Rahul Gandhi breaks silence, sounds confused
It was meant to be a master-stroke in public relations, but the one-on-one interaction of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on a leading television news channel turned out to be a disaster for both Mr Gandhi and the party. Telecast on Monday, the interview saw the Congress's tallest leader after the party president at his unsure best, fumble and deviate from the questions he was posed. His biggest faux pas was to categorically hold Mr Narendra Modi guilty for the 2002 violence in Gujarat. It did not matter to him that a Special Investigation Team monitored by the Supreme Court has exonerated Mr Modi in the only case that was brought against the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate. It did not occur to him that a court has upheld the findings of the SIT. Or perhaps it did, but he still insisted on levelling the baseless allegation. That Mr Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat when the incident took place is enough material for the Congress vice president to implicate him. By that logic, Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister when the anti-Sikh riots broke out, claiming thousands of innocent lives in Delhi and elsewhere in the country. Therefore, Rajiv Gandhi too stands guilty of the killings! But Mr Rahul Gandhi does not see the analogy. In fact, he insisted that there is no comparison between the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 2002 incident in Gujarat. In the first case, he claimed, the Congress regime worked to contain the killings, while in the second, the State Government promoted the mayhem. Both the contentions are flawed, and his accusation is all the more grave given that it comes without any legal evidence. It must not be forgotten that Mr Gandhi considers legality an important factor when charges are slapped on political leaders of the Congress. For instance, he brushed aside the involvement of Mr Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh Housing Society scam and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in accepting favours from a private organisation, on the ground that the law will takes its course. The law has taken its course in Mr Modi's case, and he has been exonerated. So, why is Mr Gandhi not acknowledging thatIJ The law has not been able to take its course in the case of prominent leaders of his party who were allegedly involved in the massacre of Sikhs in 1984, because his party has continued to place obstacles in the way of justice. In fact, even soon after the horrific incidents, some tainted leaders were rewarded with ministerial berths in the Union Cabinet.
All through the interview, Mr Rahul Gandhi sought to duck direct questions that he found uncomfortable, and resorted to diversionary tactics by raking up the issues of women's empowerment, Right to Information, lokpal and the rest — the credit for all of which he bestowed on himself. He claimed he had played a major role in the drafting of the RTI and the lokpal legislations. He forgets the Opposition’s inputs and the fact that without the Opposition’s support, none of these Acts would have seen the light of the day. Instead of boasting, Mr Gandhi should have told the people why he remained publicly silent in the midst of the many scams that his party's Government has presided over in the last 10 years, especially since he claims to have no tolerance for corruption.