Virendra Kapoor
Rahul Gandhi's speech in Parliament is always widely noticed.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party pays utmost attention, if only to shred it both inside and outside Parliament, scoring political points against the de facto boss of the Congress party.
In the process, it also seeks to further burnish Rahul's public image as an inexperienced and immature leader who cannot be trusted with the arduous task of governing this diverse and difficult land of over 1.3 billion problems.
While constantly claiming that the Congress is increasingly irrelevant to the ordering of the nation's affairs, the BJP nonetheless seems to look forward to Rahul's public interventions, picking on each word uttered by the 51-year-old young leader, often twisting his words or seizing upon an ill-chosen phrase or construction to mock him.
From the prime minister down to the last back-bencher on the treasury benches they poke fun at Rahul for his half-baked ideas, amplifying them on social media to strengthen the impression that the Gandhi dynast is beyond redemption.
In the last speech in the Lok Sabha, Rahul played straight into the waiting hands of the ruling party.
Whatever the intention, clarity of words in public speaking is important.
By seemingly questioning the popular belief that India was a nation, and arguing instead that, as the Constitution calls it, it is a mere Union of States, Rahul opened himself for a vicious attack from all and sundry.
Modi tore into Rahul's notion of a no-nation, citing umpteen historical references from ancient scriptures to the freedom movement to support the claim that India that is Bharat was a nation long before the country became independent.
To suggest that the Constitution alone, and overnight, bound together the states in a single union was to ignore the centuries of shared cultural, spiritual, economic and even political experiences of her people.
Yes, India was a nation before it became a Constitutional entity.
Anyway, our purpose here was limited to point out that the Gandhi sibling seems to be constantly at pain to proclaim that he is not the ‘Pappu' that he is supposed to be in the wider popular perception.
Clearly, all that mocking and ridicule has got to him, consciously or unconsciously egging him to counter it by proving that, on the contrary, he is indeed a very wise and intellectually sharp mind, keenly engaging with ideas and philosophies.
In other words, all that public mocking has got under his skin, obliging him to try and prove that he is a well-read, deep-thinking person grappling with serious issues.
Hence the frequent references to the Idea of India or the Union of States not being a nation.
The sooner the Congress boss realises that he is far from being the intellectual which he seems at pains to portray in his speeches, and invariably ends up making an utter fool of himself, the better for him.
In the political arena you don't seek success by talking over the head of the common man.
No, successful politicians cleverly work out the lowest common denominator for the aam aadmi while saving the cerebral for the select audiences.
Addressing the nation in Parliament requires a pointed attack on the widely perceived failings of the incumbent rulers rather than an esoteric discourse on the idea of India and nationhood.
Meanwhile, Rahul's sister Priyanka Vadra, who is considered better than the brother in measuring her words, did slip up the other day.
And immediately invited a fusillade of sharp invective from BJP trolls.
At a press conference on the campaign trail in UP, when asked about the hijab row in Karnataka, she said, ‘Whether it is a bikini, a ghoonghat, a pair of jeans or a hijab, it is a woman's right to decide what to wear.'
Even if the intention was not to suggest that college-going girls can go in a bikini, this is exactly what was deduced from her words, especially when the hijab row was still raging.
Lesson for the Gandhi siblings: Measure each word you utter in public. Rediff.com
