Rahul Gandhi making things difficult for Congress?

Jul 18, 2017, 10.07 PM IST

Gandhi Gaffes

By Indrajit Hazra

The Congress – and by extension the Oppositional rump that considers itself allied to the Congress – must feel quite fortunate that it is not in government. Because if it was not in Opposition, it would indeed have had a tough time answering some obvious tough questions, never mind feeling like a confident government, thanks to Congress Vice President and brand ambassador Rahul Gandhi.

BCCL

'PM created space for terrorists in Kashmir'

Fresh off the conveyor belt of Gandhi Gaffes is Grand Young Partyman’s response to the latest response on terrorist attack on Amarnath pilgrims two days earlier. He blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi of having “created space for terrorists in Kashmir” by trying to pursue “short-term political gains”. Not really content at sending out two tweets on the issue, Gandhi sent a third, stating that Modi “needs to accept responsibility”.

This would have been almost all very well – or, at any rate, treated as standard oppositional procedure – were it not for the simple fact that the “space for terrorists in Kashmir” was not “created” in 2014 and after. The ‘Kashmir problem’, as even Congressmen will remember, is an older one that precedes the PDP-BJP government in Srinagar that came to power in the winter of 2014 to be sure, as well as the central Modi government that preceded it.

Terrorism in Kashmir and the ‘space created for terrorists’ are more than four years old. Even as valid evidence by data journalism website IndiaSpend shows that ‘terrorism-related deaths’ in J&K has risen by 42%, Gandhi ends up sounding at best as a ‘nitpicker’, at worst as a churl. But most importantly as still – and India is a patient country – a political novice

Meeting with Chinese envoy

His hush-hush foray to meet Chinese envoy to India, Luo Zhaohui, may have seemed like a slightly smaller version of the pathbreaking Richard Nixon-Henry Kissinger secret meet with Mao Zedong in 1972. But the parallel may have been only in the mind of Gandhi.

At a time when China-India relations are not exactly bhai-bhaiesque, Gandhi’s ‘pong-ping’ diplomacy reeks of ‘going behind the back of his own country’. One can be sure, as Gandhi himself maintains through Congress spokespersons whose job anyone and everyone sympathises with these days, went to ‘understand the Chinese position’. But as any spouse will know, it looked bad. And politically even more so.

Political acumen lacking?

If the meeting with the Chinese envoy is being perceived as a ‘misdeamenour’, there is also Gandhi’s folly as depicted in his dealings in with Bihar chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar. Much has been commented on Kumar’s political savviness in backing the BJP presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.
Kumar has managed elbow room within the NDA as well as kept his options open with that mythical beast called the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) that is supposed to challenge the gorgon in Delhi.
Much now will be commented on the Congress vice-president having to rein-in party leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad targeting Kumar for backing Kovind, and thereby throwing a – mixed metaphors being very much allowed in commentaries on Indian politics – spanner among the pigeons of the Opposition.
Instead, Gandhi has been assured by Kumar that he will support the Congress’s candidate for vice-presidential candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi. This series of exchanges have not happened behind closed doors, but in full media view. It doesn’t take a Niccolo Machiavelli to decide what kind of grade Rahul Gandhi would get if he was tested for his political acumen at this moment.

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Baba Re Baba!

Which is why the Congress should be thankful that it is not in power.It would have been very busy firefighting Gandhi’s ‘political’ moves if it was.