The light of love …..

There should be no hesitation in condemning the remarksagainst the slain former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, even though these were inthe thick of an election campaign. And there should be no hesitation inwelcoming the response of his son Rahul Gandhi, who is also in the thick of thesame campaign but refused to be provoked or go down to the level of his seniorand more experienced opponent, the Prime Minister of India. The remark is onethat will upset if not infuriate many Indians and will remain testimony to howbitter this election has become. Just when many might have thought thatstandards could fall no further, this particular comment has taken the discourseto a new low.

For many, the remark referring to the death of Rajiv Gandhiand his legacy will bring back memories of that horrific day on May 21, 1991,when late in the evening news trickled down that the former Prime Minister waskilled by a suicide squad of LTTE operatives in Sriperumbudur, where he was onthe trail of a campaign for elections that many had reckoned he would win. Onephase of polling was done; the second phase was postponed for a while to keeppeace and calm after the assassination. In the end, the Congress won 36.26 percent of the vote and a total of 232 seats against the BJP’s 120 seats and 20.11per cent of the votes polled. It is an acknowledged position that there was aswing in favour of the Congress in constituencies that went to the polls afterRajiv Gandhi was killed. In his death, he gave a new lease of life to theCongress, a party that was not particularly strong but was still poised toreturn to power. That is what gave us the minority government of P V NarasimhaRao, with Dr. Manmohan Singh as finance minister and the launch of the economicreforms. In voting for the Congress, history and the people of India recordedthat they saw Rajiv Gandhi as a leader whose killing brought a sense of loss,anger and pain.  Even for those who mighthave held Rajiv Gandhi culpable in the mass of allegations around the Boforsgun, his death brought that conversation to an end. That is the Indian way –not to speak ill of the dead, to forgive and to let bygones be bygones.

   

These are timeless Indian values that Rahul Gandhi has takenin well with his message of love for the Prime Minister, in return for thelatter’s extreme hatred for Rahul’s father. In a tweet that is now the stuff ofheadlines, Rahul Gandhi wrote: “Modi-ji, the battle is over. Your Karmaawaits you. Projecting your inner beliefs about yourself onto my father won’tprotect you. All my love and a huge hug. Rahul.” The words are strong, powerfuland they take down the offender in a manner little else can. They also showcaseRahul Gandhi as a politician who, while he is still surrounded by the typicalCongress leader of yesteryear, carries the capacity to listen to saner voicesand take the discourse someplace higher.

This one tweet is unlikely to breakthrough and cut across theimage of a leader who is portrayed as being not ready, so much so that a lot ofthe arguments offered in favour of the Modi-Shah combine hinge around thesuggestion that the alternative cannot be Rahul Gandhi. He was regarded as anovice, a late starter who never did well in the school of politics, right fromthe beginning, and not about to pick up any day soon. But this election, forcedas he is in the centre stage of the battle, Rahul Gandhi has been able to chipaway at that image and present himself as a credible alternative. Not everyonebuys that but the upswing in the image, the presentation and the content is allthere. Messages like the one on love for the Prime Minister fit rather wellinto this fabric because Rahul Gandhi stands more and more apart form the angryfaces of the ruling party. That he can smile, that he can speak to a variety ofchannels and media houses through the election season and that he is differentform the crop of leaders, all work in his favour. The power of his kind of messagingcannot be underestimated at a time of extreme bitterness in the politicaldiscourse. This opens up the path for a younger leader who has a very differentapproach to the hard and stern view of the world that the BJP leadershiprepresents.

The BJP has ben unable to see that its face fires only theconverted and turns away all those on the margins who must be won over if thiselection is to turn to their advantage. In that, bitter comments like the oneon Rajiv Gandhi stand out for the damage they can do. This time, they havebrought new energy to the Congress campaign, brought a whole range of leadersout in support of the Congress and built new prospects of all of them workingtogether in case the BJP falls short of the required numbers. The remarksfurther show that the BJP leadership is under pressure, that the campaignagainst the Rafale deal is gaining ground and that the Congress sharp focus onallegations around the deal are hurting where they intend to. Worse, the BJPisn’t able to back-off, either because aggression is the only way the partymachinery runs or because others are jumping in to be seen in the support oftheir leader. The effect is more damaging where the deal should be to cutlosses and try and forget about the ugly remarks and in fact even apologise forthem. The damage is probably as bad as was seen when Mani Shankar Aiyerremarked in 2014 on camera that Modi, the chaiwallah, can never become thePrime Minister – derisiveness gone berserk that surely cost the Congress manyvotes.

About one year ago, as a part of Buddha Jayanticelebrations, the Prime Minister Modi himself spoke on the subject of love andcompassion. He said, “In order to save the world from the impending danger, itis indispensable to follow the message of love and compassion…Lord Buddha hadalso said that one can gain strength only by walking on this path.” It isinteresting that Rahul Gandhi is walking that path and he appears to haveunderstood the words that Modi spoke: “Life is not about winning battles withdestruction, violence and hatred. Life means winning over hatred, violence andinjustice with friendship and compassion.”

(The author is a journalist and a faculty member at SPJIMR.Views are personal) (The Billion Press)

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