The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:
KCR recently inaugurated Telangana’s new secretariat building. A news handle of his son KTR, which goes by KTR_news (and has nearly 6 lakh followers) claimed that no other state built a new secretariat (amongst many other such weird claims in a thread). The new secretariat was constructed not because there was a dire need for this building, but because KCR couldn’t physically step into it because it wasn’t vaastu compliant according to him.
In a press conference in the year 2015, KCR announced that the existing secretariat building has very bad vaastu, and that’s why no CM ever had a good time there. He was referring to the fact that from the year 1956 (when the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed) till the year 2004, no Chief Minister of the state ever completed a full term (Chandrababu did 9 years but didn’t complete full terms). YSR was the first Chief Minister to complete a full term (2004 to 2009) but YSR died in a helicopter crash in 2009, early in his 2nd term. Post his death, we saw 2 more Chief Ministers in the remaining 4 years and then the state was split.
He was alluding to this history while commenting that the existing secretariat building is basically not safe for him to work in (though he actually claimed that this was not good for Telangana)! KCR made some other points about the bad condition of the existing building which we will discuss later in this article. KCR did not even want to work from here, so he started literally working from home, from 2015 itself!
At this point in time (2015), KCR claimed that the construction cost for the new Secretariat will be ~150 crores, and he will demolish the Chest Hospital building in the city. There was widespread outrage by people at this decision to demolish the heritage chest hospital building. This outrage forced KCR to back off from the proposed new building here.
After some time, KCR put the onus on the central government to give the Bison Polo grounds – grounds that belong to the Ministry of Defence. The Prime Minister had given in-principle approval for the same in the year 2017. However, there was again outrage from the citizens; and also, the nitty-gritty between the state and the central government on the actual terms of transfer of this land was taking too long (even though the High Court approved the construction on Bison Polo Grounds). At this point in time (2018), KCR claimed that the construction cost for the new Secretariat will be 250 crores.
In the year 2019, the AP government headed by Jagan Mohan Reddy decides to hand over their share of 58% of the existing Secretariat building to the Telangana government. With 100% ownership of the existing building and the land on which it is there, KCR now decides to demolish the existing secretariat building and build a new one in this space itself.
Now remember this – in 2015, KCR tells us that the estimated construction cost for the new Secretariat is 150 crores. In a press conference in 2018, KCR increased the same to 250 crore rupees. Once the site was finalised, he allotted a whopping 610 crores for this building in the year 2021. A minister, at the inauguration of the building in April 2023 tells us that the final cost may be around 800 crores for this building!
At the press conference in 2015; at a speech in Assembly in 2015; and also, in a lengthy speech in the Assembly in the year 2018, KCR put forth some points against the old Secretariat building. He explained that since the Secretariat complex has disjoint buildings and therefore it is very difficult for officials to walk across buildings for important meetings; the various Heads of Departments are scattered across the city and get stuck in traffic jams while coming to meetings in Secretariat. KCR tells us that even for meetings that he has called, officials had to go back and forth to get relevant documents. Listening to all of this, you would think that it is logical to construct a new building.
However, no logic can explain KCR’s refusal to even come to the Secretariat for 9 full years. He conducted meetings from his house, which is still farther away from the existing Secretariat buildings. In addition to just the Heads of Departments having to go through traffic, now the ministers, secretaries and anyone else who had to meet the CM had to go through the harrowing traffic of Hyderabad to reach his house. For a full 8 years. How could KCR be ok with subjecting so many people through this torment while claiming that earlier only a few were tormented like this?
KCR claimed that fire safety is not good in the old building. Citizens couldn’t but help to allude to this anecdote when a major fire broke out in the new secretariat in the final stages of its construction! KCR claimed that HoDs don’t sit in the secretariat. Guess what – they still don’t get space in the new Secretariat. They will sit in a building that’s a little closer to the secretariat – from when no one knows.
KCR’s lucky number is 6. So, the new Secretariat consists of 6 operational floors (LG, UG and 6 floors); Chief Minister’s office is in the 6th floor. KCR signed 6 files in 6 minutes on Day 1 in the new secretariat. The entire English media was silent on this and some even wrote glowing reports. An official building of the government was built keeping in mind the lucky number and vaastu beliefs of the incumbent Chief Minister, at the exact same location where the older building existed. It took KCR 8 years to build this. And in all these 8 years, he did not even come to the Secretariat because it was not vaastu compliant according to him. The grandeur of the building is apparently a selling point (highest point taller than Taj Mahal apparently – like anyone cares!).
The outrage against the new building seems totally justified given the reasoning and planning that went behind this. There is no need to make this a mark for Telangana pride. It is simply an expenditure to fulfil the beliefs of the incumbent Chief Minister.
The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:
Just a couple of days back, we published a detailed article on how The Hindu’s coverage of the Bharat Jodo Yatra is a great case study of how to be more loyal than the King! The article was written with the assumption that The Hindu is done with the coverage of the BJ Yatra. However, The Hindu has shredded that assumption to pieces. Not fully content with how they praised Rahul Gandhi, they publish this opinion on Feb. 13th.
Article by The Hindu
The word “catharsis” means “the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.” The premise of the article is that Kashmiris have embraced the BJ Yatra like never before and therefore – “In the groundswell of support for Rahul Gandhi, there is a message for Delhi”.
But what is the message for Delhi? We were told that “By walking with Mr Gandhi, Kashmiris sent out the political message that they believe in principles such as democracy, plurality, civility and a detestation for hate politics, despite the popular depiction of them as Islamists.”
That is a glowing description of those who walked with Rahul Gandhi. Those who walked apparently believed in certain principles “despite the popular depiction of them as Islamists”. Now, why would that be the popular depiction? The author himself provides an answer for this, inadvertently, in another section of his article.
We are told that “There has been such a groundswell of support only during militants’ funerals or separatist leaders’ speeches in south Kashmir.” Whoa! Now, whoa! In his attempt to worship Rahul Gandhi, have the author and the newspaper actually ended up demonising him further? Did they just compare the crowd that joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra to the crowd that used to join the militants’ funerals or separatist leaders’ speeches?
“Separatist leaders’ speeches” are filled with, well, separatism. Separatism is the exact opposite of “Jodo”. Why then does a crowd that wants to separate, join a yatra that claims to unify? How does the author want the reader to understand this hypocritical argument?
Attending militants’ funerals essentially means support for terrorism. It’s not as if people just walked along with the dead bodies in these funeral processions. Anti-India slogans were raised during these funerals. Now, do you understand why the “popular depiction of them as Islamists”? If you hail separatism and mourn terrorists, why then would the world think of you as a citizen who has “detestation for hate politics”? Do the author and the paper really think that their readers are so gullible, that they can write anything and get away with it? Or is the author (and the paper) saying that the same crowd that embraced separatism has now embraced Bharat Jodo? And in that case, shouldn’t the credit go to Modi and not Rahul?!
Since the author believes so strongly that Rahul Gandhi gained massive popularity in Kashmir, he tells us that this support is because “Mr. Gandhi seems to have been a medium of catharsis for Kashmiris, who have stopped expressing themselves since 2019 in the face of many clampdowns.”
Stopped expressing themselves? Here are three reports from The Hindu itself, by the same author – on how Kashmiris’ have embraced their newfound freedom; how they are becoming prosperous; on how they are finally getting to even watch movies in theatres after 23 years (You can ignore the “dark hall” comment – Kashmiris couldn’t even go to theatres and watch movies for 23 years!).
Article by The Hindu
Are all of these not ways of expressing themselves, of how they have embraced the new situation? Or according to the author, is the only way to express themselves by mourning terrorists and embracing separatists?
We are told that Rahul Gandhi came to Kashmir in August 2021 and “Barely anyone remembers the statements he made that year.” Well, can you really blame the people for this? His speeches have always remained the same ever since he entered politics in 2004! However, why did the author bring this up? Because he now tells us that the speech, he gave in January 2023 as part of the BJ Yatra is different from the speech he gave in August 2021. How? “this time, his speech from the Sher-i-Kashmir Cricket Stadium was live-streamed on social media.” I was reading further to see if any stats will be provided on viewership or activity on SM platforms. Nothing is written. The author bluntly ends the statement there! The only different thing from 2021 to 2023 was that a speech was live-streamed and therefore it is an indication of being popular!
After such a mumbling yet a glowing tribute to Rahul Gandhi, can you guess how the author ends the article? “All the political pundits will agree that Mr. Gandhi’s sudden and rare popularity in Kashmir may not necessarily translate into any upswing in votes for him if elections were to be held in the region.”
The already confused reader will now perhaps want to tear up the paper in frustration! The extreme levels of worshipping that the author exhibited in this article will even put some (p)sycophants in the Congress party also to shame. We are told that “The eyes of many women welled up with tears on seeing him.” We were also told that people men stopped their cars and came and hugged him. In fact, these points are repeated twice in the article, lest we forget! If women cried and men hugged him on a scale that was never seen before, why then wouldn’t they vote for him? After all, we were told that they strongly believe in the “principles of democracy”!
The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:
When you take up any project (small or big) at your school, college, work or in life, one of the first things you visualize is how to quantify your results. What do you intend to achieve? How will you go about achieving it? Can you make it novel? How can you stand out from your peers? These and many such thoughts go through your mind and you work towards achieving them.
Now imagine when you hear about a political project by the Congress party at the scale of Bharat Jodo Yatra. We were constantly told about how this Yatra is aimed at unifying India and stopping hatred. So, the least you would expect is that the Congress party will at least stay united and not spread hatred in the country.
But how can any of these be achieved when there is no inherent sincerity in the man leading this yatra? For example, he was in Hyderabad. He addressed a public gathering right in front of the Indira Gandhi statue, at what is famously called the Necklace Road. Right across the road, if you literally walk for about 100 feet, is the statue of another former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.
Map of the statue
Rahul Gandhi and the entire Congress party did not even bother to pay homage to this statue. In fact, this statue was not constructed by the Congress party in the first place! You may have observed the “P.V. Narasimha Rao Marg” right next to the statue of P.V. Narasimha Rao. Do you know where that leads to? Let’s take a look at the map below:
map of the area
That road leads to P.V. Narasimha Rao’s samadhi – P.V. Gyan Bhoomi. Rahul Gandhi and the entire Congress party did not bother to go to P.V. Gyan Bhoomi and pay homage to him. It was as if the statue and the samadhi didn’t even exist for them. And therefore when Rahul Gandhi did the drama of visiting the samadhi of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi, it was not very difficult for the common citizen to see through the vile nature of the Gandhi family. Rahul Gandhi’s favourite newspaper, The Hindu, though ignored this contradiction. In fact, they told us that “By paying tributes to A.B. Vajpayee, the first Prime Minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr Gandhi has sought to make a distinction between the current iteration of Hindutva from its own original content and intent, tenuous as that may be.”
P.V. Narasimha Rao was a lifelong congressman and stepped up at one of the most crucial moments for both the party and the country. What real “unification” can someone like Rahul Gandhi achieve when he can’t even adhere to the basics of that concept in his own party? Very conveniently, in their entire coverage and analysis of the BJ Yatra, The Hindu makes zero mention of Rahul ignoring and insulting a Prime Minister from the Congress party.
The inherent lack of sincerity doesn’t end with this example alone. At the beginning of the yatra, The Hindu told us that “Bharat Yatris to eat, sleep on the road for 5 months”. For some strange reason, The Hindu has different headlines on the web and print editions, for the same story!
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
You would imagine that Rahul Gandhi and his 119 co-walkers, called Bharat Yatris, will actually “tough it out” and actually “sleep, and eat on the road”. Hidden in the news report is a small detail – they will actually sleep in containers mounted on trucks – a total of 60 containers have been used by the Congress party. Not mentioned at all in these reports of The Hindu is the nature of these “containers”. NDTV made a brief attempt to show the movement of these containers but it looked like there was some pressure not to highlight them.
NDTV headline
Towards the end of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, The Wire was commissioned to elevate Rahul Gandhi’s “sufferings” but this brilliant OpIndia piece dissects and shows us the luxurious lifestyle that Rahul Gandhi has lived all along the yatra. All of these were AC containers fitted with luxury beddings and bathroom fittings, but newspapers like The Hindu very conveniently chose, not only to hide such luxury but to lie to all of their readers in a blatantly insincere attempt to elevate Rahul Gandhi.
The Hindu’s elevation of Rahul Gandhi, all through the yatra, is a great journalistic lesson on how to be more loyal than the king! In various instances, we have been told how ambitious and audacious this yatra is. We were told by The Hindu that “his message of harmony is as inspiring as it is innocently idealistic.” The “message of harmony” took a severe beating right from the start of the yatra itself – when Rahul “innocently” met Pastor George Ponnaiah, who fiercely advocated the breaking of India; met Uday Kumar who stalled many development projects in the country; met Medha Patkar who was the reason for the misery of crores of people; met Naxal sympathizers such as Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan all along his yatra. Now, imagine the wordplay The Hindu would have resorted to if BJP did a program aimed at “Jodo” (unify) and met with those who practice the exact opposite! But they conveniently chose to ignore all of these severe incidents and continued to elevate him.
Just a month after Rahul Gandhi left Telangana, elected MLAs, MPs and other leaders raised a banner of revolt and came up with a “Save Congress” plan. The Hindu wrote a glowing report on November 9th on how Rahul Gandhi united and enthused Congress leaders and cadres. And on December 18th, a banner of revolt was raised by the exact same leaders!
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
And of course, The Hindu decides not to comment on the futility of the “Jodo” yatra (especially when it gave a glowing tribute when Rahul was touring!). We were told that there was widespread excitement when Rahul Gandhi was touring Kerala for a full 18 days (in Sep-Oct of 2022). This is also the state from where he is an MP too. He wanted to fight against hatred, communalism and whatnot.
And in February 2023, we are treated to this opinion article that describes the various problems plaguing the Kerala Congress – and that includes how they bullied (i.e. spread hatred) against their own leader and forced him to resign. The only fault of Anil Anthony was to stand up for India!
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
The February 6th article makes no references to Rahul’s “message of harmony”; does not point out the irony of Rahul conducting a Bharat Jodo (Unify India) yatra and then firing his own leaders for doing the exact same thing. It’s as if the Bharat Jodo Yatra didn’t even happen in the first place! The article tells us that “Political observers feel that there is a crab mentality in the Congress leadership”. What a brilliant way to escape naming Rahul Gandhi as the “Congress leadership” (after all he is an MP from this very state!)
Rahul goes to Punjab and the party splits there – notice the stark difference between The Hindu’s headline and of the other media.
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
The severe infighting in Rajasthan that led to unprecedented chaos for the Congress’s own Presidential election happened just a couple of weeks after the Bharat Jodo Yatra began. After the Yatra left Rajasthan, the Congress was still a disgruntled unit. Before the Yatra entered J&K, leaders resigned from the Congress party, but we saw zero references to these critical events in The Hindu’s analysis of the BJ Yatra.
News18 headline
Instead, we were treated to glowing articles that tell us that “Bharat Jodo Yatra is not for the faint-hearted or the weak-kneed — the pace is back-breaking, the terrain can be challenging.” You read it right, they wrote this!
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
We are told that in fact “The frenetic yatra is also an escape for Mr Gandhi from the malfunctioning Congress.” This kind of analysis totally confuses me. What kind of a leader escapes from problems in his own party? And more importantly why does the same newspaper then elevate him with flowery language such as “The march is on. Long. Arduous. Lonely.” Such strong prose by The Hindu in the same article where they also say that Rahul is escaping from responsibilities is confounding!
The Hindu published such glowing pieces very regularly all through the BJ yatra – and not a single one of them touched on any tangible benefit to the Congress because of this yatra! My personal favourite is Kamal Hasan’s “A yatra that is the darn to repair India’s gashes” – so vacuous in its content that it’s a miracle it occupied so much space!
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
In addition to the multitude of glowing articles, The Hindu also published three editorials on the Bharat Jodo Yatra. In the first editorial, at the beginning of the yatra, we have been told that the yatra should not be about Rahul.
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
Such sagely advice from The Hindu was not followed by The Hindu themselves! It has already been shown how The Hindu focussed so much on Rahul Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi alone. They have even isolated him from the problems of Congress and of course, they have even isolated him from the other “Bharat Yatris” who travelled along with him. Have you seen a single story about those yatris, who perhaps faced more hardship than Rahul Gandhi actually did? Nope. It is understandable that the Congress party doesn’t want such stories, but what explains media like The Hindu ignoring those stories? Especially when they themselves have sermonised that the BJ Yatra should not be about Rahul!
In the same editorial, The Hindu wrote that “The notion that NGOs and actors outside the Congress structure will give buoyancy to his politics is wrong and misplaced.” Yet another sagely advice. Now let’s see what The Hindu analysed when the situation ended up with NGOs and literally actors outside the Congress structure getting involved.
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
I don’t understand how you can lose elections if you “establish a direct connection”. And if the yatra failed in establishing a direct connection, then what exact purpose has it served?
Their second editorial was ambivalently titled as “Clarity and Confusion”. The editorial is a masterclass in creating confusion and not providing any clarity!
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
Take a look at the line below the title for example – “Use moral clarity for a roadmap for electoral success”. The use of lofty phrases such as “moral clarity” may make them sound intellectual but such phrases have zero value to anyone. In fact, in this editorial, we are told that Rahul Gandhi’s “intentions are beyond reproach.” The language is baffling – it’s as if we should not question Rahul Gandhi at all.
Their third and final editorial was poetically titled “Miles to Go”. If the conclusion after literally walking miles, is that there is still “Miles to Go”, it really speaks volumes about the nature of the yatra!
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
But why are they saying that there are “Miles to go”, after publishing so many articles telling us that Rahul Gandhi was the best?
Because, for starters, this yatra has not seen any electoral benefit for the Congress – they lost an important bypoll in Telangana when the Yatra was in the state; they lost the Gujarat elections very badly; the Himachal victory was despite of Rahul Gandhi!
Because no new political alliances were formed even after so much walking. Some zillion parties were invited – most of them declined to participate. The only place where regional parties showed excitement was J&K. Everywhere else, not a single new alliance was formed. Not a single new friend was made.
Because no new narrative was created. It was all rhetoric about “hatred” at every single state he went to. Local issues were referred to in passing only. The overall message always boiled down to how brave Rahul Gandhi is and how he is fighting against “hatred”. And towards the end of the yatra, Rahul Gandhi ended up boasting how he hasn’t seen any hatred in the country. If the very premise of your yatra has been dismantled, then ofcourse you have “miles to go”!
The Hindu’s coverage of the entire yatra was bereft of all these contradictions. The focus of their coverage was to elevate Rahul Gandhi, even though there is no substance. Their coverage is truly a great lesson to be taught in journalistic schools – how to be more loyal than the king! However, amidst all of this, the best headline also came from The Hindu, which aptly summarized the entire BJ Yatra!
The Hindu’s coverage of Rahul Gandhi and Bharat Jodo Yatra
The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference.
The clockwork precision with which the Pakistan establishment and our English media establishment work closely is really worthy of emulation. On the same day that The Hindu front pages Pakistan Prime Minister’s irrelevant and illogical appeal for talks, they also publish an illogical article – coincidentally titled “The illogical rejection of the idea of South Asia”. The article was written by The Hindu’s controversial national editor, Suhasini Haidar.
The article blames most of the current global issues – Climate Change, Economic Recession, COVID-19, Ukraine war, and Women’s rights – on India not talking to Pakistan, and therefore claims that SAARC is defunct. Suhasini Haidar has been advocating the concept of “One South Asia” since the year 2021. She wants Prime Minister Modi to consider the entire of South Asia as one unit to combat all the above problems. The other name for “One South Asia” is Akhand Bharat. But you should not take that particular name because then you become a fascist and whatnot! It’s kosher to use “South Asia” though.
The introductory premise of the article is that according to a World Bank report, 9 out of the 10 most (air) polluted cities of the world are in South Asia. Interestingly, the actual report doesn’t tell us what these 9 cities actually are. Neither does it point to the source of this data or the timeframe of when this data was taken.
She quickly moves on to some reports from Bhutan and Maldives and informs us that these reports have asked “India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and all other South Asian countries” to talk to each other to solve the air pollution problem. The author is baffled that the countries have ignored these reports just like most people in the world have! In fact, she reminds us that it was under the awesome leadership of Pakistan that the G-77 groups of developing countries “negotiated a breakthrough at COP27 in Sharm-el Sheikh”.
While you, the reader, are trying to grasp the wealth of this information so far, the author ups the ante. We are told that – “India and Pakistan, the chief opponents of an integrated South Asia” are primarily responsible for not formulating enough responses for South Asia with regard to the Ukraine War, COVID-19, global economic recession, women’s rights and terrorism. Terrorism was actually last on her list of problems that need to be tackled by us. The order of priority clearly gives a peek into the author’s delusionary mindset.
Such an illogical argument is not new for the author and the newspaper. In November 2021, the newspaper published a similar article advocating “One South Asia” and the focus of that entire article was just to use climate change as an excuse to restart the India-Pakistan dialogue. In January 2023, she simply added all other world problems to her list and continue to advocate that India and Pakistan should start talking so that SAARC also can be revived and voila – the problems of the world are gone!
The author then comes up with an innovative solution that will put the best brains in the business to shame. She tells us that since Prime Minister Modi is not inclined to go to SAARC meetings in Pakistan, he can send either the President of India or the Vice-President of India to the meeting! It is really perplexing how it’s possible to have such a poor understanding of the country’s foreign policy and write so openly about it!
Pakistan’s latest Prime Minister, Shebaz Sharif has said that even though his country is suffering, miserable, is in poverty – they will only talk to India about Kashmir and that too after we restore Article 370 to its original form. Yet, we have folks in our English media establishment that continue to put the burden on India to somehow start talking to Pakistan! India says we will talk the moment you stop terrorism on your soil – our English media establishment continues to argue that terrorism is the last problem on the list of issues! If there is anything illogical, then it is the premise and the subsequent arguments in the Op-Ed piece today in The Hindu. It is time to question the ulterior motives behind wanting to restart a dialogue that clearly our enemy doesn’t want!
The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:
Recently in Telangana, a very crucial by-election happened in the Munugode assembly constituency. The by-election was necessitated because the incumbent Congress MLA quit the party and joined the BJP. In a tight race, the TRS won over the BJP by over 10,000 votes. The Congress party lost its deposit in a seat it held multiple times before. When the campaigning was peaking up for this seat, Rahul Gandhi was in Telangana as part of his Bharat Jodo Yatra. During the polling, the yatra was still in Telangana.
This debilitating result for the Congress party, while Rahul was in the state, did not deter our English media from telling us how stunningly brilliant the yatra was in Telangana; how the cadre is excited like never before; how different factions were bought together by the “tallest leader” of the Congress party. One such sample report, published by The Hindu on November 9th, is pasted below for your reading pleasure (we will get to the highlighted part soon).
Article by The Hindu
“Energised” by the “constructive and positive” yatra, the Congress party announced a “jumbo” executive committee for the Telangana Congress on the 10th of December. So about one month after Rahul Gandhi’s awesome yatra left the state, the Congress party sets up various committees in the state. On 17th December, the Congress Legislature Party Leaders, some elected MLAs, some elected MPs, some former ministers – all of them revolted against the incumbent party President and announced a – believe it or not – “Save Congress” plan.
Article by The Hindu
I would request you to take a close look at the names mentioned in the November 9th report of The Hindu that glorified Rahul Gandhi as the greatest unifier, and the names in the report above (again by The Hindu!). The exact names that The Hindu (and other media) mentioned in their great analysis of the Yatra are the exact same people who revolted and initiated a “Save Congress” plan.
Can there really be a more stunning example of the glorious failure of the Bharat Jodo Yatra? All those memes that joked about how Rahul Gandhi should first do a Congress Jodo Yatra make so much more logical sense now, isn’t it? By the way, the leaders who are revolting against Rahul Gandhi’s TPCC President aren’t just seniors who are past their prime (There are a few former MPs, MLAs and ministers too in this revolting batch).
The Congress party won 19 seats in the 2018 Assembly elections. 12 of them moved to the TRS; 1 seat was lost by the Congress; thus, leaving them with 6 MLAs only. The Legislature Party leader of these 6 MLAs has now claimed that he wasn’t even consulted on the formation of these jumbo committees. The Congress party won 3 MP seats in the 2019 elections. 2 of these 3 are now revolting against Rahul Gandhi’s TPCC president (who is the 3rd MP by the way).
Rahul Gandhi must really possess some extraordinary talent. He has been very successful in scaring away the few leaders who have won elections and chose to stay with the Congress party in Telangana! The drama of course is never-ending – supporters of Rahul Gandhi’s TPCC President, Revanth Reddy have announced that they will “sacrifice” their party posts for the sake of the party. You would now assume that The Hindu will be a wee bit careful before glorifying the Gandhi family members. And then here is where they stump you again. The TPCC President called for a meeting of the Congress party to discuss the modalities of a program called “Haath se haath badao”. The revolting members announced that they will not attend this meeting (and they didn’t too). Now, what is this “Haath se haath badao” program? The Hindu tells us that this is the “brainchild of Priyanka Vadra Gandhi”.
Article in The Hindu
Also, notice how hastily the report is written – We are told that she will visit all states and then immediately told that she is likely to visit all states. How difficult is it to really write a simple accurate report without praising the Gandhi family to the hilt?
The intent of this article is not to discuss the merits (or the lack of it) of the revolt in the Congress party. But it is to highlight how the media is so out of tune with the reality of the real impact of Rahul Gandhi’s yatra. It is crystal clear that, outside of silly photo ops, Rahul Gandhi is unable to even accomplish a real “Congress Jodo” too. Good language and catchy headlines can never make up for the lousy groundwork in politics. I wonder how much longer we have to bear these headlines/reports that elevate this first family of the Congress party!
