 "When Rahul Gandhi stopped rolling up his sleeves ...")
Rahul Gandhi was enjoying the Treasury benches’ discomfiture. The jibes and targeted barbs about ‘Jijaji’– an obvious references to his brother-in-law Robert Vadra’s questionable land dealings in Haryana – did not deter him as he hit out at the Narendra Modi-led government on the Land Acquisition Bill twice within a period of seven days. Gandhi even goaded the BJP MPs with an “Aur bolo” (Say that again)
This appeared to be a Rahul Gandhi vastly different from the one who would earlier display typical signs of nervousness when speaking in public – he would roll up his kurta sleeves, start pacing the floor (as he did during his address at FICCI ), and blink repeatedly. But his recent Parliamentary performance has led many to label this version of him, post his 56 day sabbatical, Rahul Gandhi 2.0.
For the first time, perhaps, it appeared Gandhi was not reading lines scripted by someone else, using abstruse metaphors like the ‘escape velocity of Jupiter’ to champion Dalit empowerment or the ‘India as a beehive’ allusion at FICCI. He seemed to directly address his target audience in everyday speak. His “suit boot ki sarkaar” moniker for the Modi government appears to have caught on.
But for all the hype and hoopla about the so called RaGa 2.0, the crux of the matter is whether he will sustain this new found zeal and if he can translate this into reviving the Congress organisation at the grassroot level.
Gandhi, it might rightly be argued, still needs a well laid-out platform from where he puts across his views, be it “comeback” Kisaan rally at Ramlila Maidan or the floor of the Parliament. Of late, he seems to be warming to the idea of giving impromptu sound bites but it’s too early to say if he will continue doing so.
“It matters,” confesses a veteran party leader, about Rahul Gandhi’s new, vocal avatar. “Cadres are enthused especially those in remote parts of Assam, UP where they have little access to knowing what is happening centrally in the Congress except for the time when they see their leader Rahul Gandhi in the media raising an issue and it generating some reaction from the ruling party and government.”
Having seen occasional bursts of spontaneity from Gandhi in the past, what party leaders and cadres are now fervently hoping for is consistency. As a young Congressman put it: “What RG needs to do is hands on party work 24 x 7, nothing spectacular or even extraordinary.”
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Whether it be the ‘padayatras’ in Vidharbha and Telangana or the visits to the homes of distressed farmers, he has done it in the past as well – as in Bhatta Parsaul or Niyamgiri (fighting for tribal rights). But this time, apart from highlighting sporadically the two issues affecting the middle class – net neutrality and the Real Estate bill – Gandhi has done little that he has not done before.
However there have of late been glimpses of a change in the work ethic of the Gandhi scion. AICC Secretaries were surprised with the Congress vice president’s “focused” work attitude. At a meeting of party secretaries, he refused to hear out any (regular) complaints of factionalism, instead directing them to focus on reaching out to people and raising public issues.
Gandhi surprised many, including the journalists accompanying him at the trek up to Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand, when he outsprinted all of them including a younger Jitin Prasada. It was an identical scenario at the padyatra in the blistering heat in Vidarbha. A fitness enthusiast, Gandhi was known until about a few years ago to cycle with other young political colleagues but has now taken to cycling late at night to keep away from the prying cameras. He raised eyebrows when he travelled to Punjab, followed by a padyatra at Vidarbha, and then an interaction with flat buyers from NCR region, and was still back in Parliament the next day leaving no opportunity to attack the Modi government.
But it has been just a month since Gandhi returned in a more combative avatar, so the jury is still out whether he will be as effective in the long haul. Now that he has reportedly shaken off his earlier reluctance to taking up the mantle of the Congress party, it remains to be seen if Rahul Gandhi has the ability to lead and engineer a comeback of the Congress not just at the Centre but in the majority of states where it faces oblivion.