IThe Indian Parliament this week saw fiery speeches from both the ruling party and the opposition. And not long after, the Treasury was responding to a narrative set by the opposition. After the first few days of the budget session were washed out due to opposition protests, the House resumed on 7 February, and the “speech of the day” was that of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Back from a 4080-km walk spread over nearly 150 days, Rahul Gandhi criticized the Narendra Modi government on unemployment, price rise and Agneepath scheme from his experience of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. But Gandhi’s 49-minute speech was an all-out attack on PM Modi for his alleged collusion with business tycoon Gautam Adani. From showing a picture of Modi and Adani together in an aircraft to raising pointed questions on the number of foreign projects awarded to the Adani group after Modi’s foreign visits, observers say this is Gandhi’s most controversial statement in his two-decade-long tenure. Can be a good Lok Sabha speech. as an MP.
This was followed by 18 excerpts from Gandhi’s speech – references to the PM and Adani – to erase From parliamentary records. By the time the budget session was over, BJP big guns like Nishikant Dubey, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kiren Rijiju attacked Gandhi in the House, pulling no punches. And unlike what the Congress has done in the past, Modi also hit the pitch mocking Gandhi’s successor in two speeches in two days, though without naming him. After a long time Congress was batting on a pitch made for itself and BJP was forced to play with them.
And that’s why Rahul Gandhi’s speech is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
Read also: You saw a new Rahul Gandhi in Parliament. I saw the change in Kashmir itself
rahul vs modi personality contest
While even his harshest critics see Rahul’s ‘new’ avatar as a fiery opposition leader, they also point to his many attempts at ‘rebranding’ himself. After Modi’s speech in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi said the PM was “surprised” and therefore did not respond to any of his allegations of collusion with Adani.
Politically, another important thing to note will be the nature of Rahul’s attacks and Modi’s response. While Rahul spoke of Modi rewarding Adani for his “loyalty”, Adani used India’s 140 crore people as his shield.
“Blessings of 140 crore Indians are mine Safety armorModi said.
The implication was that criticism of Modi was an attack on the collective conscience of the entire nation. Modi used the almost cult-like following he had gathered over nine years as his biggest weapon. Without naming Rahul Gandhi, he stuck to the general themes he has attacked over the years – ‘nepotism’, ‘corruption’ and ‘misgovernance’.
The dynamics of BJP’s response is also interesting. While Smriti Irani attacked Rahul Gandhi for not doing any work in Amethi, where he was a three-time MP, Rijiju accused him of ‘disrespecting’ the reputation of the House by making ‘baseless allegations’. Ravi Shankar Prasad, meanwhile, brought up Robert Vadra, Rahul’s brother-in-law, and accused the Congress of facilitating Vadra’s rise in wealth, just as Rahul had accused the BJP of helping Adani accelerate his rise to the world’s third-richest person. Helping to move forward. While Rahul was named in all these attacks and parts of his speech were directly quoted, Modi referred to India’s ‘lost era’ from 2004 to 2014 (the period when the Congress-led UPA was at the centre). Decade’. He then compared it with his tenure. Which he called the ‘Decade of India’.
The message was clear – Modi was of the people and for the people, and Gandhi was just trying to tarnish his reputation, and attack the country in the process. While Modi chose the weakest link in the Congress to launch his attack, Rahul Gandhi chose to take on the BJP’s MVP. While it is too early to talk about its electoral impact, it shows that Gandhi still has a long way to go in this personality contest.
Read also: Modi is opening BJP for minorities. For this we can thank Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra
How far can Congress take the Adani issue?
Ever since the US-based Hindenburg Research report on the Adani group was brought into the public domain, the Congress has been reiterating that Rahul Gandhi had ‘foreseen’ Adani’s fate. He has been talking about it for years, even in his election speeches in Gujarat, Adani’s home ground.
Congress has since the report launched All his communications since a daily ‘Hum Adani ke Hain Koun’ protest series and reports have been largely about Adani. But do citizens understand Adani’s case? Even Congress functionaries privately say that the allegations against Adani are not easily understood. Congress tried to connect the issue with the public by highlighting the issues of LIC exposure Adani Group. They protested outside LIC offices saying that middle class policyholders will lose their money due to Modi-Adani nexus. But look at the numbers and one will know that this angle is a non-starter. LIC’s money stuck in Adani shares is less than 1% of the corporation’s total assets under management, According To LIC chief MR Kumar.
A senior Congress leader argued that the public does not even understand the so-called 2G ‘scam’. But it backfired and ruined the UPA.
As Professor Chandrachud Singh of Hindu College pointed out on ThePrint’s Political Adda show, ‘corruption’ can take many forms. Most people may not understand white-collar fraud, as the Congress is accusing Adani of, but something like the CWG scam makes more sense to them. The syntax is simple to understand – a major, global event happened in India, and politicians in the ruling party made money out of it.
How the Congress takes the Modi-Adani issue forward will be a matter to be seen. Will it be able to sustain the pressure or will it be forgotten like the Vyapam scam? With the 2024 Lok Sabha elections being almost a year away, it is time for the Congress to find its main poll issue to latch onto now and then.
(Edited by Prashant)