Gujarat - RahulG Delivers Final Blow To Modi

He came, He Saw, He Spoke …. And we all laughed. There’s never a dull moment with Rahul Gandhi. He does seem to be the ‘apparent’ in the Congress ‘hair’. I have never been interested in political rallies or speeches. In all my life I have attended only one rally sometime early in the 1990s. It had nothing to with any interest in politics but a group of friends and I wanted to hear someone who was known as a great orator. That was A.B. Vajpayee and it was in a small municipal ground with just around 500 people. His chaste Hindi, his humour, his assertive style didn’t disappoint at all. Narendra Modi is even better as an orator but I have not been tempted to attend any of his rallies or keenly look forward to his speeches. But over the last 2 years the only person I keenly look forward to hear is Rahul Gandhi. He has my complete attention every time he speaks and I get a chance to listen to him. To call it an experience is an understatement. So it was that when he turned up in Gujarat on the last day of campaign (before the first round of polls) on December 11 I had to listen. It’s not just what he says but I also listen to see how the media cronies of Congress reproduce those speeches which add to the fun. Especially when it comes to NDTV and CNN-IBN the report is even better than the speeches. 
  

Firstly, unable to resist the temptation to add her two cents on the Gujarat election Barkha Dutt rushed to Ahmedabad with nothing to do really. By now most public areas are places where she is likely to be booed ‘By The People’. So she turns up at the most comforting zone in Ahmedabad – with Jagruti Pandya and Shweta Bhatt who are contesting the elections; the latter against Narendra Modi in the Maninagar constituency of Ahmedabad. The title of her report might make you want to think, what the Dickens! Well, given she’s a regular Literfest participant “A tale of two wives” quite suits her. The headline is typically from the NDTV/Barkha Dutt spin alley: ‘Modi forced to share limelight with these two wives’. And what does Shweta Bhatt have to offer? A treasure trove of lies like – there’s no water in Maninagar, no development, no this no that. Those who don’t know, she doesn’t live in that area. She lives in an area that has never faced a water problem in many years or any problem that might affect an Amdavadi. The only place where she gets some ‘limelight’ is in Barkha’s head and probably on NDTV. Nowhere else!
  

Here’s a tweet from Barkha’s good friend Swapan Dasgupta. The atmosphere he describes at a Modi rally is quite believable. The man has the ability to create an electric atmosphere with his speeches. Modi can use twists and spins like any other politician but he is not known to use outright lies. What probably does bother Barkha is not what limelight those ladies might be having but that she has fallen from such heights that in an important election in an important state she is millions of miles away from the limelight. Even Rajdeep Sardesai managed to attend a few Modi rallies, get a seat on his bus and an interview. Barkha is just reduced to reporting from the shadows. It’s a warning for every aspiring or practicing journalist. If you claim to be in journalism do not hold excessive hate and contempt for a person no matter what. This is especially when that hate is based on a huge volume of lies. While Modi’s stock has gone up in the last decade, Barkha has been reduced to reporting also-rans like a side-show. Reduced to interviews in hotels or reporting from shops or from complexes like the Gujarat Vidyapith (December 11). 

So what did RahulG say? Well, he improved on his comic stuff from UP. This time he told people how Gandhiji and Motilal Nehru discussed things. You know like that Amitabh Bachchan dialogue in “Namak Halal” where he describes how Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare had a discussion before finally taking a run. Oh yes… He also reminded us Rajivji “brought computers, mobile phones”. He forgot to add that Gandhiji brought salt from his Dandi march. Doesn’t matter that mobile phones came in only around 1995! Fact-check, homework? And then he touched upon his favourite topic – Potatoes! Potatoes are sold at 3/- a kilo and chips are sold at 10/- a pack. Oops.. in UP it was 1/- a kilo and chips were 20/- a pack (Read: RahulGThe King of comedy). These price fluctuations don’t seem to add up. But then nothing adds up with RG. Like his mom, he mentioned everyone in his Nehru-Gandhi family from Motilal to Soniaji (Oh.. he forgot Priyanka and Robert Vadra though).  

On December 10 Sonia Gandhi stated Nehruji established ONGC in the town of Mehsana at a meeting in Siddhpur (near Mehsana). Don’t expect our media to check but now the SM does check each and every word uttered. ONGC Mehsana wasn’t established till November 1967 long after Nehru’s death. That’s only half the story. As an observer on Twitter pointed out, they didn’t open ONGC in Mehsana for fun or gave it preference over Muktasar in Punjab. The simple fact is Mehsana has oil and nobody does anybody a favour by exploring and drilling for oil. That Congress can make such stupid statements is now a standard expectation. Overall the tone of both SoniaG and RahulG is one of a family that has been generous to the people of this country and they should be grateful for the crumbs the family doles out. Well, unfortunately people in Gujarat have tasted a great amount of success and aren’t carried away with these emotional stories about Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru or any Gandhi family computer or mobile. 
  

However, like I said earlier, it’s not just what RG says but how the media responds to his speeches. Congress mouthpieces like NDTV in particular and CNN-IBN which can fall over each other to please their favoured party. Immediately after RG spoke at Jamnagar on December 11 NDTV carried a report summarising his speech. See their first headline at 12.27 in the image. I immediately tweeted (12.43) that it was an absolute lie and that RG never mentioned Modi even once in his whole speech. So what happens? Caught on the wrong foot NDTV changes its headline by 13.35 and the second one in the image is what the headline currently is (unless they’ve changed it again). There are many others on Twitter and SM who are now constantly keeping an eye on the spins of the media. There are journalists everywhere, except in the MSM. 
  

In a previous post I sought to explain how, having failed with the 2002 riots game, the media is now trying to portray Modi as a regional leader. Rajdeep Sardesai at 9pm on December 11 therefore asks “Is RahulG V Modi a no contest in Gujarat”. Some might miss the clever trick and spin in that tweet. Would RG Vs Modi at any other place be any contest at all? I doubt it. Modi is a man with facts on his fingers and a great orator. In contrast, RG is a ‘Gandhi’ and nothing more. He neither has any talent nor skills for politics. So, the video headline from RG’s Jamnagar speech on CNN-IBN says it all: “Rahul Campaigns, Finally”. That’s like Rajdeep Sardesai and CNN-IBN heaved a sigh of relief that RG finally showed up and delivered their money’s worth. I guarantee you neither NDTV nor CNN-IBN is going to do any fact-check on any statement made by RahulG or SoniaG. This is what people do; they feel the truth and the lies in their gut. They aren’t gullible fools like Justice Katju would like to think. The only fools are some of the Gandhi followers themselves as in the previous post “Boozing with confidence”.  

The arrogance with which the Gandhis claim they delivered everything to this nation is alarming and equally frivolous at the same time. And our media like faithful dogs allows this to continue without challenging them on facts. As Madhu Kishwar notes somewhere, most of the time RahulG is not even in India and no one even in his party knows which part of the world he is and what he does. If RG had the same attendance in any university that he has in the parliament he would be sacked without a second thought. The same arrogance and stupidity gets transferred to his cronies too. They too start making Bimboesque statements. Shweta Bhatt, the Jenny-come-lately, screams: “If I win, it will be a victory for Gujarat; if I lose, Gujarat will lose” (See Firstpost). Gujarat will lose? And she wants Gujaratis to vote for her? I have to say, if such morons lose it will be a big win not only for Gujarat or India but for humanity.  

Over a year ago I started using the term “Blow to Modi” as a sarcastic comment on everything positive that happens to him when the media was happy to keep delivering blows to him for any silly reason. To my surprise I found I have never used it as a title for any of my posts. It’s now quite a popular term on Twitter to snub the media. With the latest round of comedy all I can say is that Rahul Gandhi came, he saw, he spoke and he delivered the “Final Blow to Modi”.