Had the BJP been ruling with an iron hand, it would have been relegated to the dustbin of history after its first 5-year term. This did not happen
Rahul Gandhi's scathing invective against the government during the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address has garnered accolades in certain quarters.
In his speech, he makes sweeping generalizations about the incompetence of the current government, speculates on its malevolence and comes to the frightening conclusion that India today is in a near state of collapse-isolated from the outside, crumbling from the inside, as he puts it.
But do his arguments validate his conclusion?
First, he reiterates the usual cliché about two India's- one rich and the other poor but provides no proof to back his claim. He totally overlooks the poor centric projects of the government listed by the President namely the PM Awas Yojana, which has constructed 2 crore pucca houses or the 'Har Ghar Jal initiative', which has brought tapped water to 6 crore additional households since 2019; neither does he mention the digitalization that provided prompt monetary relief to crores of needy Indians during the pandemic.
The credibility of his pontifications hits a new low when he elaborates on the unemployment rate without factoring in the gargantuan impact of the pandemic.
Next he hectors the government on national administration invoking the concept of 'Union of States'.
He avers, "It is a partnership, not a kingdom…. Congress smashed the idea of a king in 1947, but now that has come back. There is a vision that India can be ruled by a stick from the Centre. Every time that has happened, the stick has been broken...,"
True, India cannot be ruled by the stick: a fact that the Congress learnt the hard way, when Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in 1975 and then suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1977 elections.
Had the BJP been ruling with an iron hand, it would have been relegated to the dustbin of history after its first 5-year term. This did not happen. In fact, the people returned the BJP to power under Modi with an even greater majority (303 vs 282) and a 37.4% vote share-the highest vote share by a single party in 30 years. Such spectacular results can only be attained by the people's concurrence not by a stick.
Next Rahul Gandhi rambles incoherently about suppression of languages and cultures with repeated references to Tamil Nadu. He says: "you people are confused. The problem is, you think that you can suppress these languages, these cultures, these histories…. You have no idea of history, you have no idea what you are dealing with, because the people of Tamil Nadu have inside their heart, the idea of Tamil Nadu, the idea of Tamil language and then the idea of India"
What exactly he is trying to convey beats me. It is undeniable that the current government is a strong advocate of our indigenous cultures and vernacular languages.
Also, Rahul Gandhi needs to know that it was the Congress Government's decision (under his great grandfather) to impose Hindi as the sole official language at the cost of Tamil that provoked the deadly anti-Hindi riots of 1965.
Shifting his attention to external affairs, Rahul sanctimoniously hypothesizes: "The strategic goal of India should have been to keep China and Pakistan separate. But what you have done is to bring them together."
Rahul Gandhi is clearly unaware that the unholy alliance between China and Pakistan is as old as the hills.
His unabashed sense of entitlement filters through when he tells us his great grandfather spent 15 years in jail, his grandmother was shot 32 times and his father was blown to bits.
Finally, he concludes on with a grim premonition of a doomsday scenario: "The nation is at risk from outside. The nation is at risk from inside ………completely isolated on the outside, fighting on inside, institutions captured, States not able to speak to each other. This worries me. It frightens me for my country……..."
What we see here is a bizarre alarmist rant. One man's desperation, frustration, ignorance and insecurities imprinted on a nation to project a picture of gloom and doom.
Our country was at risk in 1962 when the pacifist policies of the Congress Party almost resulted in China annexing the North East. The country was at risk from inside during the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984, And the country was at risk in 2008 when a paralyzed Congress government did nothing while terrorists attacked Mumbai and held our nation hostage.
Today India is stronger, more confident and more secure of its place in the world than it was nine years ago.
(The writer is an academic and political commentator based in the US. The views expressed are personal.)