As he put his finger into the honeycomb of the saffron bees, by saying that “democracy was being strangulated in India’ it was inevitable that he would have to face the wrath of the saffron leaders and BJP’s IT cell. A fresh drive has already been launched to insinuate him.

Kaushik Basu claimed that Indira Gandhi ‘rectified’ the emergency imposed by her by holding elections at end of it and ‘losing’. This he said after Rahul Gandhi claimed that she confided in him that she regretted the emergency. Rahul Gandhi was 14 years old when his grandmother was assassinated. The BJP vigilantes have been accusing him of lying. Their argument has been why a person like Indira Gandhi should confide to her 14 year old grandson? They even express contempt “quite matured for his age to have his Prime Minister grandmother confide in him that she ‘regretted’ something Congress as a party has always tried to whitewash. Till now, there is no such evidence of Indira Gandhi ever ‘regretting’ the Emergency.”

The fact of the matter is Indira Gandhi had confessed to some of the senior Congress leaders of that period that it was not correct decision though she never admitted publically. There is nothing unusual in her sharing her views to Rahul.

Rahu’s virtual conversation with Kaushik Basu, Professor of Economics at Cornell University, during which he also interacted with students, was important for the reason that he did not hide behind pretentions. Unlike other politicians of stature, he confessed of his failures and the measures he took to salvage the situation.

Academic and experts may construe from his observations that he is yet to graduate and mature politically, this style of Rahul differentiates him from others. He is not a pragmatist and in this phase of politicking where realpolitik matters most he symbolises the political face of idealism. Else he would not have told Basu; “I am the person who pushed elections in youth organisation and student organisation, and got a serious beating in the press for that. I was literally crucified for doing elections”.

His saffron detractors mention that he used the word “strategy” for more than 20 times during his interaction with Basu. They point it to justify their accusation that he is still an immature politician. The most interesting aspect of the interaction was it tried to project Rahul as the future ruler. Obviously his response ought to be seen in the backdrop of presumptions. He spoke about his 'visions' and 'strategy' and 'imagination'. His critics also point that he did not clarify the strategies and their nature. “He gave the unfunny comedians a run for their money”. If their allegations are to be taken seriously then in that none of the strategies would remain strategy. Everything would be open and in public domain.

Though it was hypothetical in nature, his response to the question on how would he deal with US vs China and India’s role, he appeared to be more prudent than Modi. He said; “The first thing is, I can see that there is a clear Chinese vision. I don’t agree with elements of it but it is there and the vision is terrestrial global vision. It is a ‘modern silk road with a nervous system’ in it. And it is a global vision. The United States requires a global vision. We are a friend of United States. But I don’t see that global vision. I see a United States which is looking inside. I see United States much like India that is dealing with its own internal contradictions, internal tensions but I don’t see USA I used to see 30-40-50 years ago that used to transform you know, do transformatory (sic) action.”

In this connection he emphasised: “That is one element that is required and India has a role there in creating a vision. In creating a strategy. It is not necessarily a confrontational strategy. It can be a co-existing strategy. But a strategy has to be there. Currently a strategy is not there. The conversation that the United States has with India is basically a conversation about the military aspects of it. That’s not going to cut it. That is not a vision. That is not even a strategy. That at best is a small piece of strategy.”

While RSS and Modi have been dismantling the democratic institutions, Rahul advocates for strengthening these institutions. He said; “I am the first person that says democratic election within party is absolutely critical but it is interesting to me that this question is not asked about any other political party. Nobody asked why there is no internal democracy in BJP, BSP and Samajwadi Party. They ask about Congress because there is a reason. We are an ideological party and our ideology is the ideology of the Constitution, so it is more important for us to be democratic”.

No doubt there is fundamental difference between what happened in the Emergency and what is happening now. BJP and its leaders often compare the present with the past and present the rosy picture. They forget that people of the country punished Indira Gandhi by defeating her. They voted for the alternate after being assured that they would provide a good governance. Since they have failed to keep their promise they in a shameless manner try to hide behind the façade of emergency. Though Indira imposed emergency she did not destroy the democratic institutions. But in sharp contrast the BJP has been out to completely ravage and smash democracy. It is the lie and criminal intent that rules the country.

Rahul was politically right in saying; “RSS is doing something fundamentally different. They are filling institutions with their people. Even if we defeat BJP in the election, we are not going to get rid of their people in the institutional structure”. Country has seen how the BJP has been using money power to destabilise elected governments. How it has been resorting to religious indoctrination of the bureaucrats. RSS people occupying key position in constitutional bodies do not follow the constitutional norms.

What is happening in the country now was 'fundamentally different' from the Emergency as the RSS is trying to 'capture' all independent institutions in India. He is right in saying that imposition of emergency was a "mistake" but the Congress party "never attempted to capture the constitutional framework" of India, Incidentally before this even in 2019 Rahul said that imposition of emergency was mistake.

None can deny that democracy is being strangulated in India and there is an attack on the institutions. Anyone trying to raise his voice is charged with sedition. His assertion; “I can only do my job if I get support from all institutions acting independently” was certainly not hypothetical.

Incidentally the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP has urged the Election Commission to restrain Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from campaigning in Tamil Nadu for the April 6 Assembly election, as he "incites the youth to another freedom struggle." Obviously the question arises if Rahul has been politically immature then why are you scared of the issues he was raising. This is also a sort of caution to his own party leaders who have questioning his political acumen. Rahul holds; "there is lot of anger being spread in the country, a lot of fear, and that is what we have to fight. We have to fight the division, anger, fear and once again make India happy, comfortable, fearless and united". For BJP whatever he says is lie, whether it is about ignoring the migrant labourers during the corona pandemic or his identifying with the miseries of the farmers. (IPA Service)