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).
“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.
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”.
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!
