Rahul Gandhi’s Akhilesh moment

The latest issue of Sandesh magazine has just landed at my doorstep. And true to Congress functioning, the delay in getting the party’s message across to people has meant a huge faux pas in its editorial line. The colourful cover of the just-released February issue has happy pictures of the A-Team, Sonia, Rahul and Manmohan with the headline ‘Utho Jago Badlo, Congress Resurgent in Uttar Pradesh.’ Obviously, the issue was meant to be homage to what they thought was a sure shot route to celebrate Rahul Gandhi’s success, which was very flexible from the outset. But it’s turned out to be quite a telling edition of the delusion the party’s suffering from today.

I wonder if Rahul has ever flipped through the pages of his party’s mouthpiece. If he does bother to go through the 20-odd pages every time, then this particular one may be quite helpful as it loyally reports every theme he ever brought up during his campaign.

Themes that he was advised were working like magic dust on the junta. Take one like this, for example, which has been made into a blurb in Sandesh - ‘I want the mosquitoes to bite me like they bite you in order to understand your pain.’ What kind of talk is that for an election speech? I mean, do you really want the buzz on the ground or in the local chai shops to be that Rahul Gandhi came and he wants a piece of our malaria pain or that he wants to welt up like we do every evening? Doesn’t Rahul Gandhi know that malaria is still one of the biggest killers in India and the least that anyone can expect is that if he can’t offer a solution to the disease, he shouldn’t at least bring it up in this cruel way?

Maybe the problem was that Rahul Gandhi was just too honest, too practical, which is why Sandesh quotes him as saying, ‘Please do not support Rahul Gandhi if you expect changes will happen in just two days. I cannot change anything in two days.’ He didn’t tell the same audience at Bhadohi just how long he needed to change things, to get rid of all the mosquito infestation but later he tells people in his main rival Akhilesh Yadav’s Kannauj constituency that he needs 10 years. As it turns out, that promise just wasn’t good enough for the people in Bhadohi, or in Bundelkhand, or Bareilly and the 200 other places he went travelling to in these last three months. All these people there, like the people in other parts of the country, were too impatient for change and they wanted instant fixes and apart from showing them the instance of the central government, which didn’t look too ‘shining,’ Rahul G had no other solution.

If he does flip through this edition of Sandesh, I have a suggestion for him. I think he should look at this, and everything it stands for, and tear it up much like that now infamous moment when he tore up the SP manifesto. Yes, everyone took the micky out of him for that moment and Akhilesh also ribbed him a bit by suggesting that Rahul should be careful, otherwise he’ll be jumping off the stage but sometimes, anger is good. Let’s not forget that Rahul started his campaign in Phulpur with that Angry Young Man poster that had a lone image of him with the words jawab hum denge. Let’s also not forget that one of the turning points for the SP was when Akhilesh got angry that his wife, Dimple lost her election to a political nobody like Raj Babbar. Akhilesh later revealed that it was a turning point for him and the moment he decided to change his politics, to rid his party of the likes of Amar Singh. And three years later, his anger has turned into something productive like this simple majority.

So, maybe this is RG’s Akhilesh moment. The time when he gets angry and uses that energy to lift the lumbering, slumbering Congress party out of the last century. We were there when he walked out to meet the press this week and even though he was smiling, it was evident from his stooped shoulders, forced laughter and smile, that this defeat had taken a lot out of him. We saw how he only had his family for support, his sister looking on as he took the blame. But he needs to chin up, take a cue from his mum who’s already pointed out there were way too many people, most of them inefficient, in Uttar Pradesh. Most of the people they relied on couldn’t deliver, so like the way Akhilesh got rid of Mohan Singh for even suggesting a criminal like DP Yadav, Rahul maybe needs to start sacking people. And if that happened now, if that’s the way the anger plays out, no one will be laughing or mocking him. Yes, Rahul Gandhi, do get angry but get even better.

Sunetra Choudhury is an anchor/reporter for NDTV and is the author of the election travelogue Braking News

On Twitter: @sunetrac