Learn from Steve Jobs' Apple, Rahul tells Congress. He might as well because Modi suit-boot routine has begun to jar

According to a report in The Times of India , Rahul Gandhi told party-workers today in Mathura that the Congress “party must work like Steve Jobs’ Apple and be open to all opinions and not just some leaders. We (Congress) allow people to have different ideologies, unlike the RSS”.

It was about time he changed his suit-boot monotony.

The Congress is in tatters. But Rahul Gandhi can’t think beyond the Prime Minister’s suit-boot.

Everywhere he goes these days, every time he makes a speech, the Congress VP can’t resist the temptation of throwing his favourite jibe at Narendra Modi.

Never mind the geography. Don’t bother about the occasion. If he is in Kerala for a Youth Congress function, he will talk of suit-boot; if he is in Amethi to meet his electorate, Rahul will dress up his speeches in suit-boot rhetoric; if he is in Chamaparan, he will lament how the Modi government has ignored the chappal-kurta people for his suit-boot friends; and when he is in the Parliament, he won’t conclude before delivering his ’these days thieves come in suit-boot’ punchline.

Clearly, Rahul’s speeches are tailored for predictability. With chappal, boot, suit, dhoti, baniyan, kurta-pyjama being the recurrent theme, variety just doesn’t suit Rahul. Somebody should remind him that this is September, a full nine months have elapsed since the Rs 9 lakh suit first inspired the sartorial slur and now Rahul should think of delivering some new lines. Ok, you made your point, what next, Rahul?

In many ways, Rahul’s suit-boot fixation is a metaphor for his politics. Howsoever much he tries, Rahul simply can’t move beyond a point in politics. His politics, like his speeches, gets stuck inextricably in a bog. And his career resembles an unending spool of hype-hope-frustration-failure.

The suit-boot jibe, ironically, could have been a good starting point for breaking this cycle. When Rahul first coined it, the dart seemed to have hit home. It caught the media’s attention, turned into a trend on Twitter and forced Modi to rearrange his wardrobe and auction some of the expensive items. Simultaneously, it forced the NDA government to dump the land acquisition bill and make conscious efforts to get rid of the pro-corporate tag.

It was an ideal launch pad for Rahul’s post-sabbatical version. After painting Modi into the pro-rich corporate corner, Rahul should have quickly moved on to a new target, causing further damage to the government. But, unfortunately, he is still flailing his sabre at the site of his victory, turning his moment of triumph into a farce.

Rahul’s strategy of constantly running down the rival brand in the hope of creating a market for his own has limited appeal and impact. In Madhya Pradesh, for instance, the Congress had the ideal build up to elections for local bodies because of the Vyapam controversy. But, it was wiped out in the polls. In Rajasthan, similarly, the Congress failed to take advantage of the fall-out of the allegations against Vasundhara Raje of helping Lalit Modi.

The future doesn’t augur well either. In Bihar, the Congress is the weakest link in the Mahagathbandhan; in Assam internal rebellion has diminished its chances of winning the impending Assembly polls; in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh there is no sign of the party being a frontrunner; and in Karnataka, if the Bangalore municipality polls are an indication, the Congress is on the decline. The Congress is in the race only in Punjab, but there too infighting is destroying its morale and chances.

Instead of addressing the demise of state-level leadership and absence of grassroot workers, the disillusionment of youth, middle class and urban voters with a party that is based on the dying ideals of dynasty, opportunistic secularism and economics of grants and doles, Rahul is hoping that the Congress will rediscover power simply by repeating suit-boot as some sort of political abracadabra.

“Reality hasn’t yet sunk in for Rahul. Going somewhere and sitting and eating food in a Dalit house is not a solution, that’s just dramatics,” former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh says in a Times of India  interview, indicating that he is toying with the idea of leaving the party.

It is time Rahul looked into the mirror and realised his party is being stripped of whatever little it was left with after the 2014 election.