Rahul, the Saviour

The Bharatiya Janata Party is a lucky party. Whenever it is in dumps, a distinguished adversary comes to its rescue and makes matters so much easy for the saffron camp. Rahul's latest remarks have done the magic yet again for BJP and provided a perfect release valve for the party to duck some nagging questions that could have haunted it. 

The BJP was in a precarious situation after the drubbing it received in Jharkhand. This was third straight failure for the party after it romped home to a thumping majority to the power at centre just six months ago. The defeat came on the heels of heat generated by Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). There was unarguably a backlash against the CAA and a huge propaganda that succeeded pushing the ruling party in corner. Just as BJP had its back to the wall, came the 'masterstroke' by Gandhi scion Rahul.

With his yet another comment, completely idiotic and utterly misguided, Rahul Gandhi has managed to destruct the well-built narrative of secular camp. The focus of the debate will now shift from the issues of governance and policy to the ideology. The BJP couldn't ask for more as it, as well as its ideological powerhouse Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, are saddled firmly in their thought processes. The lacuna on this count is in the Congress camp. The main opposition party is oscillating between different principles - sometimes it is epitome of secularism and on another occasion, it is acute followers of Hinduism embarking, at times, on pilgrimage to Manasarovar. Thus, Congress under Rahul has failed in establishing any credentials for ideology and as such, become a laughing stock when he or his team members take pot-shots at an organization which has stood firmly on its principles for over nine decades. Notwithstanding Rahul's folly of targeting RSS for its uniform and especially chaddi (nicker), after the organization has abandoned it long ago, his jibe falls flat on face of itself. 

"Assam will not run by Nagpur," Rahul said with a manufactured bravado. “We (Congress) won’t allow BJP and RSS to attack Assam’s history, language and culture. Assam cannot be let to run from Nagpur by RSS. Assam will be run by the people of Assam, right from here,” he said, while addressing a gathering of Congress workers in Guwahati. 

 Little did he realize or heed to the obvious fact that Nagpur is in India, not somewhere else on earth. Even if the rulers of Assam draw inspiration from Nagpur, as they do, they a do not commit any wrong. When the earlier government of the state was run by Congress, where did it took dictation from? Italy? Funnily enough, even as Rahul decried BJP for implementing RSS' agenda and taking notes from Nagpur, he himself doesn’t gives any clear indication of the source of his ideological inspiration. He runs to unknown, undeclared and untraceable destinations a number of times in a year, sometimes coinciding with critical situations in the country, and comes invigorated to pursue his politics of comfort. Someone with such a bad record of ideological mooring should at least refrain from commenting on others' footings.