In India it has been quite an eventful few weeks for Rahul Gandhi, now Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, a constitutional post that gives him much more responsibility and an even greater profile. The Parliament session after the election results saw a fired up, aggressive Rahul take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
His first speech as Leader of the Opposition or LOP, put the government on the mat on a series of issues from the controversial Angiveer scheme for the armed forces, to exam paper leaks which have affected millions of students. Rahul Gandhi’s direct challenge to the BJP on Hinduism evoked a huge uproar from the treasury benches and an unusual intervention from the Prime Minister himself.
Ditching a formal kurta for his trademark white t shirt, the look he adopted on the ‘Bharat Jodo’ campaigns, Rahul Gandhi was in classic ‘angry young man’ mode on the floor of the house.
The Congress party’s tally, which nearly doubled to 99 seats, is far short of the BJP’s 240 but the Congress believes this is the beginning of a turnaround for them and the morale of the cadre and leadership has not been this high in a decade.
Manipur crisis
Which is why Rahul Gandhi’s aggression is not going to be limited to sharp exchanges in Parliament alone. That was amply clear as he made his way to the troubled state of Manipur this week, which has been mired in an ethic conflict since May last year. More than 200 people have died and yet barring a few words, the Prime Minister has said very little on the issue and not visited the state even once.
Manipur’s BJP Chief Minister Biren Singh has been widely criticised for his handling of the situation yet the BJP won’t remove him and he won’t resign.
It is not the PM’s style to be seen responding to criticism. This is what Rahul has seized on. As he visited relief camps in Manipur on Monday, he described what has happened in the state as a “tremendous tragedy” saying the Prime Minister should have visited long ago.
Imploring the Prime Minister to come visit even now, Rahul said the Congress would “support anything that would improve the situation”. Interestingly, this is Rahul Gandhi’s third visit to Manipur since the trouble began last year. The party won both Lok Sabha seats from the state.
Direct confrontation
As LOP, Rahul Gandhi is on important committees chaired by the Prime Minister which select officers for posts like the Lokpal and CBI Director. That means that Rahul Gandhi, who has been the subject of much ridicule and attack from the BJP over the years, will be sitting in committee meetings with the Prime Minister, putting them in direct confrontation.
It is quite ironic how the wheel has turned so much in the last 10 years. The BJP drove a hard campaign to project Rahul Gandhi as the simpleton of Indian politics. But it was very clear that he also got under their skin. Anything he said would attract a series of rebuttals from senior party leaders and ministers. Today, he is the Leader of the Opposition and an even bigger thorn in the BJP’s side.
With the BJP government falling short of a majority on its own, the opposition knows it has to seize this moment put the BJP on the mat. Bread and butter issues that affect people need strong voices to articulate them. The first test of how this strategy fares will be this October when state elections take place in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.
Priyanka Gandhi’s expected entry to Parliament will make the political scene even more interesting. The Gandhi family has been the biggest political opponents of the PM. Now they will all face off in Parliament.
