2019 elections: Reluctant Rahul Gandhi turns Shiv bhakt - takes on Modi for Hindu vote

 Comment: 

Rahul Gandhi is the president of the Congress Party  -- he has been in politics for nearly 15 years; his father, grandmother and great grandfather all ruled India as Prime Ministers.

Gandhi was born and brought up in the public eye yet India is still puzzled as to what he stands for.

Gandhi has been seen in varying avatars. Currently he is the ‘Shiv bhakt’ undertaking the arduous and gruelling Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. He took a vow to undertake this pilgrimage after a near-death escape. 

This Gandhi avatar has the upset the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) no end as it endears Gandhi to the convinced Hindu voter, which the BJP considers its fiefdom.

In his earlier avatar, Gandhi would often portray himself as the ‘angry young man’ complete with a day-old stubble and rolled up kurta sleeves out to change the Congress system.

Perhaps, age –  Gandhi is 47 and the irony of the privileged dynast out to change the system, which had placed him as a precious heirloom at the apex — dawned on him and he jettisoned that avatar.

The BJP under Modi and Shah expended enormous resources on an industrial scale to ensure that brand Gandhi was devalued as they projected him as "Pappu" (buffoon).

The BJP IT cell produced lies, jokes and memes to convince India that Gandhi was a ‘Pappu’ as I revealed in my investigative book ‘I Am a Troll: Inside the BJP’s secret digital Army’.

However, the obsessive attacks on Gandhi made by the BJP have ensured that the ‘Pappu’ image is history.

Consider this: the BJP fields 17 Cabinet ministers on an average after every Gandhi attack to convince people that Gandhi is “irrelevant” and a “failed dynast”. 

Gandhi is now taken seriously because he is the only politician in India who has been consistent in his opposition to Modi.

Even in his "love guru" avatar when he crossed the aisles in Parliament and delivered the ambush hug to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi was trying to showcase his brand of inclusive Hinduism as opposed to the Hindutva agenda of the BJP.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi hugs Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his speech in the Lok Sabha. (July, 2018 - PTI)

Gandhi has upped his social media game to catch up with the 900-pound gorilla BJP and has been consistently targeting Modi on the billion-dollar Rafale deal, which he alleges was done personally by Modi to award a sweetheart deal to a billionaire crony.

The Congress is trying to ensure that the BJP cannot lay sole claim to the Hindu voter. This led senior leader Randeep Surjewala to say that Gandhi was a “janeu wearing Brahmin” (sacred thread).

Modi has a track record now of low to mediocre governance. His demonetisation was an utter disaster, the rupee is hitting new lows against the dollar and petrol prices are at an historic high. The agrarian crisis is spinning out of control, and there are no jobs for the army of young people looking for employment.