘ about the way the investigation on Rajiv Gandhi assassination had proceeded.
Rao passed away on 23rd December 2004. On 27th December 2004, M D Nalapat, Indian academic and columnist wrote (emphasis added):
In fact, despite being a former AICC president and a prime minister, Narasimha Rao was not just excluded from the Congress Working Commitee since the current heir to the Nehru dynasty took charge of the party in 1998, he was not even allowed to become one of the numerous ‘special invitees’, most of whom get selected for their cheerleader skills rather than any other contribution.
Nalapat talks about the death of Rao and the posthumous humiliation by Congress under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi (emphasis added):
Sometime after noon on December 23, 13 days after he had been brought to the hospital early in the morning following a cardiac incident, PV decided to call it quits. It was more than an hour before the doctors finally did.
Strangely — or perhaps entirely expectedly — despite a special Union Cabinet meeting at 3 pm on the subject of his funeral, at his 9 Motilal Nehru Marg home there were no arrangements made to receive the body and place it on a platform, nor flowers, nor any laying out of carpets by the administration for the mourning crowds to sit down on, nor even a shamiana on the lawns.
Finally, Kishore, a friend of PV’s, made arrangements for both. The shamiana could get erected only by 8.15 pm. Carpets and flowers too were provided by family and friends and not by what seemed to be a totally bankrupt Government of India. As if to atone for his visible helplessness, the prime minister, Sardar Manmohan Singh, looked visibly moved as he quietly remained by the side of the body, which had been brought in from the hospital a little before 5 pm. As a gesture of supreme graciousness, Sonia Gandhi turned up and even stayed for a few minutes.
While some of those present then may be made to deny this later, the fact is that the family members — as well as the crowd of mourners — would have been happy to see the father of economic reform and the first prime minister from the south in the history of Free India be given the same honours as Sanjay Gandhi and Charan Singh, a State funeral in New Delhi and an appropriate memorial.
And the final humiliation of Rao before his remains left for Hyderabad (emphasis added):
The next day, December 24, the body of the former Congress prime minister was brought to the gates of the AICC office at 24, Akbar Road and kept there for 20 minutes, ‘to pay homage.’ Apparently, the body was so heavy that it would not have been possible to lift what was left of PV from the gun carriage into the Congress headquarters, which would have been the civilised thing to do.
After this final humiliation, P V Narasimha Rao left New Delhi for Hyderabad, this time for good.
Ten years after he died, it was in 2015 when the former Prime Minister got a memorial in Delhi, that too by NDA government led by Narendra Modi.
For the privileged and protected life that Rahul Gandhi has lived, it seems the struggles others had to face to reach the place where they are is not relatable. How can the man who was one of the persons responsible for building the political party just give up his seat in favour of a man who started his political journey as a booth worker? Perhaps the concept of a man who has spent his lifetime in public service retire with grace alien to the dynast who has always seen the politics as family business where it only changes hands amongst the family members. After all, the Gandhis have spent their lifetimes cashing in on the work of the others.
