Rahul Gandhi's Politics Of The Street Wins New Fans

Rahul Gandhi's aggressive street politics is giving him a fresh political edge, but overplaying his role could hurt his credibility with the wider opposition, predicts M R Narayan Swamy.

I have never been a fan of Rahul Gandhi. But I concede the Congress leader is increasingly gaining wider acceptability with a new found aggression against a regime which now looks fumbling most of the time.

While politicians normally tend to have their voters in mind when they do something, Rahul Gandhi's ability to force the Delhi police to file a FIR over the firing of pellets at the Jantar Mantar protestors is a rare occasion when a national level politician took on a mighty State in favour of an unknown individual.

The Jantar Mantar Turning Point

It was on July 20 when the police and paramilitary forces cracked down most viciously on thousands of youth denouncing leaks of question papers and demanding the education minister's resignation.

Besides teargasing the students and thrashing them with nail-fitted lathis, security personnel -- the identity of who did this is not known yet -- fired pellets into the mob, causing serious injuries to nearly a dozen young people.

One such unfortunate victim was Sahil Lochab, who has lost vision in one eye. He bears pellet injuries elsewhere on his body too.

The police adamantly refused to file a FIR until Gandhi stormed into the Parliament Street police station and staged a seven-hour protest, refusing to leave until his demand was met.

The televised police capitulation -- following instructions from 'higher-ups' -- dramatically elevated Rahul Gandhi in the eyes of millions across India.

The Gandhi scion came across as a leader who could deftly combine parliamentary politics with the power of the street.

In normal times, the Parliament Street siege could have been ignored. But India is passing through an abnormal era where the central government has taken upon itself not to bend at any cost, however legitimate a demand.

It was the second time the Modi government stooped after forcing Dharmendra Pradhan to quit as education minister in a desperate move to end the mass protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party.

Ever since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, Gandhi has had a tough time navigating the political currents.

With the Congress reduced to a pale shadow of its original self, he found it very difficult to come out of his mother Sonia Gandhi's shadow and establish a standing of his own.

Modi and Amit Shah did not make it easy for him. They and the Bharatiya Janata Party constantly lampooned him.

There was a perennial clamour from within and outside the Congress that the Gandhis must give up the leadership of India's oldest political party.

Despite personal setbacks (he was defeated from Amethi in 2019 but won from Wayanad in Kerala), Rahul Gandhi refused to give up. But for long he was caught in a political whirlpool, struggling not to drown.

A theory was floated -- many believe it -- that the BJP found it advantageous to have Rahul Gandhi pitted against the prime minister because the comparison showed Modi in positive light.

This began to change in the run up to the 2024 parliamentary election, which the BJP thought would rout the Opposition like never before.

The outcome was a stunner. The BJP failed to get a simple majority in the Lok Sabha while the Congress, fighting against great odds, almost touched 100 seats.

The 2024 contest -- when Rahul Gandhi won decisively from two Lok Sabha seats while Modi's victory margin plunged in Varanasi -- gave him a morale booster he badly needed.

Even though the BJP swung back with a string of electoral victories in states even as the Opposition alliance floundered, Rahul Gandhi remained belligerent, attacking and on the offensive, giving the government a tough time in the Lok Sabha. All discontent in the Congress died down.

Impact of the Cockroach Protests

But it needed Jantar Mantar to change everything, most significantly and theatrically.

The cockroach protests punctured Modi. In just 36 days, more so after a fasting Sonam Wangchuk was forcibly taken to a hospital and security forces unleashed savagery, an iron fortress of 12 years suddenly turned into a pricked balloon.

The government almost crashed to its knees. The Jantar Mantar show of strength galvanised the people as much as the splintered Opposition, the Congress included.

Note that Rahul Gandhi showed no affinity for the CJP when it launched its protest in Delhi.

Indeed, the Congress kept a safe distance because many in the party felt that the CJP was a creation of the government or the Aam Aadmi Party, to which some of its leading lights belonged.

It was only a day after the widely denounced security crackdown at Jantar Mantar that Rahul Gandhi plunged into the movement with a showpiece demonstration outside the prime minister's residence. He has not looked back since then.

Thanks to Modi's and Amit Shah's decision to abstain from the Lok Sabha after July 20, Rahul Gandhi and the Opposition virtually dominated Parliament, for once overshadowing a normally overbearing BJP.

Suddenly, it looked like everything the BJP was doing was bolstering Rahul Gandhi -- a dramatic recast of the earlier times when the Congress leader's antics looked like providing oxygen to the ruling dispensation.

The BJP did not endear itself to democratic minded people, the young included, by portraying Dharmendra Pradhan as a hero after his Cabinet exit.

The decision to pursue police cases against those who turned up at Jantar Mantar -- and their hounding by pro-BJP trolls -- has helped Rahul Gandhi to win more public support.

At the same time, silent frictions are visible between the Congress and CJP camps.

This will have a bearing on Rahul Gandhi's political future, if not immediately then in the long run.

It is clear that the Congress is keeping a distance from the CJP, still not sure which way the latter will ultimately go.

Separately, student protests have erupted in parts of the country over the condition of schools and more, issues focussed by the CJP. But the CJP is not leading most of these agitations.

Simultaneously, pro-Congress YouTube journalists are giving the impression that it is Rahul Gandhi who has become the magnet for youths across India, and that he has already dimmed the newly-founded CJP. This is where the danger lies for Rahul Gandhi.

The fact remains that the Opposition and Rahul Gandhi overall were in a dormant state vis-à-vis the government despite his political aggression until the Jantar Mantar explosion turned Indian politics upside down.

While Rahul Gandhi has certainly addressed and spoken about students in the past too, he will be mistaken to hog or even look like hogging the limelight post Jantar Mantar, eclipsing the cockroaches.

Rahul Gandhi is scoring political points now because of his stature as the designed Leader of the Opposition and because he leads the biggest Opposition party.

The bitter reality is that the condition and quality of government schools deteriorated across the country when the Congress ruled India. And there was mass anger against the Congress government over a variety of issues.

Kisan Baburao 'Anna' Hazare was not the reason the Congress lost the plot; he was a visible trigger.

This is one key reason the AAP swept Delhi in 2015 and 2020.

One of the AAP's biggest and unmatched achievements was overhauling government schools in the national capital in a manner few had thought it was possible.

Just as Modi keeps condemning the Opposition as if the latter can do no good to the country, Rahul Gandhi has taken a negative line towards some Opposition parties he feels have disrupted the Congress in various states.

The way the Congress dumped the DMK after Vijay's TVK stormed to power in Tamil Nadu shocked even those who had no love for the Dravidian outfit. This was despite the fact that the DMK was one of the most loyal allies of the Congress.

It is not that the Congress just politically opposes the CPI-M or AAP. Congress leaders take a vicarious pleasure when the government moves against CPI-M and AAP leaders.

The Congress is making a mistake if it feels it can be absolved of the many ills which plagued the country over the decades.

The BJP may decline further but Rahul Gandhi needs to be more accommodative -- like Sonia Gandhi was ahead of 2014 -- if he aspires to build a genuine, broad-based democratic movement.

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff