5 lessons for Rahul Gandhi from Gujarat elections

Play according to pitch
Winning an election is like playing a Test match. You have to read the pitch correctly. In Gujarat Rahul Gandhi read the pitch correct. In a state where 90% of the population is Hindu, in a state which is an advertisement for Hindutva, in a state that swears by the Gujarat model, in a state where Muslims have been reduced to political irrelevance, soft Hindutva was the right and only option. Rahul did what needed to be done, he lost the plot in the slog overs.

Never go on the defensive 
Those days when batsmen grafted runs and battled to save a Test are over. Most elections in the recent past have thrown up a clear winner. So playing for a draw is not an option. The fight for Gujarat began well for the Congress. Rahul raised questions about business dealings of Amit Shah’s son, but later he lost steam. Give the voter a talking point every now and then.


Fight Bodyline with Bodyline
Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are the Douglas Jardine of Indian politics. There is no limit they won’t cross to win an election. In the final stages of the campaign when PM Narendra Modi accused the Congress of conspiring with Pakistan to win Gujarat elections, Rahul Gandhi and company went numb. They had no clue how to deal with the beamers. Against such hostile attacks, inane comments like ‘hum pyaar ki boli bolenge’ don’t work. Having been fed steroids for a long while, people of Gujarat , or for that matter India, are not going to settle for a cup of coffee. So accuse Modi of doing something nastier, the Indian voter may not fall for it, but they enjoy this kind of mud-slinging. If not that, Rahul could have said something like, ‘Modi went to Pakistan uninvited and gatecrashed a wedding, if he wanted a hara bara kebab, we could have got them for him from a dhaba here (make sure you don’t say Karim’s). You get the idea.

Underarm bowling is fair
In a match there are many things a captain may not want to do but gets his players to do it. Outsource such work to state leadership, they know the pitch better than you, let them bat freely. Elections are about divisions, caste divide vs Hindu-Muslim divide etc. In Karnataka, Siddaramaiah has his own fringe army - the Kannada activists - to fight the parivar fringe. The ban on Sunny Leone for instance. Even before the likes of Sri Ram Sene could raise an issue, the Kannada activists entered the stage and stole the show. They even insisted Sunny wear a saree. It couldn’t have gotten better. Please don’t spoil it by reining in Sidda anna.

Migrate to cities
Politics of 2 rotis a day doesn’t work anymore. India is rapidly urbanising, people are shifting from farming to other activities, nobody can win power by not winning the urban votes. Dump garibi hatao, coin a new slogan. Ghar ghar, ek car, or something more materialistic and aspirational. No, free pastas and pizzas through PDS won’t do.

Here is raising a toast to Modi and Rahul. Keep us entertained.

After Aiyar's 'neech' remark, Modi alleges Cong-Pak nexus

Rahul playing soft Hindutva, he has no reasons to be ashamed of it

Politics is not for nice people. You may act the simpleton but deep inside, you must have that ruthless streak that makes you do anything to win. Victory at any cost. Modi and Shah know it, they are proud of it, and they are praised for it. When they make derogatory statements, they are lapped up without any question.

Now with Rahul Gandhi, the story is different. He will rehearse every line he says, at times makes a total mess of it, though he does it less these days after taking lessons from me, but he rarely makes casteist or communal comments. For example, he won’t be caught saying ‘Modi is Khilji ka aulad or Modi is Aurangzeb.’ He might say ‘Modi is Mohammed bin Tughlaq’, but that is not a reference to religion but to policies pursued by his rival.

Rahul won’t say ‘neech’, for one probably he doesn’t know the meaning of it, two his speech writer seems to be a decent guy. But Rahul will be hauled over the coals for remarks made by loose cannons like Mani Shankar Aiyar, who does it to his own partymen too. He had once wondered how did Ajay Maken use the word ‘dichotomy’ in his letter to PM Manmohan Singh as he was just a B.A. (Pass) from Hansraj College and couldn’t have had the brains to know the meaning of the word.

And Rahul will definitely not accuse Modi of plotting with Pakistan to win Gujarat elections. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi did just that today. He might do more than that tomorrow. Now get one thing, Modi, when he makes these baseless charges, knows or certainly hopes the Gujarati voter will believe him.

Modi has reasons to think so. Nobody reads Gujarat’s mind like Modi, he has won election after election there. The state has 90% Hindu population, among the highest concentration in the country. They have been fed Hindutva steroids for years now, and many of them can’t live without it. Fifteen years after one of the bloodiest riots broke out in Gujarat, there is still no remorse. In fact the violence is held out as an example to minorities elsewhere in the country.

When a Rahul Gandhi steps out to campaign, he is appealing to this set of voters. Right now they are addicted to Hindutva and de-addiction can’t happen in a day. Merely talking about vikas or development won’t help, like Subramanian Swamy said once. “Even Manmohan gave development, but he lost,” he often says while demanding construction of Ram Mandir.

So when Rahul gives his war cry against a GST or a demonetisation, he may have to make it from the Somnath temple or any other temple he can spot. It definitely can’t come from a masjid.  You can’t annoy a considerable chunk of 90% voters to show solidarity with 10% voters who anyway are voting for you. Rahul Gandhi may be accused of playing soft Hindutva, but in light of recent happenings, he has no reason to be ashamed of it. And mind you, it is not Modi or Rahul who is on test, it is the Gujarati voter who is on test.