In a democracy, opposition leader has an important role particularly of preventing the ruling party from running an autocratic government. Thus in the interest of our democracy, we should expect Rahul Gandhi to play a more mature and responsible role of an opposition leader and prove himself as a credible alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

For this purpose, I present a two-article series focusing on Rahul Gandhi, pointing out where he lacks and what he needs to do in the interest of his party as well as the nation.

Now let me first focus on his leadership skills vis-a-vis Narendra Modi. As we have noticed, Rahul Gandhi at times gives absurd statements such as 'poverty is a state of mind', 'alu ki factory', 'machine which will produce gold from potatoes' or 'escape velocity' etc. Even on the penultimate day of polling in Gujrat election of phase II, Rahul Gandhi leveraged upon chits provided from left and right by his colleagues to answer simple questions. On answering on some important questions like reservation he spoke about Guajarati food. That means Rahul hadn't brushed up these issues in detail. Just speaking with the help of prompters in no case makes one a leader. A leader has to listen carefully about the issues, study meticulously and then frame his conclusion/opinion to answer on specifics. If you compare this aspect with Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi appears to be very shallow in knowledge.

In the just concluded Gujarat Assembly election, it can be said that though the people were angry with the state BJP government, Rahul Gandhi couldn't exploit this frustration. The Congress still might give some tough fight to the BJP, not due to Rahul Gandhi's campaign, but due to the inefficient ruling BJP government.

Next come Rahul Gandhi's frequent temple visits during campaigning. I agree that Rahul Gandhi wants to do a makeover of the conventional image of Congress of being an anti-Hindu party, but his temple visits seemed more of a publicity stunt. Narendra Modi regularly visits temples so it's nothing unusual for him. Rahul Gandhi would have done better by visiting temples with either no or minimal media coverage. The temple hopping, his claims of being a Shiv bhakt etc appeared to be over the top antics to prove a simple point.

Now coming to the sops being offered in the Congress manifesto! Congress manifesto offers many things starting from waiving off farm loans to providing unemployment perks worth Rs 4000 each to 30 lakh people, apart from other promises. An analyst pointed out that the Congress manifesto offers sops amounting to four times the entire budget of Gujarat. But from where will this money come? Sane people will definitely ask this and Congress should have an answer to it. Similarly, Rahul Gandhi has also promised repealing GST if his party comes to power in Gujarat. But the point is, can they? You can't be making hallow and irrational promises as nowadays the voters are very smart.