Rahul Gandhi’s PR machinery can only go so far- His record in public life has been abysmal
- In Politics
- 04:34 AM, Nov 03, 2017
- Vishakha Joshi
I heard a set by a female stand-up comedian, Urooj Ashaq, where she made a very valid point “If you can’t offer them opinions, offer jokes, or compliments”. I think Rahul Gandhi must have also heard Ms. Ashaq since he seems to be doing the same these days. He recently uploaded a video of his dog Pidi doing tricks along with the joke that Pidi tweets for him. I honestly felt bad for Pidi since Divya Spandana was getting all the credit in the media. Jokes on Rahul Gandhi’s jokes apart, the attempts to make Rahul Gandhi look “cool” are obvious, these are all the signs of Rahul Gandhi trying to woo the BuzzFeed generation.
Once a very wise man said “Whenever you click a selfie, a Chinese youth gets employment” , the same wise man went ahead and clicked selfie with a youth and his PR agents made it viral, of course their prince is so humane and aww-dorable after all. Be it his tweets in which he jokes about the Modi-Trump hug, or his Pidi jokes, all Rahul Gandhi has done so far is either crack jokes (probably not his own) or be joked about (by people, who haven’t heard or laughed on a RaGa joke). Rahul Gandhi’s PR machinery is trying to portray him as a leader having the “cool” factor. But this brings me to a fundamental question “Does our youth only want this ?”, will these stunts have any connectivity beyond the high profile rich brats of Lutyens, Bandra, South Bombay ? I doubt it.
I would like to trust our youth that they want someone with an opinion on India’s foreign policy and not just a joke on it. Does anyone really know what does Rahul Gandhi think about the Jan Dhan Yojna, does he really know or talk about Aadhar and GST... why doesn’t he talk about policy issues, why does Rahul Gandhi have low attendance in Parliament? Why doesn’t our ‘cool leader’ participate in debates? His PR agency should definitely consider for how long will the “cool” image work? After a point even the youth will demand answers. The current government has come up with social schemes that positively impact the rural areas. Be it efforts to bring electricity to the villages, or give free gas connections to the ones who need it, efforts in the sector are consistent and are showing results (I say this with confidence due to my recent rural stint). Will the “cool” factor of Rahul Gandhi be enough to combat what good policies are delivering in the rural areas?
Sorry for conflating too many issues in here, but this entire attempt to present this Aikido practicing gentleman avatar has made me think Congress IT cell/PR cell is people who are too inspired by the internet and less inspired by the real India. News outlets rapidly sharing “Congress shares Aikido photos that Rahul Gandhi had promised”. Although, the joke once again turned out to be on Rahul Gandhi when a Twitter user @__phoenix_fire_ pointed out that the move that Rahul was seen doing in that picture was a very basic beginner’s move called wrist lock! Try harder is what I would tell the Congress PR guys!
Doesn’t all this sound very inspired? Much like an attempt to emulate Trudeau, Obama et al? There are rumours about Cambridge Analytica working with Congress, the same firm that worked for the Trump Campaign. Isn’t the foreign touch is getting a tad obvious? Like I said too unconnected from the ground realities of Hindustan.
Behind this cool factor, actually lies a leader who can’t govern and doesn’t know about governance and policy issues, hence the desperate PR attempts. Or is it arrogance? Does he think that he can influence the youth by the video of his dog doing tricks? While the dog is indeed cute, the master fails to impress. I think one person who really nailed how silly this circus is, Himanta Biswa Sarma. In his tweet he recollected how Rahul Gandhi was busy feeding his dog biscuits while Himanta was trying to discuss serious issues pertaining to Assam with him. Eventually Himanta Biswa Sarma shifted to BJP and won Assam for BJP. The history will repeat itself if Rahul Gandhi and his PR agency don’t get their priorities right!
Comments