Rahul Gandhi has done it again. The Leader of the Opposition on his latest visit to the US as part of an unending image-building project, as usual put his big foot in his mouth, making an utter fool of himself and, in the process, provided a fresh opening for the anti-India elements to exploit his inane remarks. Speaking at an event in Washington earlier in the week, the LoP wondered aloud if a Sikh in India could wear a turban, or sport a kada (steel arm bangle) and pray in a gurudwara. That was the fight, the Great Leader said, he, that is Rahul Gandhi claims to be waging. Thus far, he had aimed to target Indian Muslims as the objects of discriminatory treatment under the Modi dispensation in order to endear himself to the community. Now he seems to have widened the canvas, roping in even Sikhs and presumably members of other religious minorities as well into focus as people deserving his special attention. Not surprisingly, his remarks drew an immediate response from Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a designated terrorist whom the authorities want to apprehend for his anti-national activities in India and abroad. Welcoming Rahul’s endorsement of his stand, Pannun said that Rahul had done well to recognise “the existential threat to Sikhs in India”. “Rahul’s statement about Sikhs in India is not only bold and pioneering but is also firmly grounded in the factual history of what Sikhs have been facing under successive regimes in India since 1947 and also corroborates the Sikhs for Justice front’s stance on the justification for Punjab Independence Referendum to establish Sikh homeland Khalistan…” Notably, SFJ is a banned organisation in India, though Pannun seems to carry on his nefarious activities in the US and Canada without much difficulty. Incidentally, he was allegedly the target of a since aborted assassination plot instigated by an undercover Indian agent based in Europe. The suspect has now been extradited to the US for possible criminal proceedings. The assassination plot caused an avoidable wrinkle in the otherwise warming Indo- US relationship, though the matter since then seems to have been sorted out to mutual satisfaction. To return to Rahul’s quotable quotes from his latest tour de force in the US, he has been delivering himself of stray gems which do not make any sense unless you are prone to grant that at heart he is a minor philosopher constantly ruminating on the ways and vagaries of our times and our lives. For instance, he dilated at some length on who is a devata (deity or god), what qualities should he have, etc. From what we could gather from the audio recordings of his public soliloquies was that a devta is one who is the same inside his mind and outside, probably meaning straight-talking. In other words, someone who calls a spade a spade, if not a bloody shovel. Like this newspaper, for instance. We have not hesitated to call out the idiotic nature of some of Rahul’s pronouncements whenever required. Not realising that his own party had ruled for over fifty years since Independence he seeks to distance himself from the misery and suffering of Dalits and tribls as if he alone held the panacea for all the ills, as if only his heart bled for them.
Thus far on this PR visit, we are relieved he did not display a photograph of the traditional halwa ceremony ahead of the annual budget presentation to point out very few Dalits in that picture frame. Such childish acts define him at a time when as the officially recognised Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha a certain sense of gravitas and a substantive discourse on weighty matters of State was expected of him. To harp endlessly about “defeating Narendra Modi”, about “breaking him” and no longer fearing him, and then to say even Sikhs are afraid to wear turbans is the height of nonsense. It is a shame that none in the Congress Party has the courage to call out his silliness, to reason with him that instead of earning any goodwill for the party his all too frequent foreign sojourns have become a source of ridicule, nay embarrassment. It is another matter that Mallikarjun Kharge and others would feel obliged to go to great lengths to defend his remarks, and thus, invite public ridicule themselves. Indeed, if there is fear anywhere in the polity it is in the family-run Congress party. Remember the ace lawyer Kapil Sibal who had not long ago took the lead to demand that the Congress party grow organically without the deadweight of the Gandhi parivar. He got several fellow Congressmen concerned about the party’s future to sign the memorandum. For his labours, the fellow was summarily thrown out of the party. Other signatories were suitably silenced. However, whichever way you interpret Rahul’s remarks about Sikhs, no sane person can defend them. Especially at a time when Punjab is undergoing a political churn, having elected an avowedly pro-Khalistani preacher to the Lok Sabha. Stoking Khalistani fervour in some extremist corner was tantamount to being highly irresponsible and stupid. It is time he followed his mother’s example and always spoke in public from a prepared script. His pretensions to being an intellectual, as several of his courtiers claim he is, are increasing to become an embarrassment for India and Indians.
