Perhaps it is impolite to ask even a politician about his or her whereabouts. We have no right to presume the politician isn’t indisposed or attending to someone in his or her family whose frail health requires medical supervision. But hell, Kashmir has turned into a veritable watery grave and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is missing in action.
Projected as India’s Great Hope, at least among Congressmen, this assiduously cultivated image would have gained credibility had he become a symbol of solace in the tide of despair sweeping the Valley. He should have in his inimitable style rolled up his sleeves and walked around whispering words of sympathy and courage to the benumbed people of Kashmir or become an inspiration to thousands of volunteers offering their services there.
You’d say, good, he hasn’t visited Srinagar because he would have otherwise diverted the already hard-pressed army and police personnel from rescue and relief operations to organising his security. But couldn’t he have at least addressed the media in Delhi, expressed his solidarity with the suffering, galvanised Indians to contribute relief material, and, above all, spoken out against the attempts of separatists and rightwingers outside Kashmir to politicise a devastating natural calamity.
A raging controversy
Perhaps Rahul Gandhi isn’t in India. And if he isn’t around, rest assured, nobody in the Congress will likely go public to explain what has had him wing out of India. He is entitled to his privacy and we to our judgement of the man who should have been seen and heard in these days of humanitarian crisis in Kashmir, a crisis which shows all symptoms of becoming a raging political controversy as well.
Then again, wherever he may be, he could always have taken recourse to the social media in rethinking and repackaging the Congress' relief efforts of the Congress. In the party's messages so far, there is no personal touch, no expression of emotions. For instance, the official Twitter handle of the Congress, @INCINDIA, retweeted Congress leader Ajay Maken’s feed on September 8: “Sh. Rahul Gandhi appeals to all Youth Congress, NSUI and Seva Dal volunteers to help/participate in relief measures in J&K.”
Just as poet Sahir Ludhianvi thought the Taj Mahal mocks the love of the poor, the Kashmiris should be forgiven if they were to read in Maken’s tweet Rahul Gandhi’s and his party’s indifference to their suffering. This impression is bolstered by yet another message by Makan, again retweeted by @INCINDIA. “On directions of Congress President & VP, Congress Ruled States & IYC come forward to contribute in J&K relief measures,” it said. It would seem that had Sonia Gandhi and Rahul failed to issue specific directions to Congress workers, they would not have thought of contributing to the Kashmir relief work.
Missed opportunity
Might it have been too much to expect Rahul Gandhi to rush back from wherever he is to provide a personal touch to the Congress relief efforts? Might it have been not sagacious of him to caution against the increasingly motivated attempts to politicise the Kashmir floods? Rahul’s problem is he never appears to lead and rarely tries to set an agenda other than speak in politically correct language on secularism and the exclusion of the poor from development. Even on these two issues, he has not provided fresh perspectives about tackling these.
Rahul’s failure to deviate from the trite script on Kashmir is a betrayal of his family legacy. The link between the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and Kashmir is as old as India’s post-Independence history. Not only does Rahul have a Kashmiri lineage, his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was instrumental in persuading Sheikh Abdullah to cast his preference for India over Pakistan, subject to the promise of taking the consent of Kashmiris on this issue at a later date. Of course, the relationship between the Sheikh and Nehru soured subsequently, leading to Abdullah undergoing a long spell of incarceration.
But in 1974, the suppurating bitterness between the two families – the Gandhis and the Abdullahs – was squeezed out through the intervention of Rahul’s grandmother, Indira, who signed an accord with the Sheikh, leading to his becoming the chief minister of the state. The pivotal role the Gandhis played in Kashmir politics came to the fore, again, in 1987. The National Conference and the Congress, under Rajiv Gandhi’s leadership, entered into an electoral alliance that swept the state assembly polls.
The dawn of militancy
Most analysts feel the alliance was a trigger for the emergence of a militant secessionist movement. Earlier, Kashmiri resentment against Delhi was articulated through the National Conference. But because of the electoral alliance, it was now perceived as a puppet of the Congress. Into the ensuing political vacuum stepped the Muslim United Front, which participated in the 1987 elections. But so brazenly was the election rigged, so brutal was the role of the state in it, that several MUF candidates crossed over to Pakistan to initiate a militant movement.
This unfolding tragedy was just the moment Rahul could have utilised to repair the frayed relations between his family-party-country and the state. Not only would Kashmir have gained, at least psychologically and emotionally, from his healing touch, but it could also have established his leadership credentials and demonstrated his sensitivity, about which he often alludes.
Indeed, political parties take cue from their leaders. If you were to glance at the tweets of the Congress and its Facebook account, you’d think the flood-waters have receded and normalcy is about to return to the state. Sure, there are Congress chief ministers tweeting about the financial and material assistance their governments have rendered to Kashmir, true, there is a tweet lauding the party volunteers who have deployed themselves there, yes, Congress MP Rajeev Shukla thinks pelting stones at soldiers engaged in rescue operation is unacceptable. But such messages are overshadowed by the grand old party concentrating its energies on puncturing holes in former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai’s disclosures about Manmohan Singh, and mocking the Modi government about the price rise and love jihad.
Perhaps the Congress deserves the leader it has. Conversely, the leader deserves the party he has.
Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist who lives in Delhi. He is the author of The Hour Before Dawn, HarperCollins India, which will be released in December.
Projected as India’s Great Hope, at least among Congressmen, this assiduously cultivated image would have gained credibility had he become a symbol of solace in the tide of despair sweeping the Valley. He should have in his inimitable style rolled up his sleeves and walked around whispering words of sympathy and courage to the benumbed people of Kashmir or become an inspiration to thousands of volunteers offering their services there.
You’d say, good, he hasn’t visited Srinagar because he would have otherwise diverted the already hard-pressed army and police personnel from rescue and relief operations to organising his security. But couldn’t he have at least addressed the media in Delhi, expressed his solidarity with the suffering, galvanised Indians to contribute relief material, and, above all, spoken out against the attempts of separatists and rightwingers outside Kashmir to politicise a devastating natural calamity.
A raging controversy
Perhaps Rahul Gandhi isn’t in India. And if he isn’t around, rest assured, nobody in the Congress will likely go public to explain what has had him wing out of India. He is entitled to his privacy and we to our judgement of the man who should have been seen and heard in these days of humanitarian crisis in Kashmir, a crisis which shows all symptoms of becoming a raging political controversy as well.
Then again, wherever he may be, he could always have taken recourse to the social media in rethinking and repackaging the Congress' relief efforts of the Congress. In the party's messages so far, there is no personal touch, no expression of emotions. For instance, the official Twitter handle of the Congress, @INCINDIA, retweeted Congress leader Ajay Maken’s feed on September 8: “Sh. Rahul Gandhi appeals to all Youth Congress, NSUI and Seva Dal volunteers to help/participate in relief measures in J&K.”
Just as poet Sahir Ludhianvi thought the Taj Mahal mocks the love of the poor, the Kashmiris should be forgiven if they were to read in Maken’s tweet Rahul Gandhi’s and his party’s indifference to their suffering. This impression is bolstered by yet another message by Makan, again retweeted by @INCINDIA. “On directions of Congress President & VP, Congress Ruled States & IYC come forward to contribute in J&K relief measures,” it said. It would seem that had Sonia Gandhi and Rahul failed to issue specific directions to Congress workers, they would not have thought of contributing to the Kashmir relief work.
Missed opportunity
Might it have been too much to expect Rahul Gandhi to rush back from wherever he is to provide a personal touch to the Congress relief efforts? Might it have been not sagacious of him to caution against the increasingly motivated attempts to politicise the Kashmir floods? Rahul’s problem is he never appears to lead and rarely tries to set an agenda other than speak in politically correct language on secularism and the exclusion of the poor from development. Even on these two issues, he has not provided fresh perspectives about tackling these.
Rahul’s failure to deviate from the trite script on Kashmir is a betrayal of his family legacy. The link between the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and Kashmir is as old as India’s post-Independence history. Not only does Rahul have a Kashmiri lineage, his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was instrumental in persuading Sheikh Abdullah to cast his preference for India over Pakistan, subject to the promise of taking the consent of Kashmiris on this issue at a later date. Of course, the relationship between the Sheikh and Nehru soured subsequently, leading to Abdullah undergoing a long spell of incarceration.
But in 1974, the suppurating bitterness between the two families – the Gandhis and the Abdullahs – was squeezed out through the intervention of Rahul’s grandmother, Indira, who signed an accord with the Sheikh, leading to his becoming the chief minister of the state. The pivotal role the Gandhis played in Kashmir politics came to the fore, again, in 1987. The National Conference and the Congress, under Rajiv Gandhi’s leadership, entered into an electoral alliance that swept the state assembly polls.
The dawn of militancy
Most analysts feel the alliance was a trigger for the emergence of a militant secessionist movement. Earlier, Kashmiri resentment against Delhi was articulated through the National Conference. But because of the electoral alliance, it was now perceived as a puppet of the Congress. Into the ensuing political vacuum stepped the Muslim United Front, which participated in the 1987 elections. But so brazenly was the election rigged, so brutal was the role of the state in it, that several MUF candidates crossed over to Pakistan to initiate a militant movement.
This unfolding tragedy was just the moment Rahul could have utilised to repair the frayed relations between his family-party-country and the state. Not only would Kashmir have gained, at least psychologically and emotionally, from his healing touch, but it could also have established his leadership credentials and demonstrated his sensitivity, about which he often alludes.
Indeed, political parties take cue from their leaders. If you were to glance at the tweets of the Congress and its Facebook account, you’d think the flood-waters have receded and normalcy is about to return to the state. Sure, there are Congress chief ministers tweeting about the financial and material assistance their governments have rendered to Kashmir, true, there is a tweet lauding the party volunteers who have deployed themselves there, yes, Congress MP Rajeev Shukla thinks pelting stones at soldiers engaged in rescue operation is unacceptable. But such messages are overshadowed by the grand old party concentrating its energies on puncturing holes in former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai’s disclosures about Manmohan Singh, and mocking the Modi government about the price rise and love jihad.
Perhaps the Congress deserves the leader it has. Conversely, the leader deserves the party he has.
Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist who lives in Delhi. He is the author of The Hour Before Dawn, HarperCollins India, which will be released in December.
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