The whole brouhaha arose because the Modi Government said that both the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA have agreed to disengage from the border standoff. Instead of saying ‘wow’, Rahul Gandhi retorted with “what the heck, it’s the Prime Minister’s responsibility to protect the territory of India.” He did not stop at that, he called Modi both a ‘coward’, and a ‘traitor’, except that he spread the ‘traitor’ title all around.

So much so, Rahul-baiters, of whom there are plenty, are asking how could Rahul Gandhi brand the Indian Army a bunch of traitors? like it's okay to call Narendra Modi a traitor, and that he most probably deserves it, but how dare anybody even think the Indian Army is an army of traitors! Of course, you & I and those with grey in the brain know Rahul Gandhi is being targeted for a figure of speech.

Nobody Indian will even remotely think that the Indian Army is an army of traitors. And Rahul Gandhi is an Indian. Besides, people forget that as opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has every right to counter the government’s claims, bogus or real. It’s for the Government of India to prove that China has not grabbed India’s territory. Instead, the Modi dispensation and the ‘godi media’ are bent on trying to prove that Modi is neither a ‘coward’ nor a ‘traitor!’

Shucks, Rahul already knows that. Rahul is only asking the very germane question as to why did the Modi Government surrender India’s territory to China? Once earlier, too, Rahul Gandhi had called the Prime Minister ‘Surender Modi’ and that too was made into a mountain. Now, today, if the political masters of India agree to disengage from the LAC without taking back lost territory doesn’t that amount to cowardice? And if the government tries to cover up the loss of territory, does that not spell treason?

Harking back to the 1962 Indo-China War and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru isn’t fair. The India of 2020-21 is not the India of 1962. And if Nehru had agreed to a ceasefire then, in 1962, it was most likely a decision taken after taking all factors into account. Maybe, caught in a similar fix, Modi would have done much the same, given up Aksai Chin to China.

The point is nobody should make a mountain of a molehill, least of all squabbling politicians. Calling a political adversary a “coward” is part of the everyday political lexicon. Why, if it was the USA, “yellow belly” would have been used, not just “coward.” And calling all and sundry a “traitor” comes second nature to politicians – a democratic hazard that “We the People” have to get attuned, and inured, to.

Rahul Gandhi shouldn’t be hanged upside down from the first branch every time he goes politically incorrect. So long as the message is conveyed. In politics as in love and war, everything is fair. There’s no such thing as murder – there is only character-assassination. And a true-blue politician is never scared of character assassination; it’s another hazard politicians have to live with.

So, let nobody correct Rahul Gandhi. In Parliament, and at primetime shows. The former Congress party president is not the novice politician of 2014 who then journalist only Arnab Goswami got the opportunity to character-assassinate before the nation with a set of inane questions. Those days are long gone, and today’s Rahul Gandhi is not only street-smart but also interview–savvy.

In between calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a ‘coward’ and ‘traitor’, asking why the hell have the Chinese been given a pass, the Wayanad MP also finds time to give politically-correct interviews, as the one he gave to Chicago University historian Dipesh Chakraborty the other day – an interview which “shows a confident Rahul Gandhi, who knows what his task is,” like his daddy, his grandma and his great-granddaddy knew before him.

Talking to the award-winning historian in a virtual interview, Rahul Gandhi speaks of the legacy he has to carry forward and what that means to him, the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He talks of the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and how they affected him and his politics. He also talks of the trolls that stalk him and how they have with the trolling made him a tougher person. (IPA Service)