Even as India awaits the election results which will be declared on May 23, Congress-friendly media has already started building up a case that Rahul Gandhi should not be dismissed as yet. And while Indian media continues to write editorials and opinion pieces that Rahul Gandhi has come of age (yet again), the BBC has gone a step ahead and tweaked the timeline.
In a profile posted by BBC yesterday, the publication too echoed that Rahul Gandhi should not be written off just as yet. That he still continues to be a formidable force, except 2024 may be a realistic goal for him to eye. After all, his great grandfather, grandmother, father – all have been the prime ministers of India so it is only natural for him to take over the ‘Family Business’.
BBC mentions how Rahul Gandhi has grown as a politician who was described as clueless by the media to how he has recovered the lost ground as a politician. “His social media campaigns have become smarter, he’s been arguing convincingly about the government’s controversial currency ban, a lack of employment opportunities, growing intolerance in the country and the slowdown in the economy. He’s also consistently demanded answers from the government on alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal,” says the BBC.
Congress social media team has been caught spreading morphed images, fake news and has had gaffes galore in the past few years.
The BBC says Rahul Gandhi has been ‘arguing convincingly’ about demonetisation. The Ahmedabad District Co-operative Bank had filed a criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for alleging that the bank was involved in a Rs 750 crore scam right after demonetisation. Congress was also found spreading half-truths and whole lies on demonetisation a year after it was implemented. Guess lying about the demonetisation is considered ‘arguing convincingly’ on the same.
The BBC then talks about ‘lack of employment opportunities, growing intolerance and the slowdown of the economy’ as points on which Rahul Gandhi argues convincingly on. Sorry to break it to you, Beeb, a recent report showed a 38% rise in job creation in the IT sector in last one year. Around 15 million jobs have been created per year by the Modi government. Wonder what ‘lack of employment opportunity and slowdown of economy’ argument of Rahul is convincing. With regard to ‘rising intolerance’, that is something we agree upon. Recently, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee jailed a person because she shared a meme, mocking Mamata. In fact, even Congress hooligans were recently caught vandalising movie theatres. Unfortunately, these incidents don’t make it to Rahul Gandhi’s arguments on ‘rising intolerance’.
Moving on to our favourite. The BBC says that Rahul Gandhi has “consistently demanded answers from the government on alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal.” The BBC does not put out a disclaimer that these allegations have been categorically refuted multiple times and that Rahul Gandhi is inconsistent with the figures and is essentially lying through this teeth about the ‘Rafale scam’. Wonder if BBC will include this shoddy profile as well in the dubious database of websites which they accuse of spreading fake news.
BBC credits Rahul Gandhi for bringing his sister, the ‘charismatic and popular’ Priyanka Gandhi into politics to revive the party in Uttar Pradesh. In a major blow to Jyotiraditya Scindia, BBC forgets to mention that Priyanka is in charge of Eastern UP and Scindia in Western UP. Secondly, the same ‘charismatic and popular’ Priyanka Gandhi is essentially making self-goals for Congress, embarrassing the party more than her brother did. And that people are leaving the party because they Priyanka reportedly humiliated them? No? It’s okay, Beeb, we get it.
The BBC mentions that how in 2004 Rahul ‘plunged’ into politics by standing from Amethi, a seat his father ‘had once held’. BBC cleverly forgets to mention that Amethi seat has been won by a member of Nehr-Gandhi family since the 1980s. His uncle Sanjay Gandhi, father Rajiv Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi have all fought and won from Amethi. That before Rahul contested from Amethi, Sonia Gandhi was holding on to the seat.
And now, the BBC has gone a step ahead to revise the timeline to when can we write off Rahul Gandhi as a credible politician. The BBC has given five more years to Rahul Gandhi to ‘come of age’, again.
In what could only be termed as poetic justice, the BBC seems to have bend its knee to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
