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The BJP’s constant attack on Rahul Gandhi isn’t fear—it is pure political strategy

If Rahul Gandhi is so useless that he functions as an asset for this government and a liability for the Opposition, why is the government trying so hard to keep him in the news?

Everyone loves a good mystery story. So here’s one for today. A few days ago, 84 retired armed forces officers, four senior lawyers and some retired bureaucrats and diplomats signed a petition about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. 

According to the petition, Rahul “has repeatedly contributed to lowering the level of public discourse and decorum through theatrics”. Moreover, his behaviour has reflected an attitude of arrogance and entitlement.

This is serious stuff. Just how did the arrogant Rahul lower the level of discourse?

Well, the petition states that “Shri Rahul Gandhi, along with several Members of Parliament, was seen sitting on the steps of Parliament having tea and biscuits in a manner that was wholly unbecoming of members of the nation’s highest legislative body.”

Regrettably, the petition neglects to state what a ‘becoming manner’ for having tea and biscuits is, but it goes on to huff and puff for a few hundred words more on how Rahul has disrespected the institution of parliament. And what else has the biscuit-loving Rahul done? Is he not just eating Bourbon biscuits but behaving like a Bourbon himself?

Well, actually, there is not much else listed. The petitioners’ outrage stems from the biscuits. That’s about it.

You can argue about whether sitting on the steps and eating biscuits is enough justification for so much outrage from a few well-known people (and many more who may wish that they were well known), but that’s not the primary component of the mystery.

A little earlier, a BJP MP had moved a motion demanding the cancellation of Rahul’s Lok Sabha membership and a lifetime ban on his contesting elections. This move may well be unconstitutional, but the motion appeared to have had the support of many BJP MPs.

Which brings us, at last, to the heart of the mystery story.

Why target Rahul Gandhi?

The BJP has long taken the position that Rahul is a joker and a person of little consequence. Some party supporters have gone further and suggested that the longer Rahul remains Leader of the Opposition, the better it is for the BJP. The man is such a bad leader that they suggest that the government actually benefits from seeing the Congress rot under his leadership.

So, if Rahul is so useless that he functions as an asset for this government and a liability for the Opposition, why is the government trying so hard to keep him in the news? A petition about eating biscuits is so desperate as to be almost laughable. Why try and throw him out of parliament when his presence in the House (with or without biscuits) works to the government’s advantage, given that he is apparently useless and his performance is disastrous? Surely the BJP benefits from the fact that the Opposition is led by a man it regards as a joker?

I have tried my hardest to solve this mystery. But I cannot find a single convincing answer to these questions. What’s more, you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to recognise that if you already tried something once and it failed badly, it was probably never a good idea to begin with.

In 2023, a judge in a Surat court found Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation and sentenced him to two years in jail. The sentence seemed unduly harsh till you realised that anyone sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more can be disqualified from parliament. Rahul was duly disqualified, but it seemed not to deter him. He continued opposing the BJP across the country, and then, a few months later, the Supreme Court ruled in his favour, and he was reinstated in Parliament.

So, why try the same thing all over again after such a notable failure? Why get so agitated about Rahul anyway? Why go to so much trouble to portray him as a threat to public discourse and parliamentary decorum? Why not just ignore him?

The Congress has its own explanation. It says that the BJP is so threatened by Rahul’s growing popularity that it is trying to throw hurdles in his path. A second explanation, favoured by more realistic Congressmen, is that the regime is so blinded by its hatred of the Gandhi family and Rahul in particular that it has started acting irrationally.

I don’t buy either explanation. The BJP is run by some of the shrewdest strategists in Indian politics. It rarely acts without thinking things through. So, obviously, there is some master plan here. But nobody seems to know what it is.

Also read: Amit Shah won’t lose sleep over Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Assam. Bengal is different

I doubt if the master plan consists of running  Rahul out of politics. Even if they succeed, all they will achieve is to push Priyanka into leading the Congress. And a fresh face may offer more of a challenge at the next election than the battle-weary Rahul. Besides, by focusing so much on Rahul, the BJP risks making him seem like the most important leader in the opposition, a characterisation that other Opposition leaders are not delighted by.

There is only one explanation that makes some sense. The BJP knows that once the next round of assembly elections is over, there will be concentrated criticism of the Chief Election Commissioner (assuming he behaves as the Opposition expects him to). Does it want to pre-emptively create a narrative to derail the inevitable protests by the Opposition?

Consider the recent uproar over the alleged insult to the President. The issue never took off, but the Prime Minister and his entire cabinet posted about a lack of respect for institutions such as the office of the President. Now, Rahul and his biscuits are being accused of a lack of respect for Parliament.

Will this become a BJP theme? Will it keep saying that the Opposition has no respect for India’s institutions, whether it is the office of the President or Parliament? That way, when the Opposition complains about the Chief Election Commissioner, the BJP can say that this is part of a larger attack on the institutions of Indian democracy. It will point out that this is not the BJP’s view alone. The President herself has complained. And distinguished members of civil society (the biscuit decorum guys) have also expressed sorrow over the lack of respect for institutions.

I don’t think that as a narrative it will necessarily work. Nobody bothered too much about the President’s complaints about the venue of her meeting or the lack of water in her bathroom, despite the respect all of us have for her. And the biscuit petition has been dismissed as a joke.

But that’s how a narrative is built up. You keep saying the same thing again and again till finally, when it is time to defend the person you really want to protect, your claims will sound as though they have some historical basis and therefore a little credibility.

Is that the solution to the mystery of the attacks on Rahul? At this stage, it’s hard to say. But let’s see how the assembly elections go and if the Election Commission behaves as the opposition is saying it will.

If that happens, then the narrative of lack of respect for institutions will finally make sense. And the attacks on Rahul will fit into a larger pattern.

Vir Sanghvi is a print and television journalist and talk show host. He tweets @virsanghvi. Views are personal.

(Edited by Saptak Datta)

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