Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has been dented. Last month, the Bharatiya Janata Party was routed in the Delhi elections. Modi's key legislative initiatives have run into obstacles in Parliament. The Opposition appears to have figured out how to present a united front, even if they are dissenting internally. Yet there's one problem for the Congress: none of this is going to benefit the party tremendously.
Anti-Modi sentiment might be building in some quarters, fueled in a big way by the feeling that the Land Acquisition amendments are anti-farmer, but for now this isn't going to make people suddenly nostalgic for the United Progressive Alliance. The Congress still has the same problems it has had for a while now: it is still seen as corrupt, not clued in to the aspirational mood of the electorate and its leader is the thoroughly uninspiring Rahul Gandhi.
Two developments in the last week have, however, given the Congress a vision of how to turn political events to its advantage. The first was former prime minister Manmohan Singh's summons from a special court for his alleged involvement in the coal allocations scam. The second was the news of a Delhi police official hanging around Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's office, asking for details like his whereabouts and the colour of his eyes. The party has sought to sell this as evidence of "political espionage."
Put together, the Congress would like to build a narrative of being persecuted by Modi and speaking up for the poor in the face of such adversity.
Indian National Aam Aadmi Congress
The Congress has been trying to figure out what tack to take on national issues ever since it was trounced in the Lok Sabha polls last year. Over the last few months the party's own narrative seems to have started to take shape. It will be attempting to sell itself as the party that defends the interests of the poor, effectively taking it even more further to the left than before. Alongside this, it will seek to bring Rahul Gandhi's own fight-the-system storyline to the fore by paradoxically crowning him as the party's leader.
The first major issue the party sought to take up was the land acquisition ordinance promulgated by the government last year. This fits into the pro-poor image very well: the government can be painted as favouring crony capitalists and big business, while the Congress can fight on behalf of the little men. Unfortunately, the agitation against it has come at just the same time that Rahul Gandhi decided to disappear on leave, a sign many saw as being a tantrum to get his way in the party.
This meant the Congress couldn't take ownership of the issue that has truly been the first big political misstep of the Modi government, with that space being taken up by other opposition parties like the Trinamool Congress and even Anna Hazare. Even though Congress leaders used Rahul Gandhi's preferred Aam Aadmi Party-style tactics to agitate against the ordinance, the vice president's own disappearance was harder to explain.
Big Brother Narendrabhai
Then the Manmohan Singh summons came. Congress president Sonia Gandhi marched out in support of the former prime minister, a gesture her party hadn't extended to previous leaders who had come under the scanner. But even that could only be taken so far because the move had come from a court, and not the government. So finally the party has hit upon what it is calling Snoopgate 2.
As such, this is mild stuff. A police official carrying out a proforma inquiry at Rahul Gandhi's office, based on a system that has been followed for years now, from 1957 according to the Delhi Police commissioner. Even if this particular incident was unusual, it is still far from being oppressive surveillance. A cop asking about the colour of Rahul Gandhi's eyes is hardly ominous.
It's also not an emotive issue that an ordinary person would be worried about. Instead of making people worried about the surveillance state, the general reaction from most has been to make jokes about Rahul Gandhi being missing.
As a result, the Congress has pulled out the Snoopgate tag, to connect the case to Modi's alleged usage of state machinery to snoop on a woman while he was Gujarat chief minister. Congress leaders, like Shashi Tharoor, have also tried to make it about more than Rahul, almost spelling the spin out in an article for NDTV: "This is not just about Rahul Gandhi, but about all of us."
But the key is the narrative of persecution. If the Congress can turn the general anti-Modi sentiment, which is built on the idea that the PM is only working for crony interests and couple that with a narrative that suggests Modi is out to get the Congress in underhand ways, it would allow them to be seen as the true defenders of the people's interests. For this to work though, people have to see Snoopgate 2 as a serious issue. And, even harder than that, people have to be able to take Rahul Gandhi's leadership seriously.
Anti-Modi sentiment might be building in some quarters, fueled in a big way by the feeling that the Land Acquisition amendments are anti-farmer, but for now this isn't going to make people suddenly nostalgic for the United Progressive Alliance. The Congress still has the same problems it has had for a while now: it is still seen as corrupt, not clued in to the aspirational mood of the electorate and its leader is the thoroughly uninspiring Rahul Gandhi.
Two developments in the last week have, however, given the Congress a vision of how to turn political events to its advantage. The first was former prime minister Manmohan Singh's summons from a special court for his alleged involvement in the coal allocations scam. The second was the news of a Delhi police official hanging around Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's office, asking for details like his whereabouts and the colour of his eyes. The party has sought to sell this as evidence of "political espionage."
Put together, the Congress would like to build a narrative of being persecuted by Modi and speaking up for the poor in the face of such adversity.
Indian National Aam Aadmi Congress
The Congress has been trying to figure out what tack to take on national issues ever since it was trounced in the Lok Sabha polls last year. Over the last few months the party's own narrative seems to have started to take shape. It will be attempting to sell itself as the party that defends the interests of the poor, effectively taking it even more further to the left than before. Alongside this, it will seek to bring Rahul Gandhi's own fight-the-system storyline to the fore by paradoxically crowning him as the party's leader.
The first major issue the party sought to take up was the land acquisition ordinance promulgated by the government last year. This fits into the pro-poor image very well: the government can be painted as favouring crony capitalists and big business, while the Congress can fight on behalf of the little men. Unfortunately, the agitation against it has come at just the same time that Rahul Gandhi decided to disappear on leave, a sign many saw as being a tantrum to get his way in the party.
This meant the Congress couldn't take ownership of the issue that has truly been the first big political misstep of the Modi government, with that space being taken up by other opposition parties like the Trinamool Congress and even Anna Hazare. Even though Congress leaders used Rahul Gandhi's preferred Aam Aadmi Party-style tactics to agitate against the ordinance, the vice president's own disappearance was harder to explain.
Big Brother Narendrabhai
Then the Manmohan Singh summons came. Congress president Sonia Gandhi marched out in support of the former prime minister, a gesture her party hadn't extended to previous leaders who had come under the scanner. But even that could only be taken so far because the move had come from a court, and not the government. So finally the party has hit upon what it is calling Snoopgate 2.
As such, this is mild stuff. A police official carrying out a proforma inquiry at Rahul Gandhi's office, based on a system that has been followed for years now, from 1957 according to the Delhi Police commissioner. Even if this particular incident was unusual, it is still far from being oppressive surveillance. A cop asking about the colour of Rahul Gandhi's eyes is hardly ominous.
It's also not an emotive issue that an ordinary person would be worried about. Instead of making people worried about the surveillance state, the general reaction from most has been to make jokes about Rahul Gandhi being missing.
As a result, the Congress has pulled out the Snoopgate tag, to connect the case to Modi's alleged usage of state machinery to snoop on a woman while he was Gujarat chief minister. Congress leaders, like Shashi Tharoor, have also tried to make it about more than Rahul, almost spelling the spin out in an article for NDTV: "This is not just about Rahul Gandhi, but about all of us."
But the key is the narrative of persecution. If the Congress can turn the general anti-Modi sentiment, which is built on the idea that the PM is only working for crony interests and couple that with a narrative that suggests Modi is out to get the Congress in underhand ways, it would allow them to be seen as the true defenders of the people's interests. For this to work though, people have to see Snoopgate 2 as a serious issue. And, even harder than that, people have to be able to take Rahul Gandhi's leadership seriously.
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