Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra- involving a long march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir- came thirty one years after Murli Manohar Joshi's Ekta Yatra which took the same route. There had been another BJP Ekta Yatra in 2011. Both worked well enough because the aim was Hindu consolidation and the Kashmir leg had to do with reminding voters of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's fate in Sheikh Abdullah's jail.
What of RaGa's 'Unity' march? There had been speculation that Varun Gandhi- Rahul's cousin- might join it. If the division within the family were healed, Rahul's claim to be 'opening a shop of love, in the marketplace of hate' would have some credibility. Sadly, Rahul seems to have ruled out this possibility. This is sad. It was his Aunt and Uncle who did most for his grandmother's party. Sonia did nothing and Rajiv was a reluctant draftee. But Maneka, once widowed, was forced out into the cold. Some have suggested this was as a result of Sonia's intrigue though there is no evidence of this. My own impression is that some Indian diplomats poisoned Mrs Gandhi's mind against Maneka while she was in London with Sonia. Later, Mohammad Yunus wrote a book claiming that Maneka and her Mum were Jezebels who performed Tantrik ceremonies to kill off their husband. Since Indira was very superstitious at this time of her life, she may have come to believe this nonsense.
Maneka did have enemies- she was and is a horrible person- but her desire for a bigger political role sprang from a genuine interest in politics. This is perfectly understandable given that she was and is as stupid as shit. However, she didn't play the discarded daughter-in-law card whereas Sonia would giggle and say 'Please be giving vote to Patiji!' which suggested she was stupider than the village women she was addressing. After all, as the Mahatma and Vinobha and JP had understood, it is only by appearing stupider and more ignorant than the rustics that you can win their votes.
Maneka should have played up the fact that her Daddy was dead, her hubby was dead, and she had been thrown out of the house because of the intrigue of the foreign daughter-in-law who after Indira lost power and Indira's chef died in an accident, was the only one trusted to cook food for the family. The implication here would be that evil foreign 'bahu' was starving the desi sister-in-law and probably poisoning her little baby.
It is also said that Pratibha Patil cooked dishes for Indira- which is why she was rewarded with the Presidency by Sonia. This is not to say that the way to the heart of power under the Dynasty was through the stomach of the PM. Rather, it was Indira's paranoia in her waning years which is illustrated by these anecdotes. Be that as it may, the fact remains that Rajiv and Sonia were ruthless in cutting off Maneka and Varun from power and its perquisites. Sonia put the kybosh on Indira's plan to make Maneka her political secretary. This was certainly not for any ideological reason. It was only two decades later that Maneka joined the BJP. Thus, Rahul is being disingenuous when he says that the gulf between him and Varun is ideological rather than a dispute about the unfair manner in which their grandmother's legacy was monopolized by Sonia for the benefit of her son.
Rahul says- “I can never go to RSS Office, you have to behead me before (making me do) that.
This is all very well, but his Mum and Dad had helped turn his Aunty and her baby out of the family house. If she had to go knocking on the door of the RSS office, it was because Sonia had hardened her heart against her younger sister-in-law.
My family has an ideology, a thought system,” the Wayanad MP
whose Grandfather was a Fascist who volunteered to go fight for Hitler in Russia
said at a press briefing.
Did Rajiv have an ideology? The story I heard in London- spread by, among others, the Palestinians- was that Rajiv had gotten jealous of Chandrashekhar and decided to scuttle his administration on the Gulf War issue. Indeed, I believe Rajiv himself went to Teheran as part of a bizarre attempt to save Saddam's disgusting regime. This meant that the West had no incentive to pass on intelligence, gleaned from the Khalistanis, regarding the Tamil Tiger determination to kill Rajiv, who had said he might send the Army back to Sri Lanka, before he could become P.M once again. If there is any truth to this theory, then Rajiv's attachment to a Lefty 'Non-alignment' was what got him killed.
“He (Varun Gandhi) at some point, maybe even today, accepted that ideology and made it his own. I can never accept that thing.”
“I can definitely meet him, hug him, but cannot accept that ideology. Impossible.”
This is beside the point. It is obvious that Maneka and Varun have been passed over by the BJP. Why not offer both a hug and a seat at the top table in the family firm? After all, Congress has given tickets to plenty of ex-RSS members- e.g. Shankarsinh Vaghela who was their CM candidate in Gujarat and who was made a Union Cabinet Minister by them.
“Years ago, Feroze told me that RSS is doing great work in the country.
Better work than the Congress Seva Dal, at any rate. The fact is Granny had forcibly sterilized millions while jailing and torturing tens of thousands. The RSS did good work in opposing that evil Dictatorship. Rahul hasn't forgiven the RSS for standing up for Democracy and Human Rights. Varun- having been excluded from the family firm- may take a different view.
I asked him to read and understand our family's history.
It doesn't feature primogeniture. Sanjay was the younger son but, while he was alive, he was Indira's chosen successor. If Rahul doesn't want to be PM, why not let his cousin take a crack at it?
'Had you understood our family's ideology, you would have never said that,” Rahul Gandhi said.
This is quite true. The family's ideology is that nobody else ever did anything worthwhile. Everything was done by either Daddy or Mummy or Granny.
“But there's no hatred.”
Sonia and Rajiv stuck a knife into their sister-in-law without any hatred. Greed and opportunism were cause enough. On the other hand, Indira genuinely hated her Aunty and was resolute in shutting her out of the perks of office.
The RSS evolved from the 'garam dal' faction of Congress, whereas the Nehrus were from the 'naram dal' faction. However, since the Brits started to transfer power after the Great War, the ideological distance between the two tended to decrease. In the Fifties, there was a possibility that Congress might turn into a mass based Socialist Party and, in that context, no rival cadre based party could be brooked. But nothing came of this notion. Thus, nary an eyebrow was lifted when Nehru invited the RSS to join the 1963 Republic Day parade so as to signal a stronger, more united, India in the wake of the Chinese invasion. It was the Indian Maoists- equally loathed by the Kremlin- who posed a threat because they openly declared that Mao was their leader. Thus, in 1970, Indira visited the Vivekananda Rock Memorial which Eknath Ranade of the RSS had created with her help. Humayun Kabir and Bhaktavatsalam had opposed the plan till Mrs. Gandhi, who had supported the Tamil language movement, used this pretext to balance things out.
Sanjay Gandhi may not have had much of an ideology. But he incarnated Indira's dynasticism. He was her chosen heir. No doubt, some patriotic soul would have put a bullet in that psychopath had he not crashed his plane. Indira preferred her other son to her daughter-in-law. But neither Rajiv nor Sonia had any ideology. They were in politics to make money just like other dynasts. Maneka and Varun could be said to be ideological. The mother is fanatical about Animal Rights and Veganism. The son has written a book about the problems of the Indian farmer without showing any awareness of the fact that the biggest problem of the Indian farmer is that India is as poor as shit. Any subsidy or other entitlement given to him will soon disappear as the country goes off a fiscal cliff. Still, at least Varun can sound like a grown up and has some achievements to his credit. Rahul is a mooncalf who has done nothing. He projects himself as a bulwark against the evil represented by the RSS. But everybody knows that it is only because Rahul is so utterly stupid and useless that the BJP has risen and risen.
What has been the outcome of Rahul's walkabout? The division in his own family has not healed. Other opposition parties are afraid that Congress's ability to split the Muslim vote has increased- but this is a gift to the BJP. Will Kharge accommodate rising young dynasts like Chaudhary Jayant Singh (Charan Singh's grandson) ? Yogi is vulnerable in Western UP. Can Congress partner with RLD while reaching an agreement with Akhilesh? The problem is that nobody can predict what the mooncalf will say in a press conference. The fellow is obsessed with the notion that his family has an ideology. It doesn't. Indira may have initially had some sympathy for the left but she and Sanjay were Machiavellian pragmatists. By contrast, Rajiv and Sonia were amateurs who were opportunistic and greedy. That works well enough because all dynasts are pragmatic and greedy. Rahul's Messianism can throw a spanner in the works. Why? The plain fact is that Hindus like the RSS and Hindus are the vast majority. True, many Hindus prefer leaders from their own sub-castes and are cool with those leaders courting minority voters. But, this does not mean they will climb onto Harsh Mander's campervan of lurve or queue up outside Rahul's corner shop of cuddles. Instead they will vote for Modi as a strong Hindu leader at the Center while voting their caste in State elections. Stalin- a true believer in the anti-Hindu DMK ideology- will accommodate Rahul with a seat in 2024 because Wayanad's Muslims are turning against him, and it may boost Stalin's standing to have the Gandhi scion on a leash. After all, he himself had been tortured by Indira though his people had secured an ample revenge by getting her son killed. But this is a purely parochial matter of Tamil politics. The wider problem is that opposition unity seems more distant than every before. This is because the Yatra has, at some considerable expense, projected Rahul as the only national level politician and thus potential replacement to Modi. Perhaps, if Gehlot had been Congress president, this would not have been the case.
Kharge is certainly an experienced and respected politician. When he became Congress President, there was some anxiety that Congress, with a smart Dalit leader, might be able to revive the Brahmin/Dalit/Muslim formula. Throw in disaffected dominant caste leaders- like Charan Singh's grandson- along with regional parties like the DMK and suddenly Congress doesn't look so utterly irrelevant. Rahul's skipping the Winter Session of Parliament too has boosted the party's prospects. Perhaps Kharge can put together an impressive list of Opposition parties for the closing of the Yatra. However, Congress now has the same problem as the BJP used to have back in the Eighties and Nineties. At that time, people said 'Vajpayee is smart but he is is the puppet of some cretin in khaki knickers'. Now the cry is 'Congress has some smart people but the mooncalf Rahul calls the shots'.
How will Varun respond to Rahul? The dignified course would be to ignore the imbecile. Yet, the truth is, if Rahul ever leads the country, people will indeed run the risk of being beheaded if they try to enter the office of a kaffir organization for some other purpose than to blow it up.
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