“Berozgari hai? Yuvao ko rozgar mil raha hai? Kisaano ko sahi daam mil raha hai? Karza maaf hua? Achhe din aa gaye?” (Is there unemployment? Is the youth getting jobs? Are farmers getting the right price? Were their loans waived? Have ‘Achhe Din’ come?).”
These are the questions with which Rahul Gandhi began his speech in Maharashtra’s Latur on Sunday, 13 October. This was his first major public rally after he quit as the president of the Congress party on 2 July, and it is significant that he chose to begin his address with questions about the economy.
He addressed two other rallies in Maharashtra on Sunday – in Dharavi and Chandivali in Mumbai – and in both these rallies, he began his speeches by talking about the economy. The same thing happened in Haryana’s Nuh in on Monday.
In Nuh, he went to the extent of calling PM Modi the “loudspeaker of Adani and Ambani” on Monday 14 October.
Gandhi’s speeches in the four rallies were almost entirely focused on targetting the Narendra Modi-led government on economic issues such as unemployment, agrarian distress, crisis in small scale industries, Goods and Services Tax, effects of demonetisation, bank defaulters and so on.
Even when he brought up the BJP’s “divisive politics” he somehow connected it to the economy.
Another clear narrative that Gandhi appears to be putting forward is that of the Modi government harming India’s poor to help a few rich individuals.
This indicates that Gandhi’s attacks on the Modi government in the near future might be focused on economic issues. Several aspects of Gandhi’s speeches on Sunday and Monday give us insight into the strategy he’s following.
Focusing on Economy
Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Latur was around 19 minutes long, of which almost 17 minutes were devoted to economic issues. His 16-minute speech in Chandivali was similar. In Dharavi, it was slightly less – about 17 out of 23 minutes. In Nuh again, much of the speech was about the economy. Overall, more than 80 percent of Gandhi’s speeches was focused on economic issues.
Here are a few excerpts:
- “Ask anyone in India, what’s the biggest challenge for the country. In one second you will get the answer: farmers’ distress and unemployment.”
- “At 12 midnight, they brought Gabbar Singh Tax. Ask small businessman what happened to his business. Satyanaas (finished). Across India, not just in India.”
- “How many people are getting jobs in Haryana these days? The Maruti factory and Tata factory were shut down. Several youths lost their jobs. And Modiji and (Manohar Lal) Khattarji keep lying.”
- “I went to Gujarat, they have slapped cases against me. Small businessmen in Gujarat told me that Narendra Modi has imposed an Inspector Raj here. 24 hours police inspectors and tax officials demand bribes and harass us. Our industries are finished. This is happening in Mumbai and the rest of India as well.”
- “A few days ago the finance minister said that GST is law and can’t be changed. MNREGA and Food Security Act were both laws, you changed both. So why can’t Gabbar Singh Tax be changed?”
Rich vs Poor Narrative
Gandhi’s ‘Suit Boot Ki Sarkar’ jibe at the Modi government in 2015 was unarguably one of his most successful attacks since the BJP came to power in 2014 – it projected the NDA government as representing only the interests of the rich.
Many observers have said had Rahul Gandhi continued that line of argument over the next four years instead of focusing only on the Rafale Deal, he might have been more successful in putting the government on the mat.
Gandhi now seems to be returning to the ‘Suit Boot ki Sarkar’ narrative. His three speeches in Maharashtra on Sunday were clearly aimed at projecting the Modi government as “pro-rich” and “anti-poor”. He also accused the media of pushing Modi’s agenda and ignoring issues of the poor.
Here are some quotes:
- “What was the aim behind note ban, what was the aim behind Gabbar Singh Tax? There was only one aim, to take the money from India’s poor and give to a few rich individuals.”
- “A few days ago, the government waived off 1.25 lakh crore worth of taxes for India’s richest people... this was projected as a Diwali gift. Why didn’t government give anything to farmers? Why didn’t they get a Diwali gift?”
- “In elections, they will talk about Kashmir, about 370, about the moon but not about real issues. This strategy has helped them politically. The media is with them. They can divert attention to these issues and continue taking the poor’s money and give it to a few rich individuals.”
- “Who was the director of the PMC Bank? Which party was he connected to? There is a clear plan to take the money from the poor and give it to the rich. And divert people’s attention to meaningless issues.”
- “Let the poor die. I am Narendra Modi, I can do anything. This is his thinking.”
Connecting Communalism to Economy
In the past, Rahul Gandhi has often directly attacked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and called it a threat to the idea of India.
Gandhi didn’t mention the RSS even once in his speeches on Sunday or Monday, and instead approached the issue of communal politics from a different direction – by connecting it to the economy.
“The progress India has achieved is because we worked together. Every caste, every religion has built this nation. The more we are divided, the more the nation will lose. The more the nation gets divided, the more factories will be shut down. The more this nation gets divided, the more youth will become unemployed,” he said in Latur.
In Chandivali, a constituency with a sizeable Muslim population, Rahul Gandhi compared the BJP to the British and connected divisive politics to anti-poor economic policies.
“BJP is like the British. They divide people so that they can take money from the poor and give to a few rich individuals,”Rahul Gandhi in Chandivali
On Monday, Rahul Gandhi addressed a rally in Muslim-dominated Nuh in Haryana and made a similar argument.
Even in Nuh, which lies in the Mewat region that has witnessed several lynchings of Muslims, Gandhi didn’t speak of these hate crimes and instead approached it from the economic angle.
“Their (BJP’s) policy is to divide people and make them fight – make Hindus fight Muslims, make the people of Haryana fight those from Maharashtra so that they can continue exploiting the poor. Look at the state of the economy,” he said in Nuh.
Interestingly, while Rahul Gandhi was giving his speech in Dharavi, the Azaan was sounded at a mosque near the venue. Rahul Gandhi stopped his speech for the entire duration of the Azaan.
Mentioning Rafale Only in Passing
The alleged corruption in the Rafale Deal between India and France was the primary issue for Gandhi during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, it received only a passing mention during his speeches in Dharavi, Chandivali and Nuh and he skipped the issue entirely in the Latur rally.
“The entire country knows that there was corruption in the Rafale Deal. The Defence Ministry has clearly said in its file that there was interference from the Prime Minister. They are guilty about the Rafale Deal. It pierces them. That’s why the Defence Minister went to France to get the aircraft,” he said in Chandivali.
Attacks Modi, Soft on Fadnavis & Sena
In all three rallies, Rahul Gandhi directed much of his attacks at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He went soft on Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and mentioned him fleetingly. In fact, no criticism was aimed specifically at Fadnavis. Gandhi mentioned Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar more than Fadnavis but in each of these cases Khattar was mentioned in the same breath as PM Modi.
After the Congress’ defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, one criticism Gandhi faced was that although he had led effective campaigns against the BJP in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh by capitalising on state-level discontent, he had failed to create a national narrative.
The attacks on Modi and the relative silence on Fadnavis seem to be an effort to create a national narrative.
Interestingly, Gandhi didn’t criticise the Shiv Sena even once. Some say this could be an attempt to win over some Sena votes in seats where the BJP is contesting.
His speeches show that Rahul Gandhi has a clear idea of how he plans to take on the Narendra Modi-led government. Economic issues like unemployment, agrarian crisis, trader and small-scale industry discontent will remain irrespective of the verdict of Assembly elections. Therefore, Gandhi’s chosen narrative, by focusing on these issues, signifies that he is being practical and trying to create a national narrative.
It also might mean that Gandhi could assume a more active role in the Congress’ affairs compared to the hiatus after his resignation.
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