Rahul Gandhi and Congress: Has Pappu become a 'Political compulsion' for Congress?

Foundation of Congress Party

Congress Party Symbol

The Congress, one of the largest parties in India, was formed on 28 December 1885. The person who founded the Congress party was A.O. Hume. Which also included Dada Bhai Naoroji and Dinshaw wacha. Vyomesh Chandra Banerjee was made the first president of the Congress Party organization.

At that time the main objective of the formation of the Congress was independence of India, however it is another matter that after independence Mahatma Gandhi had said that the purpose of formation of Congress has been fulfilled, hence it should be abolished. But after independence it became the major political party of India. Acharya Kripalani was the first president of the Congress Party of Independent India.

In the Congress, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Manmohan Singh are two such leaders who became Prime Ministers but could not become the President of the party. After independence, where Sonia held the post of Congress president for 19 years, in the second place in this case, her mother-in-law was Indira Gandhi who held this responsibility separately for a total of seven years.

Fall of Congress Party 

Demise of Congress

Of the 16th general elections since independence to 2014, the Congress won an absolute majority in 6, while leading the ruling coalition 4 times. The Congress remained in power for the longest time in the history of Indian democracy. In the first election, the Congress won a massive majority by winning 364 seats, but in the 16th Lok Sabha the same party was reduced to 44 seats.

Surprisingly, Congress did not even get the eligibility to form leader of Opposition in the 16th Lok Sabha. And the same situation has also happened for the 17th Lok Sabha. This is the first time that the Congress party has failed to achieve the post of Leader of Opposition in 2 consecutive Lok Sabha elections. 

The current Congress president is Sonia Gandhi. Prior to this, Pandit Jawahar Nehru, Kamaraj, Neelam Sanjeev Reddy, Indira Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesari, Rajiv Gandhi etc. have been veteran presidents.  The party's symbol is the claw of the hand. Earlier, the bull pair and cow-calf have also been the Congress symbol.

Rahul Gandhi's political journey 

Image of Rahul Gandhi

If we talk about Rahul Gandhi's political journey, he announced his entry into politics with the announcement of contesting elections in March 2004, in which he stood for Lok Sabha from his father's constituency Amethi and was elected to the Lok Sabha. In 2007, he was presented as a key figure in a high-level Congress campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. 

However the party did not get the expected success. With this, Rahul also had to face a lot of criticism. On 24 September 2007, Rahul was appointed the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee in a reshuffle of the party secretariat. In the same reshuffle, he was also assigned the responsibility of the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India. His image emerged as a youth leader in the Congress.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he defeated his nearest rival by a huge margin of 333000 votes. In these elections, the Congress won 21 seats in the state with 80 Lok Sabha constituencies and instilled new enthusiasm in the party in the state. At that time, the credit for this change was also given to Rahul Gandhi.

Keeping in mind the 2014 elections, Rahul Gandhi was made the President of the Congress Coordination Committee by the Congress. Rahul Gandhi also put full emphasis to prepare for Lok Sabha elections

But in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi was declared as the prime ministerial candidate from the BJP side. Narendra Modi succeeded in capitalizing on many big issues such as unbridled inflation, falling rupee, rising unemployment, stand and scam on Kashmir and Pakistan.

Rahul Gandhi was probably not ready for these issues, the Congress was also surrounded by the news of scams anyway and unfortunately Rahul Gandhi was not able to answer.

The result was that the Congress Party suffered the biggest defeat in history. The Congress was able to win only 44 seats. After that, the Congress Committee called a committee to review the defeat and find out the reason for the defeat.

Then the Congress too got excited and Rahul Gandhi was elected as the unopposed President of the Congress Party in 2017. It is a different matter that Shahzad Poonawala, the secretary of the Congress party itself, was shown the way out of the party to claim the post of president.

Now talk about the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi's election campaign was also strange. Wherever he went, he would have abused Narendra Modi. In the entire election, Rahul Gandhi only abused and accused Narendra Modi (more than that he probably couldn’t do anything and did not even expect it). Well its results also came and as everyone expected that the Congress would be able to save its honor this time, but regretted that too.

Since then, the social media has given him the title by the name of “Pappu”. And it is not just the electoral defeat behind it, the biggest reason behind it is their absurd statements and body language which lack the confidence.

Controversial statements of Rahul Gandhi
A look at Rahul Baba's controversial statements-

‘Temple goers molest'
At the Congress Women's Conference held in Delhi on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, once party vice-president Rahul Gandhi said, "Those who call you mother and sister, go to the temple, worship the goddess and that people tease women in the bus"

There was a ruckus about Rahul's statement. Later the party said that this was not Rahul's intention. Rahul was also severely criticized on this matter on social media.

'Dalits need escape velocity of Jupiter'
Rahul Gandhi's speech with the 'Escape Velocity' principle on the upliftment of Dalits was very much discussed at the Dalit Rights Conference held on 9 October 2013 at Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi. He first explained that the velocity you need to reach from a planet to space is called escape velocity. After this, he said that in order to raise above the Dalits, many times more strength of the planet like 'Escape Velocity' of Jupiter is needed.

'Poverty is a mental state'
On August 6, 2013, in a program of Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Social Sciences, Allahabad, Rahul said, "Poverty is just a mental state i.e. a mental state and it has nothing to do with food, money and material things." He said that until a person does not bring confidence in himself, he will not be able to get out of poverty.

‘ISIS and Unemployement’
In Germany too, Rahul Gandhi has given a controversy by giving a statement about the birth of ISIS in India. While addressing the workers of the Indian Overseas Congress in Berlin, during his speech, Rahul Gandhi linked the incidents of mob lynching to unemployment, for unemployment he even gave the example of terrorist organization ISIS.

‘I'm ashamed to call myself Indian’
Rahul Gandhi spoke these words after the violent struggle of Bhatta Parsaul in May 2011. Whichever perspective he may have made this statement, but does such a speech suit the face of a national leader who wants the post of PM?

Dumb Statements of Rahul Gandhi
It is not that Rahul Gandhi has given only disputed statements, besides he has also made many absurd statements, due to which many hashtags like #YoRahulSoDumb keep trending on Twitter. There is a reason for this. One look at those statements of Rahul Gandhi which confessed people and laughed a lot.

'India is bigger even after combining America and Europe'
Rahul Gandhi said earlier, Gujarat is bigger than United Kingdom. They did not stop. He said that even if America and Europe are combined, India is bigger than that. Poor Rahul Baba. He meant the population there. People took this statement from the perspective of the region. After this, his geography knowledge on Twitter was blown apart.

‘MPs in the Lok Sabha are 546’
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, while speaking with young students at Berkeley, University of California, said that it is necessary to avoid arrogance in politics. He even admitted that in 2012, the ego in the Congress was lost. Along with this, he attacked PM Modi fiercely and while answering a question, Rahul told the number of MPs in the Lok Sabha are 546, after which he is being mocked a lot on social media.

‘Politics is in your pant’
During a press conference, Rahul Gandhi said that today there is politics everywhere. It's in your shirt, it's in your pants. This politics is everywhere. During a press conference, Rahul Gandhi said that today there is politics everywhere. It's in your shirt, it's in your pants. This politics is everywhere.

‘This morning, I got up at night’
Rahul Gandhi may not even understand one of his speeches whether he is talking about morning or night. When Rahul Gandhi was made the vice president, he said in his speech, “This morning, I got up at night”.

‘Torn kurta’ 

Rahul Gandhi showing his torn kurta 

In Rishikesh, when Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi showed his torn kurta while playing the election bugle, his photo spread like a forest fire on social media. Memes on his torn kurta are also made a lot.

Future of Congress 

Image Source moneycontrol.com

As much as the Congress party's former president Rahul Gandhi has a hand in drowning the Congress party's ship, it is not even with his opponents, Rahul Gandhi has often been trolled due to his outrageous statements. Many times the party has to give clarification on their statements.

But still those mistakes do not deter rahul from repeating them. It is a pity that Rahul Gandhi's faults are not just his own but the entire Congress party has to suffer but still it is the strength of Congress that they will have to carry the burden of name Rahul Gandhi. 

Because the whole Congress party revolves around Gandhi's name. And now the same Gandhi name has been weakening the roots of the Congress and this election has also proved this in the elections of 2019.

Because even after having so many issues, if the Congress is reduced to only 52 seats, then the top leaders of Congress need to introspect and question not only the introspection but also the leadership of the Congress. It is not that there is a shortage of talented people in the party. 

But unless the deserving leaders are given a chance to move forward, there is little scope for improvement in the Congress party. Because if the oldest party of India is to stay alive then there is a dire need to change the party leadership, otherwise the Congress party may not cease to exist after the next election.