Rahul has increased his media presence and is suddenly very concerned with every matter after Congress lost in four state elections, largely due to him.
Failure in the four state elections even after opening its goodie bag has pushed the Congress party to a corner, for good. Now it is taking risks to such extents which it would not ever have imagined.
First it was able to put amendments to and pass the Lokpal Bill in the parliament. And second, it gave such a strong reply to US over its diplomatic breach of law which we missed when our former president was frisked at the New York airport last year.
At the same time, it gave us a spectacular view of the political and strategic moves which pivoted Congress vice-president and possible prime ministerial candidate to the right issues.
For once Rahul Gandhi looked like a serious politician and acted like one too. He increased media presence by briefing media twice on important issues like Lokpal Bill and Gay rights. His bonhomie with anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazarre led to the acceptance of the amendments in the Bill by the latter which meant a victory in itself.
The passage of the bill, however, should be credited to the opposition, after Anna of course, which decided not to stall it any further and pass it without a debate.
The urgency, with which Rahul dealt the matter, increasing his closeness with Anna, favoured the Congress other way round. It split Team Anna and former Team Anna way beyond repair. Also, it made him virtually own the Lokpal issue for few hours despite his no relation with the issue for so long.
The Congress party made no mistake and late in giving credit to their beloved ‘Sri Rahul Gandhiji’ for the same. Union minister Kapil Sibal, who tabled the bill in Rajya Sabha yesterday was seen in media thanking Rahul for his efforts of uniting the political parties over the matter.
Interestingly, he mentioned Anna in his brief interactions to many channels saying that his agitation had led us to such a landmark legislature. When in reality, he was the most agitated person when Anna had launched his campaign and had said that ‘one cannot hold government under a gun’.
From Salman Khurshid to Kamal Nath, everybody was praising Rahul for his efforts until BJP leader Sushma Swaraj intervened and snapped at Congress for trying to give the credit to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul when the real credit went to Anna.
But, the Rahul stole the media attention again by saying that he would seek extention to the winter session as six more important bills on corruption were pending in the parliament.
This whole promptness in Rahul Gandhi’s attitude tells us that he now no longer misunderstands the power of his opponent Narendra Modi and is leaving no stone unturned to beat down Arvind Kejriwal – the new hero in front of him. Needless to say, his party lost in the four states largely due to him and he is aware of it now very well.
However, this whole staying on toes exercise by Congress and Rahul does not mean that the public will accept him with open arms. It will give a sheer pleasure to the janta to see the Congress scion working hard towards winning them.
But for now, they will just enjoy it. Because they know the general elections are just around the corner.
