Saturday, June 18, 2011

The future of Rahul Gandhi's strategies

Indian media is known to hype matters on several issues much like international media. For the past few years, it has been over hyping Rahul Gandhi and his future. No one knows if this over hype may actually become reality and one day we see Rahul Gandhi as the PM.

However, as a citizen Rahul Gandhi must do more than held press conferences or sleeping in Dalits homes. India is not 1970 where these things translated into sympathy and people voted that person. In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tamilnadu Rahul tried to deliver the power of youth, but failed miserably. If present India is to this state, it owes a lot to Gandhi family for all good and bad reasons. If his predecessors - Rajiv, Indira and Nehru did a lot good to this nation, they did far worse when it came to corruption and lack of transparency in governance and even eliminating poverty.

Recently, Rahul Gandhi made this remark - "I have seen the violence unleashed on your men and women. By seeing what has happened here, I feel ashamed to be an Indian. The state government is tormenting its own people. I was travelling with the Assistant District Magistrate and he told me that it is like Naxalism has reached here" (click here)."

I am surprised and shocked at this naive statement made by him. He made this when he declared that in Bhatta Parsaul village in Uttar Pradesh (UP) where farmers were protesting against land acquisition for Yamuna Expressway. He said women were raped and farmers were killed who were protesting. He showed a site of bodies and said they were buried there. When a team of forensics held the investigation they found everything was false. The ashes contained that of animals and not that of human flesh (Link).

Why did Rahul Gandhi do this? Simply because it is elections time in 2012 and he wants Congress to win UP state. Winning this state paves the way for a clear majority Congress at the Centre. Remember Congress lost all the Muslim and Hindu vote banks in 1992 after the Babri Masjid Demolition and never has Congress recovered from it again till now.

Rahul tried to imitate what Indira Gandhi did in the late 1970 when she rode an elephant and visited Belchi village and highlighted that the Central Govt is insensitive to the atrocities on Dalits and she came back as PM. But India is not the same as it was in 1970. Today, people look for leaders who can think out of the box solutions to solve India's problems.

Rahul further declared he would bring in Land Acquisition Bill in monsoon session of Parliament this year and get it  passed.

Here is a series of questions to him:
  • Why didn't Rahul protest like this when farmers were shot in Nandigram and Singur for Tata's project by the West Bengal Left Govt who was an ally with Congress at the Centre? Why didn't he come out on the streets and say - "I am ashamed to be a part of the Central Govt where one of my allies can order such a shootout on farmers who do not want to give up the land". 
  • Why doesn't Rahul Gandhi feel ashamed that despite the slogans of "Garibi Hatao" in 1970 by Indira Gandhi, poverty is still 30% in India? 
  • Why doesn't Rahul Gandhi feel ashamed at his own party government in Delhi? Why? Every other day a woman is raped in Delhi. No one is concerned - neither the Govt led by a woman herself Sheila Dikshit or the party. I am ashamed to see the capital city as "rape" capital. I am ashamed that a woman is either kidnapped, raped or killed in Delhi and the govt doesn't act over it. If the capital can't be safe, how can India be which is ruled by his party for the past 7 successive years and almost 50 years since Independence. 
  • How can his party support Mayawati and remove her name in CBI's list of investigations and later blame her for all the state govt's problems?
  • This country was ruled for a full term by the non-Congress PM Atal Vajpayee for just 7 years. So, why blame any other party or regional party for the failure of India's problems? Congress party is not the same anymore which gave us the Independence. Rahul must re-invent Congress's vision before he can show he can make a difference to this country.
  • Why didn't you protest when farmers in Vidharbha in Maharashtra (which is also being ruled by Congress for the past 10 years) committed suicide for not enough support from the state Govt? You were considered the crown prince of India since then.
  • Why is that the Land Acquisition Act (which was so much in the mind of the PM Singh to get it passed way back in 2004) has not been passed? It should have been passed right after farmers were shot by Left Govt in West Bengal. Only for the sake of vote bank politics the Congress govt from 2004-09 was silent.
  • Why don't you force the govt and your party to take a strong action against all the black money lying abroad which could be brought back.
Rahul Gandhi, definitely, has the zeal and age as a factor on his side. However, even before you are elected you you need to convince India why it should buy your speeches? Why your silence on several matters that are troubling "aam aadmi" of which you represent is so high? Why don't you speak out what your solution is to the problems of India.

It is not as if BJP is crystal clear on corruption and issues of the country. They too fail to give a vision as to how they would sort out issues like Land Acquisition and corruption. However, it is to the credit of the Opposition led by Left and BJP that Congress govt was brought on its knees and exposed such large scale corruption never seen in India before. There is a lot for the present Govt to learn from Land Acquisition Acts in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. There is a lot that the present Govt can learn from Right to Service Acts passed in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. They are simple, but are proving to be effective solutions.

Indians know that they are growing. 8-9% growth is not alone going to help Congress. There are matters far troublesome which no one wants to address. In a scenario like this I would say Rahul's strategies have clearly failed.

There is a far more social revolution India needs and that can happen only if social problems are addressed through an economic reform, which is not impossible. It just requires an iron will.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good efforts. Som

Abhishek said...

Article is OK but too lengthy.
One wud fall asleep by the time it reaches
the end. Your article is pretty one-sided with
bashing of Cong and Rahul.
Though I am not a supporter of Cong myself
but this article seems to follow our so-called
biased media in the other direction.
Now coming to ur article:
I think "being ashamed of India" is a more light hearted
politically incorrect comment and shud not b taken seriously. We always say these type of words in frustration
without actually having meant for it. U r being 2 hard on Rahul on this argument.
Poverty is a big problem in India which probably cannot be solved by a single person/government within a spam of one or a few terms. It will probably require socioeconomic changes with a collective effort from all the citizens. Blaming only Rahul for this wud b incorrect.
Your facts regarding Singur issue r completely wrong. Not a single farmer is shot for not giving land by the state govt. On the contrary, TMC created a big issue out of it to gain political adv which is evident through election results. TMC threatened the farmers who had given their lands and even attacked Tata employees resulting in the withdrawal of Taya Nano and stopping all industrial growth that could have generated so mich jobs. Today the land is lying vacant with already constructed factory but no productivity. The land is unsuitable for farming now resulting in a complete wastage of industry and cultivation and the whole gain came to TMC in the form of a landslide victory and political power.
Having said all these, I really do not appreciate the Cong for it's way of dealing the Lokpal Bill which is really sad and a much more valid argument against them.
Finally, sorry for such a long comment and it seems that I followed you. Sorry again for wasting some precious time for whoever have made it till the end since nothings gonna change but ur effort is truely appreciated!

--Abhishek

Sadanand said...

@Abhishek : what you said ? " I feel ashamed to be an Indian" is a more light hearted politically incorrect comment and shud not b taken seriously. We always say these type of words in frustration without actually having meant for it. "

Do you know what you are saying? Do you scold your mother when you are frustrated? do you use any such words when you will be frustrated ? What you are saying Abhishek ?

Think once again before posting such comments .
It was a good article , he tried his best to show the real fact .