On the 3rd of May, a video went viral on the internet allegedly showing Rahul Gandhi partying in Kathmandu, Nepal. While every politician can have a personal life and can party as much as they want, the timing of this video reflects really badly on the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi.
Less than 2 months ago, Congress suffered a humiliating loss in 5 states in the assembly elections. While their main rival on the national stage Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) coasted to a win in 4 of the states, the one state Congress had won comfortably in 2017, Punjab, Congress suffered a crushing loss to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Such a humiliating loss forced even the staunchest Congress supporters to pause and reflect on where the party is going wrong, but apparently, it didn’t affect Rahul Gandhi in the slightest. His usual foreign trips continued as usual, while the party struggles for relevance in Indian politics now.
Since the humiliating loss, dissenting voices in Congress have started gathering steam, with the infamous G-23 group making their discomfort with the Gandhis’ leadership clear. However, they are still not powerful enough to do anything about the leadership of the party as the dissenting group mostly consists of ex-Rajya Sabha MPs who have no public connect, but then who has a public connect in Congress these days.
The Congress response to the defeat was typical of the party these days. They forced all state presidents to submit resignations, took disciplinary action against any leader warning them of the loss, and Gandhis who led the campaign were left untouched.
Congress was recently trying to induct poll-strategist Prashant Kishor into their party, he even came and gave a long presentation to Congress leadership on how to improve themselves. Eventually, nothing worked out as Kishor didn’t want the responsibility for the 2024 elections on his head, while Congress is looking for anyone other than Gandhis to take responsibility for their inevitable 2024 loss. However, the interesting thing to note here is that while Congress was trying to finalize its strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi was finalizing the tickets for his next foreign trip.
PM Narendra Modi has already beaten Rahul Gandhi decisively twice, first time in 2014 and then again in 2019, Congress has been humbled in various state elections as well during the last 8-9 years but even if we ignore them, on the national stage there is no contest. Every time Congress pits Rahul against Modi, Modi will triumph. Everyone in the whole world knows that except Congress members who keep promoting Rahul Gandhi as the face of the party.
Even Rahul Gandhi keeps dropping hints that he is not really interested in politics but just like Indian voters, even Congress members don’t take him seriously and ignore his hints. He disappears during Lok Sabha sessions, he goes abroad when there is an opportunity to attack the Modi government, he is out partying in Kathmandu while Congress is facing internal dissent and has no roadmap for 2024.
Compare this to the 24×7 politicians on the other side like Modi and Amit Shah. Before one election gets over, they are in the next state facing elections. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi comes for election campaigning like a government employee approaching retirement comes for work, just for formality. At the age of 71, Modi shows more energy than Rahul Gandhi does at 51.
To be fair, Rahul Gandhi has dropped enough hints during his political career that he doesn’t want to be here, he would much rather live his life abroad away from the Indian media and Indian politics. However, the Congress party still doesn’t accept it and keeps forcing him to be their face every election. If they continue to follow that path, 2024 can also be declared a foregone conclusion.
