Rahul Gandhi wrote an article to convince people that he is not ‘anti-business’, but ‘anti-monopoly’: Here is how he is fooling everyone

Rahul Gandhi has recently written an article for a newspaper about his “new deal” for Indian business and also a video about how he is not “anti-business” but only anti-monopoly”.

Choose your India:

Play-Fair or Monopoly?
Jobs or Oligarchies?
Competence or Connections?
Innovation or Intimidation?
Wealth for many or the few?

I write on why a New Deal for Business isn't just an option. It is India's future. pic.twitter.com/sGbC89ZFMF

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 6, 2024

While this may seem like a positive development, given his vitriolic attacks on Indian businesses especially ones engaged in infrastructure and other businesses with long cycles, there are more than enough reasons to be sceptical.

Let us go into the details. 

First, the article for Indian Express. Astute observers like Padmaja have alleged that the article is plagiarised from Edmund Burke’s paper for Cambridge, enhanced with some AI masala.

This is Plagiarism, just read two lines and realized this article is a smartly copied view of Chapter 13—Edmond Burke on India -published online by Cambridge University Press on 05 December 2012 and later improved by one of the AI platforms. There is no need to read further.…

— Padmaja 🇮🇳 (@prettypadmaja) November 6, 2024

There were several high-profile reactions to the allegation as well.

Would be interesting to see original copy of chapter 13 in Edmond Burke’s 2012 work from which @RahulGandhi’s op-ed is allegedly plagiarised. If so, editors at @IndianExpress have very poor ability to spot plagiarism. So too Rahul’s PR-edit team whose bright idea this was. https://t.co/dE3moO0Hpj

— Minhaz Merchant (@MinhazMerchant) November 7, 2024

In any case, it is quite likely ghost-written by some Palazzo serf. After all, the Crown Prince has in the past been photographed copying a simple obituary message from his mobile phone! His intellectual power is the stuff of WhatsApp jokes and memes.

Let us set aside the plagiarism part – frankly, I have not read the Burke article and I cannot confirm. In any case, what matters is what he is saying. Ghostwriting is also not uncommon among political leaders, let us skip that too. To be fair, he won’t be the first or only one and it is OK as leaders use aides and experts to write stuff. In a way that is better than spouting his own nonsense. 

I’m not even going into the issue of an entitled dynast from a family that monopolised power and privilege and wants to continue to do so in perpetuity, using a corrupt feudal ecosystem of media coolies, talking like a saint about monopoly. Let’s give him a free pass on that.

The gist of that article is that he links East India Company’s colonial loot with modern monopolies and offers us a “new deal” for “progressive” businesses. Bizarrely he lists Bajaj Auto among the companies that have “innovated” and “played by rules” in contrast with the “monopolies”. Ask your father or grandpa who had to wait years for a scooter that didn’t change much for years when Bajaj was the only game in town during the dynasty era! Small mercy he did not list Ambassador Car or Hindustan Motors, guess he too is clever enough to know they are out of business since the competition arrived.

The article was followed by a media campaign by the usual serfs to sell the article and its alleged author as some revolutionary that has come to clean up the Indian economy. It is amazing to watch the low bar the Darbari media ecosystem sets for the shehzada. Presumably, they think he is a dimwit so even putting out this article is a great sign of intellectual maturity and sagacity. 

Rajdeep Sardesai immediately declared it a “model” and wanted a debate with the Modi model! Is writing an article, plagiarised or otherwise, for a newspaper or portal a “model”?!

Story that caught the eye: @RahulGandhi writes an op-ed in @IndianExpress to expand on his ‘New Deal’ views on big business and his stand against monopolistic tendencies. Maybe we should have a debate between the Rahul and Modi model of doing business in India? pic.twitter.com/ZLo1Y2j8JJ

— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) November 6, 2024

Shall we debate the “Ganesh model” then?! Rajdeep had no guts to question why that “model” was not implemented in states ruled by Congress or the nation when it had ample time to do so. After all, not just Bajaj and Ambassador, numerous other monopolies flourished in the dynastic loot era in a mutually convenient neta-babu-lala ecosystem. More on that later.

As if that article were not revolutionary enough he followed up with a short video on X where he declared he is not anti-business.

Now let us get to the meat of this article! Is this a sign of big change? Should we be fooled again?

Good news first – the very fact that he writes such articles and posts such videos is a sign of progress. He has not bothered all these years while spewing venom against businesses that takes us right back to the Nehru-Indira era of socialism. Clearly someone with brains is telling him – enough is enough and he should present himself as a PM role aspirant not some Maoist NGO activist. Small though the mercy is, it is to be welcomed.

After all, we know that Nehru-Indira socialism was just a facade for rent-seeking politicians, corrupt babus and crooked businessmen to continue to enjoy monopoly, producing the same product for decades without innovation, preventing entry of newcomers and imports. It was justified with grandiose statements of ideology and subaltern politics. Corrupt leftist academia/media ecosystem, in exchange for table scraps of loot, favours and gigs, sang praise of this system while the rest of India withered away or ran abroad. We saw countries like Indonesia or Malaysia that did not have this burden race ahead.

Even Modi Sarkar couldn’t completely take down this edifice of babudom because it is so well entrenched in years of dynastic loot rule. Every step forward he takes, he must face the entire ecosystem hollering blue murder, planting articles in the media. Like Congress forced to use ‘soft Hindutva’, Modi has also been forced to use ‘soft reforms’.

But there are more than enough reasons to be sceptical about this change if it is indeed one. Like his embrace of OBC politics and his sudden love for the constitution (or a red book with blank pages), this too could be a too-clever-by-half trick simply to get back to power again in Delhi so damaadshri can get back to his good old days. 

1. He has not repudiated the neta-babu-lala ecosystem that Congress empowered, which resulted in exploitative monopolies and miserable products and services for consumers. He tried to go back to the colonial era to seek contrast when something much more recent was readily available. 
2. He has not disassociated himself from the JNU Maoist cabal that has infested his inner circle nor has he reduced the role of Jairam Ramesh and other practically-commie advisors and sycophants. 
3. Needless to say, he has not withdrawn from the INDI alliance that includes the CPM and other fringe left parties.
4. He has not denounced or distanced from the Soros ecosystem that funds fringe left and other destructive outfits.
5. He has not instructed his serfs like Jairam Iyengar to stop attacking Indian businesses trying to gain foothold abroad – instead they are attacking them non-stop. On the contrary, Macron, Biden, Xi or any other leader supports, even actively lobbies for their country’s business. 
6. No one believes the “oh we are only opposed to big business exploitation” story – petty traders or factory owners can’t set up ports or railways abroad.  ALL business is for profit & therefore exploitative in leftist jargon. Boeing, Hitachi, Rafale, Adani, Huawei, Thales, Airbus – you name it, they are all the same and work for maximising profits. They get support from their governments. Not sabotage.
7. His own CMs are ignoring his vitriolic rhetoric and signing up for deals and even photo-ops with the very same moneybags he is demonising. Rahul is simply trying to make a virtue out of a humiliating reality.
8. His assurance in the article that even the monopolists shouldn’t be “in fear” seems like a pitch for donation or buying him off. After all that’s how Indian politics worked long before Modi or BJP.
9. Yet another push factor is that the old class war tactics and pitting Indians against Indian business is no longer a saleable. It worked for Indira G but not now. People, whether they are employed or jobless, have come to realise that investments bring jobs. And private businesses, not Soros or NGOs invest. They are not fooled by anti-business rhetoric of corrupt dynasts they suspect are on the rolls of the same moneybags. 
10. Again, dimwit shehzada belatedly realises he is stuck in rut of the 1950s and his voters have moved on. Let us not make a virtue of it.

So what will convince me and in my opinion, others like me that want to see India move away from decades of socialism and sloth, find it’s place in the world? 

1. I want Rahul and Congress to completely rid themselves of Aiyars, Jairams and other JNU Maoist ideological waste that Deng flushed away – tell them to go join the CPM where at least they are honest about their plank and ideology. 
2. I want Rahul to apologise for his past track record and that of his granny’s and stop demonising Indian business. He is free to point out specific charges of corruption but only if he has evidence – not empty words and rhetoric. 
3. I want Rahul to speak on economic matters from the right – take on Nirmala Sitharaman and her MCA/IT babus and challenge them to de-regulate, simplify and reduce the burden of compliance, be it on GST, IT, Corporate laws or whatever.
4. I want Rahul to speak about nonsensical rules and taxes like TCS – I want him to question why it took 11 years to get rid of angel tax terror and ask when the rest of the monstrosities will go.
5. I want him to stand up for Indians facing up to babudom in their daily lives as businesses or individuals. Babudom, that is a direct product of 50 years of his family rule. I want him to DEMAND, not OPPOSE, outside talent in bureaucracy and government. Stop the hypocrisy – MMS was one, so was Rajan!  One is Khatri Sikh the other Tambram. Best way to help OBC and Dalits is create an economy that’s firing on all cylinders using best available talent. 
6. I want Rahul to instruct his CMs to cooperate on GST reform – not just talk one thing in public and another in council meetings. Did any suggest simplified unitary rate that her talks loose about, put it to vote? We are not fools.
7. I want to see Rahul attacking Modi for NOT doing enough to help our businesses conquer distant markets – not the reverse.
8. I want Rahul’s advisors not to waste time ghostwriting articles, plagiarised or not. Instead draft a simple, beautiful IT Act or Companies Act and dare the Modi sarkar to pass it! Introduce the bill – you have enough talent and expertise. Then demand credit, you will get it!

Do this and more along these lines, Rahulji, you will have more of the young, educated, aspirational class of Indians supporting you. If not you are only left with sycophants like Rajdeeps, Sharmas, Banerjees and Pandey’s trying to sing songs. 

If I have not said this before, let me end this by saying it again – we are not fools. We have seen thru your nautankis and empty words. Three times.