“We deal with deception here. What we do not deal with is self-deception”. That piece of Freudian advice for Rahul Gandhi comes from the Martin Scorsese movie ‘The Departed’. And if he doesn’t learn and show maturity soon, he will join the ‘the departed’ in political terms, alongside his tutor Digvijay Singh.
As a fresh entrant Rahul came in with an enthusiasm and a claim for party democracy and cleanliness in politics. One can forgive him for being ignorant about the Congress (I) itself and about India as a whole. In the quest to prove himself, his journey in politics has been from one stupid station to another. On the way he had to pick up a guru, someone like Digivijay Singh, a political has-been. Cuddled and adored by an ass-licking media Rahul could hardly understand his own ignorance of the country and the issues facing it. The more they covered him the more they led him to believe that he is true deliverance for this nation. He started believing his own lies and unfortunate utterances. His self-deception did not allow him to introspect or to understand that he was already talking like his has-been mentor, Digvijay.
To compound his self-deception, CNN-IBN crowns him ‘Indian of the year’ for the supposed Congress turnaround in UP. This might sound like the Congress won a thumping majority in UP. No, that’s not the case. This must have further cemented his belief that he was some ‘prince-charming’ soon to be emperor. Given that on any clear or dark day the Congress is a party of sycophants it makes it that much harder for Rahul to hear the truth from any quarter. Not even the media will tell him. It took Wikileaks to call the 'emperor's new clothes'!
The recent Bihar elections brought his world crashing down. Defeat apart, his strategy that was supposed to have energised the Congress in UP had halved the number of seats in the Bihar assembly. Not even worthy of being a recognised Opposition party. Does he take any responsibility? No! His Congress goons and sycophants cover up for him yet again. Since the Bihar defeat Rahul Gandhi has disappeared from public view, except to issue a ‘clean’ certificate for Manmohan Singh in the various scams confronting the government. Increasingly, the Digvijay-Rahul team is a hindu-bashing duo without any responsibility of any kind whatsoever. Increasingly, Rahul’s political behaviour has been much like the has-been Digvijay. Increasingly, his political career is being built around stupid utterances rather than sound political insight. And it appears, Digvijay has taught him great lessons on how to put the lipstick on the media.
Many of his stupid utterances, of which one can compile a long list, were often swept aside or ignored, being made mostly to Indian audiences. His ‘Hindu terror’ comment to an American diplomat is one more in a long list. On the face of it, it is just that, another stupid comment from an ignoramus. It is not some comment that his Congress party members have not made in the past. The Congress party itself is based on an ‘Anti-Hindu’ and ‘Muslim-appeasement’ ideology. It is the reaction, of which there was none directly from Rahul himself, of their spokespersons who immediately rubbished it as a ‘conspiracy’ and then realising there can be no defence for such a comment, decided to go on the offensive. The Manish Tiwaris, the Abhishek Singhvis and the Jayanthi Natarajans followed with how Rahul views all terror equally. That’s more lipstick for Rahul. It was easy for the Congress to distance themselves from the deceptions of a Digivijay Singh. But how could they possibly distance themselves from their prince charming? So, the only option left was to go on an offensive and bring in all other issues when this particular comment is being discussed on any forum.
The media has a long term interest in sucking up to Rahul Gandhi. The current PM, Manmohan Singh, may not see another term. So it makes good sense to invest in the future, so by glorifying Rahul Gandhi’s political escapades and hiding the truth from him they further strengthen his self-deception. One such glorification was his travel to Mumbai and on the local trains (with a minister carrying his footwear) as a complete demolition of the Shiv Sena. If Rahul had any political sense, he should have known that the Shiv Sena is no great political power in itself and apart from some rabble rousing poses no real threat to the Congress. In contrast, when addressing students in Darbhanga (Bihar) in February 2010 it was Rahul who faced the ire of students for ill-treatment of Biharis in Maharashtra.
The persuasions of the Congress to not identify or deal with ‘Islamic Terror’ is not too hard to see for anyone. Even if there was ‘Hindu terror’ I doubt it poses as serious a threat as an intellectually, diplomatically and morally challenged Rahul Gandhi. And his self-deception is his personal problem. But it’s the media that encourages this deception. No matter how much lipstick the media puts on him... he is destined to be a ......In any other democracy he would have been a laughing stock and a never-ending source of inspiration for cartoonists.
Cartoon sources: 1. By Tom Toles – The Washington Post 2. John Cole - The Times-Tribune
