All Sound and Fury

EARLIER THIS MONTH, WHITE House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt levelled a seri­ous allegation against former US President Barack Obama who, she said, went to “great and nefarious lengths” to delegitimise President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential electoral victory by creating a “false narrative” about Russia’s involvement in that year’s elec­tion. “This is truly one of the greatest scandals in American history… the Russia hoax is a mas­sive fraud perpetuated on the American people from the very beginning.” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also claimed that a “stunning”, declassified report showed Obama and his team manufactured findings from du­bious sources, suppressed evidence and cred­ible intelligence that disproved their claims, disobeyed tradecraft intelligence community standards, and withheld the truth from the American people. False narratives, shoddy sources, suppressed evidence, dubious claims, all of these ring a bell in India today. These are the cutting-edge weapons of Cancel Culture.

Cancel Culture has become the most powerful weapon to dis­credit and delegitimise opponents and opposing worldviews. Weaponised Cancel Culture becomes even more effective when coupled with virtue signalling, quashing dissent through three “mutually reinforcing mechanisms: public shaming, the threat of loss of reputation-based capital, and the commodification of outrage”. Sociologists and political scientists maintain that the first two mechanisms force individual actors to either change alignment in order to continue participating in the political dis­course or disengage completely. Cancel Culture, therefore, works effectively not only to snuff out dissent but is also a powerful “ide­ological homogenization tool, reducing the variety and specifics of political ideological opposition to the acceptable norm”. The third mechanism, commodification of public outrage, involves public platforms and discussions to maximise political capital against an opponent or ideology and nurture curated opinions and viewpoints. It operates, experts say, as an “effective voice-censoring tool in political discussions.”

Rahul Gandhi, whose political journey has been maximised for optics, is proving to be a master of weaponising Cancel Culture for political gain. It has been two decades since Gandhi’s assisted political debut in Amethi in 2004, mainly on the strength of myth-building around his family. Gandhi—defined best in the public consciousness with a variety of adjectives, including whimsi­cal, capricious, inexperienced, immature, delusional, haughty, supercilious, opinionated, entitled, and pompous—touched the pinnacle of absurdity by claiming that the 2024 Lok Sabha polls were manipulated and “stolen” from the people of India.

Last year’s General Election was Narendra Modi’s third suc­cessful shot at being prime minister. A decade earlier, in 2014, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had vanquished the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on the back of major al­legations of corruption and widespread protests against graft, policy paralysis and joblessness. BJP has since relegated Rahul Gandhi’s party to the doldrums of politics. His latest salvo targeted the three-term Modi government on two crucial fronts: electoral politics and the economy. The “vote chori” allegation follows simi­lar charges against the Maharashtra Assembly election, held in November last year. Casting aspersions on election results is now entrenched political weaponry in the arsenal of Congress which, along with other Opposition parties, is currently in the throes of a massive disruption project related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The Election Commission of India (EC) deleted over 65 lakh names in poll-bound Bihar compared to the last election, based on legitimate reasons. Ironically, despite a one-month leeway given by EC for filing of complaints and their redress, fewer than 2,000 complaints have been received, and mostly from individuals. Now, using Bihar’s SIR as the excuse, Congress and Modi’s opponents in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, both crucial poll-bound states next year, have started raising the bogey of a possible electoral rolls manipulation to deflect atten­tion from likely flagging political prospects.

Mark Twain had quipped, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” That seems to be Rahul Gandhi’s personal credo as of the anti-Modi political spectrum, irrespective of how resound­ing a mandate Modi gets every time. On August 2, tarring EC, a constitutional body, with a partisan brush, Gandhi claimed that anywhere between 70 and 100 seats were manipulated then, discrediting Modi’s claims to the post of prime minister. Alleg­ing that “the election system in India is already dead,” Gandhi claimed to have “100 per cent proof” to substantiate his claim. He also maintained that the results of the 2014 General Election were suspect but that the turning point was the 2024 Assembly election results in Maharashtra.

As it happens, the working politicians and leaders of Congress and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc seldom rant about ‘rigged’ elections. It is the electoral featherweights and acolytes surrounding Rahul Gandhi who generate conspiracy theories and tarnish democratic institu­tions and delegitimise processes. Gandhi’s most ludicrous allega­tion is that the results of the 2014 elections are suspect: his mother Sonia Gandhi practically ran the Manmohan Singh government through its two terms. Manipulation, if any, of election commis­sioners, the election machinery and EVMs—to go by Rahul’s al­legation that Modi has been manipulating these now—might as well have been done by Congress’ so-called ‘High Command’ at the time. As for the 2024 elections, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had set a target of 400 seats; the stakes for BJP and Modi’s third term were high. But BJP managed to win only 240 seats out of 542 and, without the support of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal-United, or JD(U), would have been hard put to form the government. Still, Rahul Gandhi’s sole and desperate plan for political resurgence continues to throw as much mud as possible at Modi.

In a detailed official rebuttal on the questions raised about the Maharashtra polls, EC had called Gandhi’s allegation baseless and said due process was followed. Irrespective of this, the Congress leader did not give up his claims and, in fact, added fresh allega­tions about the 2024 General Election, even openly threatening EC officials that Congress would “come to get you” once back in power. EC promptly posted a “fact-check” on its social media account, saying that Gandhi had been repeatedly making “unsub­stantiated and misleading” accusations which were “intended to discredit their election officials’ impartial and transparent hard work” and to “exert undue pressure on the election machinery and even threaten it”. It also said that the electoral rolls for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls were given to all political parties, both draft and final, and practically no complaint had been filed.

HE ALLEGATIONS OF “vote chori” come in the wake of serial failures under Rahul Gandhi’s baton. In 2019, BJP under Modi swept the polls, with 912 million voters exercising their mandate and awarding 303 seats to BJP of its own. In critical Uttar Pradesh (UP), Rahul Gandhi’s home state, BJP got 62 of 80 seats, leaving Congress with just one win and even flipping Amethi. Rahul Gandhi was forced to flee to Kerala’s Wayanad in order to remain an MP. In 2024, Congress managed just 99 seats, stopping short of three figures. The tactic, thus, is to blame the process and institutions in order to deflect attention from a poor electoral performance. While Modi’s nar­rative of development has repeatedly resonated with voters, Gandhi’s own story has remained stuck in reactive and negative mode, targeting Modi and his ideology, politics and economics, without a holistic alternative to offer. This goes hand-in-hand with drumbeating for a dog-eared and dysfunctional Nehruvian socialism. The worse things get for Congress electorally, the loud­er the fake narratives and chorus of chaos become.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in Parliament where Gandhi and the anti-Modi ranks have aggressively espoused the tactics of disruption, non-cooperation and disorder, making it the new normal. In the Monsoon Session last year, Gandhi was caught on camera egging on party MPs to create a ruckus during the prime minister’s reply to the Motion of Thanks on the Presi­dent’s Address in Lok Sabha, and telling party MPs to move to the well of the House, shouting slogans. While it has been usual since 2014, when Modi became prime minister, for the Opposition to raise slogans and heckle through the prime minister’s speech, it is since 2024, when Gandhi became Leader of the Opposition (LoP), that disruption has become the norm.

Such jeer-leading and combative disruption continued in the Winter Session, along with protests by Congress MPs over allega­tions against industrialist Gautam Adani. The proceedings in both Houses were washed out in the very first week ending November 29, with meaningful business stalled by the Opposition over a host of issues, including the Adani case and disturbances in Manipur. Even cracks among Opposition ranks on the Adani issue failed to deter Gandhi. The repeated adjournments may have raised Gandhi’s public profile but undermined the Opposition’s right to demand governmental accountability on key issues. Seven months ago, the Opposition moved to impeach then Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, holding his “partisan” stand in run­ning the Upper House as the key reason for repeated disruptions. It was clear that the already strained relationship between the Treasury benches and the Opposition was on the verge of break­ing down, thanks mainly to Rahul Gandhi’s hubris and petulance.

This Monsoon Session, too, has been disorderly, with Congress disrupting Parliament over a key debate on Operation Sindoor. Congress stalled Parliament for an entire week, even invading the well of the House during a serious debate on the military con­frontation. Gandhi mostly absented himself from the House, de­spite the gravity of the debate. The bitter flare-ups and altercations were not restricted to debates. On August 5, Rajya Sabha LoP, Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also de jure president of Congress, castigated Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh for “al­lowing CISF personnel” into the House, stopping the “legitimate right of the Opposition to protest in the well”.

OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT, TOO, Gandhi has become the mascot of the shoot-and-scoot brigade, accusing Modi of many transgressions, without accountability. This, despite repeated censure from the courts, includ­ing the Supreme Court. But he does not seem keen on learning. Last week, the apex court reprimanded him for claiming that China had occupied 2,000 sq km of Indian Land. His remark was made in 2022, after a clash between the Indian and Chinese armies on December 2. “How do you know that 2,000 sq km is oc­cupied? What is the credible material? If you are a true Indian, you would not say this when there is a conflict across border… why can’t you ask the question in Parliament?” the apex court asked. This was not the first incident. In May 2019, Gandhi tendered an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court for his “Chowkidar Chor Hai” remark about Modi. This came after the apex court had warned him and asked for a written apology, which he agreed to. Gandhi told the court that his slogan was raised in the heat of campaigning. In July this year, the LoP in Lok Sabha appeared through video link before a Nashik court in a defamation case related to remarks he made about Veer Savarkar during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022, calling him a “Mafiveer” who “begged for mercy with folded hands” before the British. He was granted bail on a surety bond of `15,000. In 2019, defamation cases were filed in Surat and in a Bhopal court against Gandhi for his “Saare Modi chor kyon hai” remark. The petitioners said that it was an uncalled for insult to the entire community.

Obama had met Rahul Gandhi when the latter was 40. In his memoir, A Promised Land, Obama described him as a student who, deep down, “lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject.” Perhaps it was this persistent lack of aptitude, or a grandiose sense of self, that made Rahul Gandhi take to his Bharat Jodo Yatra and later the Bharat Nyay Yatra, to preach eternal values such as love, peace and social harmony.

Rahul Gandhi and Congress—running governments in only the three states of Karnataka, Telangana, and Himachal Pradesh at present—seem to have decided on deepening the fault lines in a desperate bid to knock BJP off the summit of power and popular­ity. Gandhi’s strategy comes at a critical period on India’s socio-economic front, with the country poised to leap to the third-larg­est economy in the world. His chosen stance on Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and a national caste census that links population to jobs are aimed at sharpening the schisms in society, something that was being healed by an aspirational and confident India with a predominantly young population. His flawed narrative on lack of opportunities for disadvantaged sections comes at a time when a member of the OBC community is prime minister, most of his ministers are drawn from backward-caste cadres, and the presi­dent herself is from the tribal community.

Despite his public proclamations that he bears no ill will to­wards the prime minster personally, Rahul Gandhi’s most de­structive political weapon appears to be his undiluted hatred for Narendra Modi. That has resulted in quite a few faux pas by him. Recently, he said at a Congress conclave that the late Arun Jaitley had met and threatened him over backing the farm laws. Jaitley died in August 2019 and the farm laws were passed in September 2020. His comment drew sharp criticism not just from the late BJP leader’s son Rohan Jaitley but also from a slew of ministers. In an­other instance, Gandhi claimed that his great-grandfather Nehru and his cousins went to the Allahabad railway station to throw out some Britishers from first-class compartments to avenge Mahatma Gandhi’s humiliation in England. The Mahatma was thrown out of a train in South Africa in 1893 when Nehru was just four years old. Rahul also claimed in 2019 that he had gone to meet the then-ailing Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in hospital and he had told him that he did not know about the Rafale deal. Parrikar later issued a statement that no such conversation on the Rafale deal had happened. Such embarrassing and insensitive bloopers did not go unnoticed.

To garner maximum political dividend, Gandhi is willing to grab any issue, however detrimental it may be to India’s society or economy. The primary motive is to create chaos and nurture negativism in society. It is this that has led him to back US Presi­dent Donald Trump’s rant about a thriving Indian economy and his tariff tyranny, overlooking all evidence to the contrary.

In its periodic pulse-reading of the health of the economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast in April that India’s economy would grow at 6.2 per cent in 2024-25. IMF had shaved off 0.3 percentage points from the GDP projection issued at the start of the year. Come July and IMF revised its projection upwards to 6.4 per cent for 2024-25, a tad short of the original forecast issued in January.

In 2024-25, the Indian economy touched the $4.19 trillion mark going by IMF data. Modi had set a target of $5 trillion. The target was missed. But that is hardly the point on a march through a once-in-a-century pandemic and a major war that now threatens to engulf countries that have no role in it. The latest excuse given by Trump for his tariffs against India is that New Delhi is helping Russia wage war against Ukraine by buying Russian oil. A more dubious argument given the current geopolitical situation will be harder to find. The ultimate beneficiaries of ‘cheap’ Russian oil are not one-litre-at-a-time Indians who drive scooters and motor­cycles but the consumers of Western countries that want to wage a proxy war against Russia and consume cheap oil at the same time.

It is hard to argue with proponents of the ‘dead economy’ the­sis on the basis of rational claims and counterclaims. But here is a short rebuttal.

The claim of a dead economy rests on a simple allegation: a handful of cronies have “cornered” the Indian economy. The basis of this assertion is the net market capitalisation of a few Indian conglomerates and the “average income” (sic) of the In­dian citizen. This is not even a proper comparison. Comparisons are made on the basis of quantities that have the same units. In the case of economic aggregates there is a further distinction to be made: between stock and flow concepts. A stock aggregate— wealth is an example—is measured at a point in time, while flow variables, as the name suggests, are measured over time. Income is a good example.

Wealth and income cannot be compared in any meaningful way. But reports from ‘global NGOs’ that routinely publicise that conglomerate X, Y or Z, “now account for W% of India’s GDP” are then magnified manifold in Parliament. This is repeated with whatever binary comparisons catch the fancy of such politicians. This is how the myth that “the Indian economy is dead” was cre­ated and is being propagated. The pick-and-choose option of com­paring disparate economic indices serves, at best, to score political points only. And Rahul Gandhi and his advisers seem intent on cashing in politically, no matter the cost to India.

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