New Delhi: Ahead of Rahul Gandhi's landing at Ramlila Maidan, one of the songs appropriately chosen by the singers to regale the gathered crowd was "Mera Piya Ghar Aaya, O Ram Ji".
The Congress 'Kisan Khet Majdoor' rally was billed to showcase the re-launch of Rahul Gandhi. On his return from a two-month long 'leave of absence' all eyes are on him, within and outside as to how he is going to reinvigorate a decaying grand old party. The party therefore had put all its might to make the rally a success in terms of crowd attendance and its leaders were in attention to lap up every word that Rahul's pro-poor pitching speech had.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi talks to party vice president Rahul Gandhi on stage during the farmers rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI
Even before Rahul Gandhi arrived on the dais along with his mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi at Ramlila Maidan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had done his bit to set the agenda for the day while inaugurating a day long workshop 'Garib Kalyan Yojnaye' at Balayogi auditorium in Parliament House. Modi's address at an intra-party meeting was televised for obvious political purposes.
Rahul chose not to pick anything from Modi’s speech to rebut but to go ahead with his prepared speech, which was centred around his pet pre-parliamentary election theme -– Modi’s singular purpose was to promote interests of the business and industrial houses where as he and his party, the Congress was committed to protecting the interests of the poor and farmers.
While Rahul was high on rhetoric and sharp in criticism against Modi, he didn’t care much about the facts, nor did he give a mantra or two to the gathered party leaders and workers to boost their dampened morale or give them outline of a much awaited road map that could rejuvenate the Congress, which is suffering from a worst ever crisis. He also didn’t utter a word about his leave of absence. A Kisan Khet Mazdoor rally perhaps was not an appropriate occasion to do that but then this was the first occasion since his return from a two-month long sabbatical when he had come face to face with party leaders. He left many questions unanswered.
There was also, by Rahul's own stated standards, too many contradictions in his speech between what he preaches and what he practised. Rahul keeps on lecturing how he wants to change the course of politics, from an "I" centric politics to "we the collective millions" but he went on and on with his "when I went to Vidarbha.... when I went to Bundelkhand... when I went to Niyamgiri... when I went to Bhatta- Parasaul... I have an old friendship with guys from Bhatta-Parasaul, when I met them... when they came to meet me... when I fought their battle... let me explain it to you..., et al".
He listed his travels in India and in one case abroad (Australia) to impress on the gathered audience that he had first hand understanding of the sufferings of the masses and farmers suicide. The problem, however, was that all the tours and plight of the poor that he had seen were during the days when the UPA was in power. He does not seem to realise that Narendra Modi rode to power attributing all such situations to "Maa-Bete ki Sarkar". He couldn’t succeed in detaching himself from follies of Manmohan Singh or other previous Congress governments. His today’s speech was an indication that he had decided to keep on trying the same formula with the hope that it may have failed in the past but may yield dividends now.
Rahul cited instances of domestic tour to poverty stricken and other troubled spots to underline a message that he had conviction and commitment, in case anyone had doubts, to fight for the cause of underprivileged.
He sounded particularly enthusiastic while giving repeated references about Niyamgiri in Orissa and Bhatta-Parsaul in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. He obviously thinks that these outings were his big achievements, how he intervened to stall Vedanta project in Niyamgiri and how he came in support of agitating farmers against land acquisition in Bhatta-Parasaul (and guided formulation of 2013 land acquisition law). But the Congress party should well remember that in subsequent elections it lost badly from Niyamgiri and Bhatta-Parasaul regions both in assembly and in Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul predicted that Modi’s Make in India campaign was going to be doomed, not because it was a bad idea but because, he charged, Modi was using this idea as a front to grab land for his industrialist creditors.
"Do you know how Modi won the election?.. He borrowed thousands of crores from industrialists for his several campaigns and advertisements. How will he pay them back? He will pay them back with your land. He will give your land to his industrialist friends.. Modi's Gujarat model had showed how easily he can snatch farmers' land," he said.
How far he succeeded in preparing a strong battle ground against Modi government and lifting morale of his party workers will be known in due course but for now Sonia Gandhi appeared to be very pleased with him, looked to be complimenting him after he finished his speech.
Besides, the return of Rahul, the Sunday event also signalled Digvijaya Singh’s return to position of eminence in the party. Singh, the perceived political guru was all over the dais, conducting the programme and directing Rahul, "the journey you began with Bhatta-Parasaul has to be shared with rest of the nation. You have to tour extensively".
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