Live: Respect the dead, says Rahul; Chouhan hits back

6.36 pm: Politics for respect should start with PM, Chouhan tells Rahul Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today hit back at Rahul Gandhi and said that the politics of respect should start with prime minister Manmohan Singh. Here are Chouhan’s tweets:

  4.50 pm: The Opposition is always making fun of us in the Parliament, complains Rahul Following his trip to Shahdol, Rahul arrived in Gwalior to further his ‘respect over development’ idea. Assuming that no one takes the pains of watching him on the television, he basically rehashed all that he had said in Shahdol, at times in an identical language. For example, while asserting UPA’s achievements by comparing the lengths of roads the two governments have built, Rahul, like in Shahdol, flipped through a notebook for a few seconds smiling apologetically before launching into a bout of strangely forceful shouting. “Zor se bolo, yeh Congress party hai,” he exhorted voters to shout answers to him. One has to say that this a recently-surfaced feature in Rahul’s public addresses - this shout-till-you-drop exhort-ion that is usually the trademark of Narendra Modi. He then said that while politicians and analysts will not understand the impact or relevance of the Food Security Bill, poor villagers definitely will. “Ask them to visit the villages and see how villagers are benefitting from the scheme. No children will have to go hungry,” he declared. He bolstered his argument by referring to an imagery of hunger that never fails in impact - that of Africa. “More people are hungry in Madhya Pradesh than in Africa,” he declared. Now the math might not add up, but who cares, that’s great speech material! And added a complaint. “Whenever we try to do something the Opposition comes in our way. They make fun of us in the Parliament too,” she complained loudly. The crowd in turn got the cue and since they couldn’t pat his back and console him, they went, “Rahul ji ki jai ho.” Also in a rather limp attempt to retort to Narendra Modi’s ‘damaad ka karobaar’ speech, Rahul referred to the ‘brashtachar ki university’ running in Madhya Pradesh. “You will not get admission into schools and colleges here in MP. You know why? Because most of the system and the government has studied in the university of corruption,” he said. And then, what can be called quite self defeating, Rahul Gandhi sounded the bugle out against grey hair and wrinkles in the Parliament. Reiterating his Shahdol stand he declared that the youth should make way to the Parliament and the panchayats - the system will be cleansed immediately. While we can understand that the dig might be aimed at a 60-something Modi, he seemed to have forgotten that he was sharing the stage with parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath - 67 years old. Kamal Nath, on the other hand, might have been just thanking his stars for having escaped with being called an old horse who needs to make way for a new breed of politicians - no questions were raised on the nature of his ‘sense’. “Who is giving farmers a higher price for the land the government has acquired from them? We have made sure everyone associated with a piece of land we purchase gets compensated,” he declares. Finally he issues a diktat to Shivraj Chouhan: respect the dead. While he brought up a fairly valid point that several people died in a similar stampede in MP five years back, instead of diving into the details of administrative failures he said this: “The government didn’t respect the people who died then. The government doesn’t respect the people who have died now.” While he could have pointed at the government’s inadequacies which led to the repeat of such a violent incident, he instead took a lofty philosophical route about it - that’s Rahul Gandhi for you. 1.50 pm: Who is writing Rahul Gandhi’s speeches? We suspect Prakash Jha has sold off his rejected screenplays to Rahul’s speech writers and that might do more damage to the Congress than Coalgate and 2G together could have. Rahul’s ‘mere paas Maa hain’ speech in Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh is a classic example of what is possibly wrong with the Congress vice president’s approach to politics - it’s the kind of politics that makes great Bollywood and like Salman Khan’s pocket-patting dance steps has no relevance in real life. Riddled with accusations of elitism and dynastic supremacy, Rahul Gandhi has been desperately trying to connect with the masses and has been peppering his speeches with gestures of being extremely down-to-earth. Which is not a bad idea in India’s culture of poverty politics but the young  Gandhi has a predilection for overdoing it. So he begins his speech by apologizing for being late. However, as the crowd shouts their version of ‘it’s okay’ in Hindi, he insists that he apologise anyway. We’re guessing that the front row women in the gathering stand to benefit from sighting his dimples as he says sorry-smiles-says sorry again, but apart from that it’s difficult to divine what good ‘sorry’ does as it replaces more traditional forms of greetings - say a non-fussy namaste. Soon enough Rahul is greeted with a bhrashtachar-balatkar word goof-up. Directing a dig at the Shivraj Chouhan-led BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, Rahul asks, “What has the government done for the tribals here? Have they indulged in corruption (Apke saath brashtachar kiya?).” To which some very crime-television inspired supporters respond, ‘nahin balatkar kiya’ (no they raped us). Gentleman Rahul seems momentarily thrown off by the rape euphemism for bad governance and taken aback by his supporters’ penchant for vigorous metaphors, mutters ‘balatkar’ to himself before hurriedly embarking on the rest of his speech. And finally he arrives to his ‘mere paas maa hai’ bit. Referring to the Food Bill debate in the Parliament, he says how Sonia fell ill and like all good Hindi film mothers who cough in kitchens, at grocery shops and drinking water queues - anywhere but in front of the son lest he is disturbed by the hitherto unheard of human condition called cough - Sonia, refused  to tell Rahul that she is sick. What followed is something that makes Jaya Bachchan quivering under seven layers of make-up as she spots Shah Rukh Khan in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham seem, well, normal. Sonia, says Rahul, refused to leave the Lok Sabha despite her ill health as she wanted to see the Food Bill passed. She stood her ground, said ‘Do whatever you want to, I won’t leave’, and ‘I have struggled for this Bill for years’ before finally exiting, lamenting the fact that she couldn’t ‘press the button’ passing the Bill - no we didn’t make this up, Rahul’s speech writer did! In between Rahul said he wanted to see all tribal youths in the Parliament and accused the opposition of trying to thwart a dream like that. In saying that he seems to have completely missed the point of having ’elected representatives’ and the idea that Parliament of India is not essentially a Stonehenge-esque piece of art everyone wants to be photographed at. Finally he presented his poll pitch - human dignity as opposed to development. Development according to him is edified by malls, AC rooms and shiny new cars where as dignity is derived from having four square meals a day. Why dignity and development is mutually exclusive in his world view, is something that cannot be fathomed. “You will not be left looking at shiny cars in the other side of the road… you will live a life of dignity,” he hollered. He also admonished the Opposition for remaining distanced from the grassroots. While he is panned for the much publicised visit to the poor villager’s house in Amethi, he asserted that that was a real way one could gauge what a country needs. “These people who talk about development, have they ever visited your house, have they ever shared a meal with you, have they ever had a conversation with you?” he asked. He also pointed out that NDA, during its regime had constructed 2,600 kms of roads where as Congress in five years had built 9,750 kms of roads. “We are building the roads, we are giving you food, what development are they talking about?” If one cares to (which in itself can be an uphill task) analyse Rahul’s speech, one will see that he possibly wanted to dispel myths about dynastic distance from the masses and propagate his party’s inclusive, pro-poor, pro-progress stand. However, all that was lost in his confounding rhetoric. And is the face of the party is unable to communicate with his voters at a public rally, the Congress has a real tough job at hand in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the 2013 MP polls. 12:00 pm: Rahul in MP today, will he announce CM candidate? Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is in Gwalior today as a star campaigner for his party ahead of the Madhya Pradesh elections. Gandhi is expected to tear into the Madhya Pradesh government over its handling of the Ratangarh temple stampede and generally make the case for a change of government. [caption id=“attachment_1177117” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rahul Gandhi is expected to tear into the MP govt. PTI[/caption] But all eyes will also be on whether the Congress Vice President will end the speculation over who the party’s chief ministerial candidate will be. The fight for being the face of the party’s campaign in Madhya Pradesh has been on for months, and had split the party into factions ahead of the polls. Jyotiraditya Scindia is tipped to be being the Chief Ministerial candidate for the party but the Congress has so far refrained from naming anyone to go up against Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Gandhi is expected to be accompanied by state leaders like Kamal Nath, Ajay Singh and Digvijaya Singh when he attends the rally today