Rahul Gandhi, the new Congress President has suffered his first major electoral defeat after taking over reins of the Congress from his mother, Sonia Gandhi. In any case, none of the mother-son duo has a record of winning electoral battles. They are born losers. Only one family running the show in the century old party was not palatable to people.
BJP's victory in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls was a foregone conclusion. The Congress party stalwarts had turned their tales before joining the battle in the right earnest. Leaders of the Congress party in Himachal Pradesh did not enjoy a good reputation in governance. Almost all sections of the state were unhappy with the outgoing Chief Minister, Vir Bhadra Singh. Women were sufferers at the hands of goons and the Congress administration had been absolutely ineffective in maintaining law and order. Corruption was rampant from top to bottom and the common man knew it. Naturally, it was expecting too much that those who suffered from misrule of the Vir Bhadra Singh administration would vote him back to power.
The administrative horse wanted a new rider that would be in saddle effectively to provide peace and prosperity to the common man. The BJP promised to the electorate that they would make the hilly state El Dorado- the city of gold - and they were voted to power once again.
Let us return to Gujarat, the land of Narendra bhai Modi, the Pradhan Mantri of India. It was his magic that turned a near defeat into total victory. A few weeks before the state was to go to polls, the political pundits had no hesitation in predicting Narendra Modi and his party facing a Waterloo in his home state. The Congress party was riding its hobby high horse in looking for new young leaders who had suffered at the hands of BJP or Narendra bhai Modi. Rahul and retinue like Ahmed Patel and Ashok Gehlot along with the ilk knew for sure that the Rahul-led Congress would be unable to ride the victory procession to Sardar Patel Bhawan to form a Congress-led coalition government. So they tied the knot with the angry young men of Gujarati origin to sway the masses in their favour. They did succeed but only partially.
Where did the Congress Party falter? It had no leadership worth the name at the helm of affairs. The nincompoop image of Rahul Gandhi refused to go. The common man rightly thought that he had been hoisted on the Congress party and did not enjoy leadership. He had no capability to lead from the front. His image of a leader was a false one supported falsely by the paid news people. The independent journalists and politicians did not think much of Rahul Gandhi as a leader. There is an old saying: Some are born great, some achieve greatness and on some greatness is thrust upon. Rahul Gandhi belonged to the last category. Greatness had been thrust upon him because he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Take away the silver spoon from his mouth and he would shrink to become a pygmy.
Narendra Modi is a born leader. He sold tea at the railway station of his home town Vadnagar. He toiled hard. He went through vicissitudes of life, became a self educated man in the school of adversity, rubbed shoulders with tom Dick and Harry to rise head and shoulders above them. The tea-selling boy became a leader of the masses in his own right. Although he was derided by men who wore Doon School ties, he cared two hoots for them and marched to his goal with flying colours. The chaiwala boy rose high and high, higher and higher to become the Pradhan Mantri of Bharat by winning the confidence of the people of India. Narendra bhai achieved greatness by dint of hard work, merit and above all patriotism. He is second to none.
Rahul Gandhi was a poor runner in the race of leadership. He made pretence to be a practicing Hindu that he was 'not'. He was born a Roman Catholic and was baptized as one. It would not have become an issue in the electoral battle had he and his media managers not over-advertised a false fact, rather a fiction that Rahul Gandhi was a Janeu-dhari Shiv bhakt. Frankly speaking, Rahul was neither and he knew it in the heart of his hearts. There is a saying in Hindi - "Ganga gaye to Ganga Ram, Jamuna gaye to Jamuna Das" and it is true to the character of Rahul Gandhi. The less said the better it would be.
A close friend of the Gandhi family called Narendra bhai 'neech' and it cost the Congress party dearly. Notwithstanding all the explanations given by the fellow who said it and other weaklings of the party, it suo motu brought many fence sitters to the BJP camp to vote for the Lotus. It was indeed a windfall for the BHAJPA candidates and from likely losers they became sure winners. Indeed many so called friends say or do things that they do worse damage to their leader than an enemy would do. One cannot have a better example than the neech episode that hurt the Gujarati psyche so badly that they voted against the Congress party candidates to avenge this insult to Gujaratis as a whole.
Does the Congress party have a future after losing two states - Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh? Their future is rather bleak. I have been saying often that the Congress party was founded by a foreigner - Sir AO Hume and it would be wound by a foreigner - who? No names and no prizes for guessing either. The dual loss in the Assembly elections of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh is the beginning of the end of the Congress party. It is also time for meteoric rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in all states. Bharat will now be painted saffron.
