Switch on the TV nowadays, and you will see a young gentleman, in his mid 40s, screaming in the mic about how his family was targeted and what his family has done and why his family background is reason enough for him to be voted to power. And this comes when all political parties, citizens and analysts are fighting a long battle against dynastic politics and this mid aged man is trying to be at the helm of this fight. By now, you may have guessed who this man is. Yes, he is the same man who earlier gave India the title of “Beehive”, asked the Dalits to achieve the “escape velocity of Jupiter” and told the press that “politics is in everyone’s pant and shirt”. He is our very own 4th Gen Gandhi – great grandson of the Mahatma and son of Rajiv Gandhi- Mr. Rahul Gandhi.

In India, Gandhi sells. The Congress still boasts about how it won us our independence, a 66 year old affair, and how it has maintained the legacy of the Mahatma- the man behind the freedom struggle, and nearly 80% of the Government schemes and projects are named after Rajiv, Indira, Mahatma Gandhi or Jawahrlal Nehru. This is the main reason why India has still stayed at the rank of a “developing country” while all the other countries which achieved freedom with us (China, South Korea) have attained the rank of “almost developed/developed country”. We are too emotional and forget things slowly. And thus, when Rahul Gandhi tries to win the elections on the basis of his family, it is not a wrong political move.

The Gandhi Family- From Mahatma to Priyanka

But should a man, claiming to represent the new age youth politics of development and morally right politics, ultimately play this gimmick just before the elections? Yes, your family did suffer. Yes, they served the country. But does that make you liable for our vote? The answer is a clear no.

I have read two people who have analysed his public sharing of this grief and how he himself is a target for terrorists. One is Shobha De, the queen of muddled emotions, who believes RG is right in bringing up his personal sorrows to his audiences and why he deserves our sympathy. De quotes him: “My family has suffered and sacrificed a lot in the service of the nation. I could be the next target. I urge you to shun violence. Save the country and vote for the Congress”. So you see, because my family has suffered you should vote for Congress. Simple! Okay! The other one is Sandip Roy in FirstPost who suggests we are no more in the age of sacrifice. And he hilariously writes: “Sacrifice in2013 means Sheila Dikshit having no onions with her bhindi for weeks. It means Sonia Gandhi weeping because she is unable to vote for the Food Security bill she was so passionate about. It can even mean a buff Robert Vadra never getting to show off his gym-toned muscles in India because he apparently never gets to relax in a t-shirt here”.

Clearly, De’s muddled wailing is nothing but an opinion while Roy’s is more of an assessment. But both of them stop short of asking some blunt questions. So what if your Dad and Daadi were killed? Who are YOU? What is it that makes YOU? What is YOUR story? If I have a background of personal losses, of tragedies it is possible that people may sympathize with me. But if I ask you to invest in me you would certainly want to know what I have accomplished despite those personal losses and tragedies. Just personal tragedies may not make me a good person. It is here that RG’s story falls flat. Considering he was born into a power-family he did not have to struggle for anything because of those personal losses. He wasn’t left an orphan. He wasn’t left to scrounge for himself. He wasn’t left begging on the streets. What has he accomplished? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!
Terrible truth is RG has conducted himself more like a Shehzada hopping from one country to another. After 26/11 he was reportedly partying. On hearing about Uttarakhand he ran off to Spain for reasons unknown. He has shunned away responsibility at every possible occasion and the post of Vice-President of Congress is due to “the Gandhi DNA” and nothing else. Did his personal losses teach him anything? Did it motivate him to appreciate power better than his ancestors? No! In fact he has been reported indulging in loose talk with an American diplomat claiming Hindu extremists are more dangerous than LeT. Have his personal losses built a strong character in him? It doesn’t appear so. This is where the RahulG story fails. If he had borne those personal losses and shown himself to be a man of work and accomplishment he would have earned the respect for himself and his dead family members rather than “demanding” it of people at his rallies. Even as an MP his parliamentary attendance and performance is pathetic. Not one person has ever heard him talk about serious issues like inflation, defence, security, economy etc. But hey, they killed my Daddy and Daadi so vote for me!
Almost every Congress leader was up in arms at RG being called ‘Shehzada’ by Narendra Modi. Let’s not even argue about how many names the Congress leaders and their criminal alliance partners in the media have called Modi- from Rambo and Feku to Maut ka Saudagar and much more. Congress’ darling spokesperson, Sanjay Jha, even started a website after Modi called FekuExpress and the site is still active! (Just Imagine if the BJP IT Cell started a site called pappugandhi.com ; it would break the records of facebook in a day) Their spokesperson Rajeev Gowda protested on TimesNow that Shehzada had “communal overtones”. Really? Does whining get any worse? That’s the most foolish reason he could come up with? Communal overtones? And Yuvraj is not communal? Because that is something the media has been calling RG for a long time. What about Prince or even Clown Prince? Only Shehzada has communal overtones? So it’s plain to see, whine about some mundane nonsense and play victim.
Abraham Lincoln was killed but nobody in the US says he spilled his blood for his country. JFK was killed but nobody says he spilled his blood for his country. Nobody in the US says these two presidents made “sacrifices”, do they? But this emotional blackmail is ingrained into our politics by none other than the original Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi used the technique of fasting unto death partly as emotional blackmail. The fake Gandhis do it better and even more routinely. IndiraG once said she would not regret if every drop of her blood was spilled for the country. Yet, she was one of the biggest dictators this country has ever seen. Very few talk about the background of the killings of IndiraG and RajivG. Let’s talk about it.
Operation Bluestar which was conducted under IndiraG is a sad chapter in Indian history. The storming of the Golden Temple to nail one guy was certainly excessive. Lot has been written about it. Bhindranwale is known as a monster created by IndiraG herself. But what is not often discussed is that post Bluestar many Sikh soldiers deserted the army. Some 2000 Sikh soldiers reportedly deserted. Some were killed and some were tried. We don’t know what happened after that. But given that emotions were running high and some Sikhs wanted IndiraG’s blood she continued to retain her Sikh bodyguards despite security advice against it. She didn’t listen. Her decision to retain them was noble but it was also emotional. The tragedy could have been avoided if she had been a little more rational. RajivG went on to get close to people and mingle and shake hands against the advice of his security. There was every possibility that post the SriLankan intervention he would be attacked or killed. He didn’t listen.

 

Is Rahul Gandhi listening? Haven’t you heard already that he has often sneaked up to places without knowledge of CMs? Haven’t you heard that he often breaks security rings to mingle with people? Does he listen? No! Threats exist against quite a few politicians which is why they need to stick to security routines. If there is one thing that RG should learn from his Daadi and Daddy it is that he should stick to these security advices and routines. He has shown signs that he hasn’t learned even that. In a leader, the personal grief and sorrows are expected to make him stronger and not whine for pity and sympathy. But our story-writers in the media and history writers are great at making emotional rescues. Sonia Gandhi declining the PM chair was hailed as a great “sacrifice” when it turns out that there might be other reasons and she found a great puppet to fiddle with.
It is this sympathy that got Congress the votes in 1984 and 1991. In the absence of performance, in the face of excessive corruption all that RG wants is to draw on emotions and hope some sympathy for him will get the votes for Congress again. My life has been a series of tragedies, please vote for me. He doesn’t want to talk about the institutions that SoniaG, he and the Congress have destroyed. Which brings us to an important question: Did the Congress ever really believe in Democracy? Since IndiraG took charge there has been no democracy within the party and I dare say the Congress has consistently destroyed democracy in the country too. So they call their opponents fascists, communal, Hitler and all of that because Modi has rattled them and threatens their grip on power. When asked about it, BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi bluntly told TimesNow that it’s Sonia’s father who was a Nazi who supported Fascist ideology. That is nothing but a fact. One could say that is hereditary for her but what about her predecessors?
Its high time India go forward. Leave 1947, 60 years have passed since then and our country literally stands no where. Its high time we need some high voltage debating on development and not on family politics. Enough is Enough, we need a new India with a new form of democracy- the Democracy of Development. This DoD is the only possible saver of SoS India. Thank you for reading.