A Carefully Cultivated Image for a Hollow Personality

Image courtesy: IBN Live

If there's one personality in India that the media falls head over heals to glorify, working in uncanny sync with the Congress,  it is Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress has dynasty politics issues beyond the Nehru-Gandhi family. Two examples - Jyotiraditya Scindia, son of Madhvrao Scindia is presently Minister of Power; Sachin Pilot, son of Rajesh Pilot is Minister of Corporate Affairs.

While these two others young ministers might not be where they are in politics without their fathers, they are at least being put to a test. At the end of their ministerial stints, they can be evaluated. See this interview of Scindia where Karan Thapar grills him on dynasty politics. Scindia comes across as naive and apologetic, nothing more.

With Rahul Gandhi, there is no test. With each passing month, with nothing worthy of addition to his resume's empty accomplishments section, the Congress party and its top functionaries push the young Gandhi up the party's ladder in the hopes that they are considered more loyal than the others to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

• In his latest kissing-up, Salman Khurshid has declared that Rahul Gandhi is their commander for the next poll. Rahul Gandhi's prior impressive performance in Uttar Pradesh is probably why he is being made the 'commander' for the national elections (#sarcasm.) Most other major parties must be laughing at the way a completely accomplishment-less person is being handed more and more responsibility, while more seasoned politicians are being kept away from providing any meaningful direction to the party.
• Digvijaya Singh, for reasons best known only to himself, keeps singing Rahul Gandhi's praise. Perhaps because he is credited with being a key mentor of the Gandhi. If with the money muscle of the Congress it were to come to power again, Digvijaya Singh might be nursing hopes of becoming a shadow power of some kind behind the prime minister-in-waiting. 

While on the topic of Rahul Gandhi's 'accomplishments with the youth Congress' that the party keeps advertising (his only 'accomplishment', mind you), the statistic being bandied about is a significant increase in membership numbers. While the numbers may have been correct, this does not necessarily count as an accomplishment of any significance in politics. Any marketing drive is bound to add some numbers. Do we know if there was any ground-level improvement in the functioning of the party in any rural or urban centres? Do we know of any non-dynasty youth that are being groomed to become future leaders of the party? This report includes several quotes from Congress functionaries that talks about Rahul Gandhi's unverifiable accomplishments, like that of bringing in performance-based accountability, etc. These might be believable about someone who has risen through the ranks, not about someone who has no accomplishments to his name whatsoever.

Where's the Media's Good Judgement?
While everything the Congress might do to boost the image of their prime-minister-in-waiting, the media should show better judgement and not merely publish the Congress' press releases.

• Has there been one interview of Rahul Gandhi on any national issue? Does no media house have that kind of reach within the Congress party? Every leader in every other major party is available for interviews and quotes, why not this one?
• Each time Rahul Gandhi makes a 'visit' to some place for photo opportunities, the media laps it all up. They do not bother to check if anything meaningful came of any of his visits. If he really wielded that much power in the party (and cared for issues), the state of affairs in the country and the ministries' incompetence in even each-to-change problem areas like sanitation would not continue. In many cases, the problems he 'reviewed in person' could have been solved by simply not wasting lakhs of rupees on his chartered flight and security, but instead applying it to, say, bring water to the village. I have not seen one scathing Op-Ed or editorial on these blatant photo ops.