Taking stock: Brickbats and some for beleaguered Rahul Gandhi

With the Congress taking its worst drubbing in the 2014 elections, Rahul Gandhi and his mother came out to meet the press and concede the party’s defeat at the polls. Speaking in English, Rahul admitted that the “party has done pretty badly,” adding, “there is lots for us to think about”.

His mother, Sonia Gandhi, chose to speak in Hindi instead. She began by espousing the party’s values saying, “We have fought the election on principles unlike our opponents and yet we did not get the results we expected. We believe that in a democracy there are winners and losers.”

She emphasized on ‘unity and principles’, the Congress party’s consistent poll argument against the BJP in the entire campaign. “We hope that the new government will not compromise on the country’s unity and principles.” Gandhi expressed gratitude to all her supporters and ended her short speech by accepting responsibility for the party’s defeat.

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Earlier in the day, party leader Jairam Ramesh said, “I admit that in 2014, the result is worse than our worse-case scenario. The result is a shock. But the Congress party has a deep reservoir of strength,” he added.

The country’s election campaign had every element that would put to shame a script writer of the never-ending sagas on television or Bollywood’s popular potboilers or even horror flicks. From calling names-Rahul Gandhi referring to Modi as ‘Hitler’, Modi’s moniker shehzada for Rahul Gandhi and ma-beta ka sarkar; to poking at family skeletons-Congress raking up the issue of Modi’s wife Jasodhaben and the Shiv Sena- ally of the NDA- taking up cudgels for Modi in an editorial in the Saamna: “First get the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi married and then raise questions about Narendra Modi’s marriage”; 2014 election campaign was a path breaker in its genre.

With India being huge on karma, let’s begin with what the stars revealed for Rahul Gandhi. Ganeshaspeaks.com has given a convenient peg to hang Rahul’s dismal performance as a politician of sorts and as the vice-president of the age-old Congress Party. His stars are on the decline.

Despite his failures, the website says, Gandhi may continue to play a key role within the Congress and also in Indian politics in years to come. Err.., what role in the current scenario?

Let’s go back to Gandhi’s latest faux pas. Earlier in the week, Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress Party, decided to host a dinner for the outgoing prime minister, Manmohan Singh. It was held at her residence in 10 Janpath. Almost all the who’s-who of the party was there. In fact, Sonia Gandhi was at the door to welcome Manmohan Singh and his wife, Gursharan Kaur. Rahul Gandhi was conspicuous by his absence. The Congress covered up for it by stating that he was ‘out of town.’

This incident gave adequate ammunition for the opposition. “For 10 years you ruled this country, your PM ruled this country. If you could not take out time for his farewell dinner, then how will you take out time for the nation?” Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut was quoted as saying in a report on ndtv.com.

Rahul Gandhi’s oratorial skills were also severely tested in his first interview with Arnab Goswami on TimesNow. This was despite being treated with kid gloves by the pugnacious interviewer. Gandhi was worse off after the interview.

The media had a field day ridiculing him for his monosyllabic answers, especially referring to himself in the third person, for repeating a few words such as ‘changing the system’, development and women’s empowerment, far too often.

With this one media interview, Rahul Gandhi showed off all his warts to the world. As The New York Times noted, “Mr. Gandhi fumbled, stared with a blank expression and a tilted head and looked wounded at times.”

Political parties, especially the BJP, had a few words of advice for Mr Gandhi, albeit acidic. BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad was quoted in OneIndia News as saying, “Rahul Gandhi kept saying that he wants to change the system. Who stopped him from changing the system in the past ten years?”

Not to be outdone, the BJP’s Arun Jaitley made a tongue-in-cheek remark: “Rahul does not have knowledge of history. I am not in any way wiser than what I was before I saw this interview,” he told OneIndia News.

Everything about the Gandhi scion was dissected, vivisected and held up to ridicule. Remarking on Rahul Gandhi’s body language, a psychologist in New Delhi told the Hindustan Times that Gandhi’s mannerisms, especially avoiding eye contact and sweating, reflected a lack of confidence and a sense of uncertainty in tandem with his personality. His prognosis: “He betrays fear.” Predictably, the senior psychiatrist at a government hospital in the Capital wanted to remain anonymous.

Well-known personalities in the media gave their take on the ’exclusive’ Gandhi interview on Twitter even as the interview was going on. Columnist and author, Shobha De asked, When will this embarrassing AG-RG Comedy Hour end?

Some were more critical. Like social activist and former first woman officer in the IPS, Kiran Bedi who went on Twitter with: “On Q asked on @timesnow by Arnab if he is ready for a debate with @narendramodi+! Answer of RG could be, sorry this question is OUT OF COURSE!”

There were enthusiastic people on Twitter who could not stop ridiculing Rahul Gandhi’s limited vocabulary. Sample these: “Rgandhi has now said ’empowering women’ more number of times than total women population of the country.”

“If Stupidity was measured in bricks, Rahul Gandhi would be the great wall of China.”

“If you missed Rahul Gandhi interview, will be repeated on Pogo Channel !!!”

“After #rahulSpeaksToArnab, Kapil Sharma loses his job, from next weekend colors tv will telecast, “ROFL nights with Rahul (sic)”

“Q: Price rise A: Empower women, Q: 2G A: Empower women. He needs to get married soon to understand about empowered women.”

What next? Perhaps, time to go “out of town” like he did when his mother hosted that dinner for Manmohan Singh. Maybe he will have to stay away longer than a day.