Congress today announced Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into active politics. She is made the All India Congress Committee General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh East. Priyanka Gandhi is the sister of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, daughter of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, granddaughter of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and great-granddaughter of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Clearly, she is well qualified to become a politician, considering not only the family she is related to by blood is riddled in scams, but even the family she is married into has had its share of run-ins with the law.
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Just like Rahul Gandhi turns a new leaf and shows exemplary maturity every few years, Priyanka Gandhi has made it to news a few times as the only hope for Congress. Congress workers and supporters have demanded Priyanka Gandhi forays into active politics and take over the reins for a few years now.
By announcing Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into active politics, Congress seems to have laid down all the cards it had in the upcoming 2019 general elections, which is widely pegged as ‘make or break’ election for Congress President Rahul Gandhi who has been eyeing the post of the PM. The usual suspects are extremely elated and have declared the game over for the BJP. After all, how can Modi win against Priyanka Gandhi, whose only claim to fame is being born in the family she is born in? Many have called it a masterstroke.
The story isn’t just that Priyanka Gandhi is formally entering politics. It is that she has chosen the one region most tough for Congress: Eastern UP where she directly takes on Modi & Yogi. This kind of go-for-broke risk-taking is uncharacteristic of Cong/Gandhi family
— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) January 23, 2019
Nostradamus Swati Chaturvedi had also predicted this way back in November.
Priyanka Gandhi is going for broke taking on Modi & Yogi in eastern UP. Cong will have to get its act together in terms of organisation https://t.co/Ibuh3OMIJM
— Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) January 23, 2019
I have a theory that Swati tweets/writes multiple possible outcomes on different dates, and when any of them actually happen, she springs into action on how she was the first to break the story, while in reality, she is probably waking up, picking 3 chits and writing a faff piece on it.
Moving on, Congress’ ‘masterstroke’ comes after series of such ‘masterstrokes’. It started with Rafale. After realising that people are not really buying the ‘Rafale is a scam’ theory, Rahul Gandhi shifted to EVMs are hacked drama. A very bizarre press conference was held in London earlier this week where Congress’ Kapil Sibal was monitoring the ridiculous accusations being levelled against the EVMs and Election Commission. So absurd were the allegations that even Aam Aadmi Party supporters called it out. Imagine, people who still believe in Arvind Kejriwal didn’t believe in allegations thrown around in this presser.
The ‘intolerance is rising’ card has also been played. It is easy when you have a friendly media and ‘data-journalists’ paid by you who have no qualms in fudging data and portraying factually incorrect data to suit your agenda. Did you know Congress’ data analytics department head Praveen Chakravarty is the founding trustee of IndiaSpend, the ‘data-journalists’ who regularly misrepresent facts and peddle agenda? It is a lesson in ecosystem everyone should learn, though. As Paulo Coelho said, ‘And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it’. When Congress wants something, the entire ecosystem conspires in helping to achieve it.
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Congress has done its bit with help of friends in the system to spread lies about Piyush Goyal, Arun Jaitley, Amit Shah, Ajit Doval and failed miserably. Articles, opinion pieces are written regularly targeting the BJP ministers and every other day someone from film industry will declare that there is rising intolerance in the country and Muslims are not safe. Someone will claim that the independent institutes and agencies are all compromised. Democracy is under threat – all in last four and a half years.
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So much has been Modi’s influence that even Arvind Kejriwal went from calling Sharad Pawar a black money hoarder to joining hands with him as a show of strength against Modi. Rahul Gandhi and Congress, during other state elections, have tried other tricks, temple run to promising the Ram temple at Ayodhya. All done and dusted.
Elections hinge heavily on what happens int he last 2 months leading up to the elections. Congress has been furthering the same old rhetoric for the last 4 years. The scam allegations were based on empty rhetoric. The corruption allegations were struck down by the court. They have played the Muslim appeasement card. They have played the pseudo-Hindutva card. They have instigated riots. Supported the tukde tukde gang. Support the urban Naxals and called them activists. They have stalled the parliament and refused to let it work. They have supported Triple Talaq. They have opposed Ram Mandir. They have lied and obfuscated. Tried to cast aspersions on the Judiciary and use the Judiciary for their political ends. They have tried every trick in the book.
The only card they have left was Priyanka Gandhi and her resemblance to Indira Gandhi. With that card being played already, Congress seems to be all-in. With Priyanka Gandhi getting active in politics, (the announcement came when she was actually abroad, and she will take charge once she is back in India in February), Congress has put all the cards on the table. There does not seem to be anything new Congress has to offer to Indian voters except for the rhetorics.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi has not even gone into campaign mode yet. As we enter the thick of election season, the next few days are just going to get interesting.
