“Process systems youngsters RTI RTI RTI women RTI systems process structures RTI women women youngsters women RTI Aadhar systems process RTI.”
-A 140-character summary by writer Sadanand Dhume of some 13,000 words exchanged between Rahul Gandhi and anchorman Arnab Goswami on Monday night.
As a political agnostic, I wonder what Rahul Gandhi’s PR ninjas have between their ears. Why on earth did they let their star client into a long interview with Arnab Goswami!
Personally, I didn’t find Arnab worth the hype. ‘Thank God,’ one can hear the Congress say. But an anchorman is a footnote. So, this isn’t about him having a bad day out. The make-or-break character for economic sentiment is about the man who sat on the left side of our screens.
And how little did the star guest have to say on rebuilding India’s economy, despite what we hear, a Cambridge degree in development economics and 9 years of field experience since the degree reportedly came his way.
Sample the question on inflation.
Arnab: Mr. Gandhi, about price rise and you got a round of applause when you spoke about the lPG cylinders, you told the PM quite charmingly - that Mr. PM please make things less difficult for households. But I’m questioning your silence all these years, because in this period from 2004-2013 the wholesale price index of food goes up by 157 per cent, vegetables by 350 per cent and Onions by 521 per cent, you don’t speak on that. When Raj Babbar says you can get food at 12 rupees a meal, you don’t speak then, when Rashid Masood says you can get food at 5 rupees a meal you don’t speak then, the accusation there is and the general feeling Mr. Rahul Gandhi is that you have really woken up to the issue after the 4-0 drubbing in the last State election, do you concede thatIJ
Rahul Gandhi’s replyIJ
“No, I think women are the backbone of this country and women need to be empowered and I felt that price rise is an issue cylinders were a big issue, I went to Kerala and I go a sense that women were concerned about that and I made that view clear to everybody.”
Wondering if he heard the question, Arnab persists: “But you didn’t intervene earlierIJ”
“I have been working with the PM on the price rise issue, I have been in discussions with him and we have taken steps in our states, where we have called the Chief Ministers and we have taken steps where we have actually reduced the prices of vegetables in our States, so it is not that I just woke up, it is that I have been working on it systematically. But what I really feel that we need to start looking at empowering women, bringing them in and listening to them.”
So, inflation, dear reader is about empowering women! At least, so says the prepared tutorial!
By now, the nation’s self-appointed anchorman is worn down. “Did UPA-2 let you down on prices,” he asks.
Rahul: “Prices are a reality...” Full stop. Not a word more!
It’s 90 minutes into the interview. Arnab is visibly unsure where this has gone. “You called my specific questions superficial. I, with respect disagree. I feel my questions are specific and you need to answer the specific questions as specifically as possible,” he pleads.
Time to reload the tutorial on women; only with ‘manufacturing’ as the new angle: “You’re more than welcome to ask these questions. But let’s also move the debate to a place where we’re actually reaching towards fundamentals. What should be the role of women in this countryIJ How can we enhance their roleIJ How do we bring jobs to millions of people. Every single person who comes to me from abroad, Japan, France, Germany, America and tell me ‘listen, we need an alternative to Chinese manufacture’. We’re very happy with what the Chinese give us, but we need another port. There’s global energy saying we want to move manufacturing to India.”
Sensing some sense, Arnab rebutts: “I asked you that question during the course of the interview. Did UPA Government let you downIJ Because Mr. Rahul Gandhi, when foreign investors want to invest in India, they want a clean investing environment. They don’t want crony capitalism. They do not need scams. They do not need ministers who behave like Govts exist on their rent. They do not need the A Rajas and the Aircel Maxis scams. The climate Mr. Rahul Gandhi has become vitiated with corruption. And, therefore, the answer to that is and I really want you to address this. If you had spoken out earlier, and lets bring this interview to a finality. If you had spoken out on these issues earlier, perhaps today we would not be in a situation where India is not the preferred investment destination. You get my pointIJ”
And the answerIJ
“Actually, the RTI right, has basically changed the game in India. What it has done, is that it has basically opened up the structures. And what used to be hidden, can no longer be hidden. That’s the bottom line. The bottom line is large number of corruption issues that were hidden, that nobody would have found out about, came out because of the RTI. We did that. Now please go to our Opposition States, please go to their States and ask them if they have RTI Commissioners. The issue here is very simple. The issue is do you want an open systemIJ Do you want a system where these things are out in the openIJ Or do you want a closed system where these things are hiddenIJ”
So, now we know why Sadanand Dhume hit bulls eye on #PappuNomics in just 140 characters! And why Victor Mallet of the Financial Times quoted him in a grim report to the world’s investors, “Gandhi ridiculed after lacklustre TV showing.”
(The columnist is CEO & Co-Founder, India Strategy Group, Hammurabi & Solomon Consulting. Tweets @therohitbansal)