Rahul Gandhi's grandmother, Indira Gandhi, was originally called
Goongi Gudiya by her contemporaries, including a few of her own senior party members. But she soon displayed political instinct which dazzled the likes of Richard Nixon. She always fought like a tigress when pushed to the wall, surrounded by hostile enemies.
Rahul Gandhi seems to be made of a different mettle. He shows neither glimpses of the famous Nehru-Gandhi elan nor the fighting capabilities of his grandmother. Rahul at best is a caricature of the past. He still lives in his own make-believe world and is unwilling to venture out of his comfort zone as the Crown Prince of his party. It's been two and a half years since Narendra Modi demolished Rahul Gandhi; his party vowed that after the defeat, he would re-emerge stronger, but there are no signs of Rahul Gandhi offering any competition to Modi.
In the last few days, he has once again shown that his claims are shrill and hollow. The seriousness in him seems to have gone for a walk. Yesterday, he threatened that he has certain "information" about the "personal corruption" of the Prime Minister; days earlier, he warned that when he spoke in parliament, he would set off an earthquake. Today, newspapers reported him saying - "Read my lips, the Prime Minister is personally terrified because of the information that I have... I want to reveal it in the Lok Sabha.. the government is not allowing me to speak ... the Prime Minister is afraid that if he lets me speak, then his balloon will burst." These are very serious statements and if stated by the leader of the main opposition party, then it is bound to be taken more seriously. Except how is that possible?
What is the nature of the information? Why he is waiting for the parliament to function to divulge the information? As far as the nature of the information goes, it's unclear how it will be different from the allegations of "personal corruption" against Modi in which he is accused of taking money from the two leading business houses - the Aditya Birla group and Sahara group - to the sum total of Rs 65 crores. Those who allege this cite notes made by officials who were raided by the tax department. The Supreme Court has repeatedly said it sees no evidence to support the charges against Modi raised by Prashant Bhushan, for example. This issue has been raised by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi assembly last month. There is some resemblance to the famous Jain hawala diary episode in 1995 -96 which ruined the careers of many politicians though none were convicted.
If Rahul has these papers, then his expose will not shake the world. Arvind has already taken this matter to the public, but the Supreme Court observation has watered down this issue a bit though the final judgement has yet to be pronounced. So to cause an earthquake, he has to offer more substance, otherwise, he will fall on his face. I don't think his advisers are that foolish, but one never knows! Secondly, if he does have meaningful documents, then what is he waiting for?
There is talk that perhaps Rahul is clutching onto the case of one Mahesh Shah from Gujarat, who created sensational headlines when it was reported that he had disclosed more than13,000 crores to authorities though he is an ordinary citizen with a meagre income and assets. He was supposed to disclose some names on a live TV show but was taken away by Gujarat investigators. Critics of the BJP say that he was acting as the frontman for senior BJP leaders. No evidence yet of this.
Whatever the information, people are deeply intrigued by Rahul's assertion that he will only speak "only" in parliament. Why? The public has every right to know. It does not matter if the information is divulged in parliament or outside.
And if the matter is related to a high constitutional authority, then it is paramount that it be revealed urgently. The government is bound by parliamentary rules to offer vital information first in the House. It is a different matter that Modi has broken with that to discuss the notes ban outside, but not in parliament, claiming that he's not being allowed to speak there by the opposition. But Rahul Gandhi as an opposition leader is not obliged to first make a disclosure in parliament. So his insistence on this appears frivolous.
There's also the fact that unfortunately, Rahul suffers from such low credibility in people's eyes -partly because of the massive propaganda by Modi and company, and partly of his own making, people are not able to take him at face value. Everyone is wondering if he is using the same tactics that senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy from the state of Wisconsin used during the US presidential elections in 1950s when he thundered that he had a list of members of the Communist party and Soviet spies and moles in the USA administration. It became a big election issue and was the reason for the defeat of the Democrat presidential candidate in reality, he never had any such list or names. He only had very sketchy information about the number of the people employed in the US administration who were suspected to be Soviet spies.
In the Indian context, V P Singh too used this tactic successfully in the 1989 parliamentary elections. He blamed Rahul's father, Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, for accepting bribes in the 64 crore Bofors scandal which proved to be his undoing. V P Singh used to brag by showing a piece of paper that he had Rajiv Gandhi's account number from the Swiss bank in which the Bofors money had been deposited. He never had Rajiv's account number. But Rajiv lost the elections. The Congress never again attained majority in the Lok Sabha despite forming the government three times at the centre after that.
We are living at a time when it is difficult to make a distinction between the truth and the lies. Modi and his team have mastered this art. They effectively disguise propaganda as reality and upto a certain extent have have succeeded.
Rahul can't afford to play on their pitch. If he has the information, he should play on the front foot like his grandmother used to do. She did not flinch when she decided to go to Assam despite the serious apprehension expressed by her father, Pandit Nehru, then Prime Minister, that she might be captured by the Chinese army during the 1962 war; she flew to Tamil Nadu in 1965 when a cyclone ravaged the state despite serious reservations of then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri; in 1977, she used an elephant to get to a part of Bihar when Dalits were massacred which played a big role in her political comeback in 1980 after the debacle of the Emergency.
Rahul should know that shrill thunder won't work. He has to prove that he has the dynamite to trigger an earthquake.
(Ashutosh joined the Aam Aadmi Party in January 2014.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.