Opposition vs Modi vs TINA

Photo: Twitter/@INCIndia

For record, I have not been able to have 'respect' for politicians. In my experience of political reporting and writing, I have found politicians to be extremely opportunist and mean people at business. Humans are, it has been my impression, just tools for politicians across the spectrum from extreme left to ultra right.

But as things stand today, only politicians can rule the country and since we have a self-proclaimed democracy, we are required to choose a leader. Choosing a leader is a process, which must be a decision akin to an informed choice.

Since politicians have been able to acquire more right to privacy than We, The People of India, knowing their true character has become difficult. Income tax department can place your financial details in public domain but an RTI application about a politician will return saying the information sought is very personal in nature. And, then the same politician will go about hankering about transparency in public life. They make every attempt to keep crucial information required for making an informed choice.

So, as the election approaches, the people have minimal information about the leaders and parties they may be forced to elect to power for next five years. On the available evidence, Narendra Modi appears more convincing. Not because he is a better leader but because he is a better communicator.

Modi appears to be in lead not because of his policies adopted or ignored in the last five years but because of the fact that the Opposition simply doesn't inspire enough confidence. Modi, to my understanding of politics, became Modi because of myopic politics of Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party. There were too many challengers to Modi within the BJP. But, Sonia Gandhi, when she was the most powerful politician of the country, targetted and attacked Modi so much, right from her Maut Ka Saudagar comment, that she brought him at par with the top national leadership. Modi cashed in on his criticism by the top politicians of the then ruling party and turned it to his advantage because he was a better communicator.

Sonia Gandhi's son and successor in the Congress party Rahul Gandhi seems to have not learnt from those mistakes. He doesn't seem to have learnt the lesson properly from the history. Pay some attention to his speeches and one would know that he is playing into the hands of the BJP. The way he has been addressing, mind it addressing not campaigning against, Modi, there has been rudeness - Narendra Modi bolta hai...kahta hai...jhooth bolta hai... This looks surprising given the support Rahul Gandhi and the entire Opposition is getting from the intelligentsia in media and academia.

Plus, Rahul Gandhi and his Congress party keep embarrassing themselves and their supporters. Perhaps calling Pulwama terror attack an accident by Osamaji and Hafiz Sayeed Sahab-fame Digvijaya Singh was not enough for the Congress party that the president Rahul Gandhi himself called Jaish-e-Mohmmed chief as Masood Azharji.

And, if you said it, it is better to admit that it was a slip of tongue. India is changing. Indian youth has changed a lot over the last one decade. Admitting to one's fault is now appreciated even if Modi-like opponent would try to cash in on it. Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi - both incidentally in 2015 - have proved this.

Instead of admitting, a spokesman of the party is spent on it to make people believe that it was sarcasm. Dear Congress, when the video is in public domain, anyone can hear it and call your bluff. Trying to cover upa faux pa is bad politics which only may satisfy a feudal lord not the subject, if you still treat the people of India that way.

The Congress already had people like Mani Shankar Taiyar, Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath, Rahul Gandhi need not enter the competition if he is serious about harbouring the dream of leading the country as a prime minister. Modi is far superior a communicator to use rewire the defused verbal salvos to bomb the Congress party back. :Achchhe Din' should remain fresh in the Congress's memory.

It's for people like Rahul Gandhi, who fail to show any consistensy in their public politics, that Modi appears to be armed with TINA - there is no alternative.

To me, five years of BJP-led government has been no different from the Congress-led regime for previous ten years. All are the same. Only the faces have changed not the facets.