Rahul Gandhi looks ready for a bigger battle

If he capitalises on some of the mistakes made by the ruling NDA, it could be the beginning of a new phase

Sometimes a small positive picture is worth a thousand critical words. I was looking at photographs of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi speaking at the University of California, Berkeley in September. He looks quiet, composed, easy and autonomous. He looks sensible, and spoke sense. The photographs are in stark contrast to the many shot in India where Rahul Gandhi looks distracted. The latter photographs lack presence but the ones at Berkeley conveys a presence.

The contrast is stark and sets one wondering.

Maybe Rahul Gandhi needed a change in context, a chance to be himself. The audience in Berkeley felt more open and he was more candid developing a different narrative of the non-resident Indian, distinct from the Silicon Valley pomposity. Getting his historical analogues right, the Congress vice-president said the party itself was an achievement of an older generation of non-resident Indians.

In that sense many of the great figures in the Congress, went out of India, got foreign degrees before they returned to join the nationalist struggle against the British government. The roll call includes Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar.

It was a small nugget of insight but a substantial one. He added in a self-deprecatory style that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a successful communicator, more successful than he was.

The photograph where he stands with Sam Pitroda and other American politicos again conveys a man who has got his message across, content with his argument. The inanity and mediocrity projected on him has disappeared. Rahul Gandhi looks ready for a bigger struggle and easy about it. Of course one might be reading too much into a small event, but there is a sense of a difference, a nuance that one feels is critical.

One senses a footnote of success and the best certification of Rahul Gandhi’s success is the hysteria that accompanies it in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s English and Hindi publications — Panchjanya and The Organiser. Both dismissed University of California, Berkeley, as the American version of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

A magazine that was dismissive of Rahul Gandhi, condemning him as a dynast, now suddenly senses that this dynast could be politically formidable for the BJP. Sometimes hysteria is the best compliment an opponent can pay to a rival. There is another set of points one needs to make. One is not asking for performative miracles but every instance in which Rahul Gandhi sounds coherent, competent and convincing is a sign of hope. I am not saying that such performative acts are enough. The Congress as a party needs more than one miracle but small beginnings could make sense.

Rahul Gandhi is conveying an admission of past mistakes. Maybe he is rethinking away from the bumblings of Digvijay Singh. Maybe he has discovered that wandering to new contexts, thinking on your own, outside the iron cage of the old Congress, might refresh his thoughts and strategies.

If Rahul Gandhi capitalises on some of the mistakes made by the ruling National Democratic Alliance government, his learning curve changes. That is all one needs for now. A man who is quietly competent, conveying a quiet presence, waiting for a chance, letting the Bharatiya Janata Party tie itself into knots.

A sense of hope. A message that people are still waiting for an Opposition to rise to the occasion. A small plateau of possibilities but politics often begins in these small nuances. One hopes for a new team, a different approach to ideas, a renewed sense of the vibrancy of Opposition not the kneejerk comments of a fatalistic Opposition. Let us hope Rahul Gandhi sustains it.

Sometimes a footnote is the beginning of a new history. Rahul Gandhi has to understand this, that Indians are patience and generous. They are still ready, waiting and willing to be surprised by him. The Congress is still a political habit that many Indians do not want to abandon.

ONE IS NOT ASKING FOR PERFORMATIVE MIRACLES BUT EVERY INSTANCE IN WHICH RAHUL GANDHI SOUNDS COHERENT, COMPETENT AND CONVINCING IS A SIGN OF HOPE