Frankly speaking: It’s total non-sense!

There were questions on this Rahul Gandhi interview and there were answers but I am still searching for a connection between the two. Probably this is how Arnab and the viewers felt after the interview got over.

 

The 500 crore mega budget set aside to change his image has only dented it further. The Japanese ad firm must be wondering that they completely fucked themselves just for the greed of 500 crore and might need an image makeover consultant themselves post 2014 elections! Unfortunately or fortunately we have seen two kinds of people in the congress one that does not open his mouth and the other when he opens speaks only rubbish and crap. Anyways jokes apart (well there are a lot more down the article) let’s get into what Mr. Gandhi had to say.

In his first proper one-on-one TV interview that has taken ten years to come, Rahul Gandhi did little to change his image as a politician who appears to be sincere – but not-so-sincere if you scratch the surface. Despite being vice president and heir apparent of the grand old party, the Shehzada continued to pretend to be an outsider to the "system" as if the system wasn't made and formed by his party and his family, or as if his party hasn't been presided over “the system” for the last ten years.

In the one hour interview Rahul Gandhi kept using only empowerment, RTI, MNREGA. He said the word "youth" several times and the word “women” even more frequently. He was just lost, had no answers to defend himself or his party. Question where asked on all the issues from 1984 riots to recent election results and all his answers were blunt, inaccurate, and made no sense. Look at some of his answers below

Do you feel overwhelmed by loss, by defeat, because you’ve had quite a few of late? How have you dealt with it? 
...I’m here because I want to help use the energy of this country. I want to make this country powerful... I think there are basically three things one needs to do. One is change the way we do politics — getting away from superficialities, from small issues...look at things like RTI, Lokpal, how we choose candidates. Second is empowering women...and third is using the energy of the youth of this country, bringing in jobs they need...I don’t go into an election thinking if we lose it’s the end of the world. We lose some elections, we win some elections. The real thing is that it’s a heart thing. It’s a soul thing... I’m sitting here because I feel with all my heart we need to change the system here... 

Will you have a debate with Narender Modi if he agrees...? 
I’m debating these issues by building structures in Congress... You have to start that debate. As far as I’m concerned, the debate is taking place.

Have you made any sense out of these answers? If you did hats off to you! Moving on For all his claims of empowering the people, deepening democracy and his criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party for centralising power in the figure of Narender Modi, however, Gandhi kept on talking the same old rhetoric about the Green Revolution to the Right to Information law, MNREGA, etc Rahul’s response to all those charges was simply to duck and recite homilies about empowering women. He tried to set himself up as the outsider when in fact he is the prince, not the pauper.He failed to tell what the voters want to know? What his party's government did when it was rewarded with a second term in 2009. Gandhi’s best reply was that the Congress introduced the Lokpal, and other anti-corruption and transparency bills pending in Parliament. But these measures were too little too late, and they were the result of a popular agitation led by Arvind Kejriwal. Gandhi’s bullet points on having built more highways than the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and having fostered fast economic growth stood in contrast to his poor answers on why action hadn’t been taken against corrupt officials from the Congress.

Gandhi went on and on about changing the system. This has been his motif for the last few weeks. By his own admission, he's been copying the Aam Aadmi Party. But when Gandhi says he wants to "unleash the power of... women", he does not realise he is still following the top-down model of governance. In Gandhi's worldview, he will empower we the people. By contrast, the Aam Aadmi Party says it represents the people who want to empower themselves. (The BJP says it wants to get rid the country of a party which is run by a family that decides in its wisdom that it must empower the people.)

Gandhi's claims of empowering the people, democratising the system and bringing transparency would actually have some substance if he was able to walk the talk. When asked about whether the Congress would form an alliance with the convicted Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar for the May elections, Gandhi blamed the "seniors" in the party for that decision. He says:

Lalu Prasad was convicted on September 30, 2013, in the fodder scam case. Will you still enter into a political arrangement with him? Will you make that compromise? 
These decisions of the Congress are made by senior leaders.
You are the boss. 
Our alliance in Bihar is with a party, not an individual. It’s not certain we are going to make an alliance, we are in process of talking to people and our alliance is within idea, with a party, not an individual. 

 His hypocrisy is exposed here, given that he is the second-most-senior office bearer of the Congress. Similarly on the corruption charges against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and former Maharashtra Congressman Ashok Chavan, Gandhi wasn't able to show that he means what he says. He also said that youth will be given more opportunity but look at the irony on the very same day his party nominated to the Rajya Sabha Motilal Vohra, a politician born in 1928 it must have died a million deaths. I also was amused on why were question relating to Rober Vadera not asked? This is the problem with congress there double speak and double standard they want to take the credit for the good but don’t want to be blamed for the bad.

Being fare to him one thing full credit goes to him for at least opened up to the media and tried to answer direct answers one particular answer that I liked is

You will win the election? 
Yeah, I will win the election. 
And if you don’t win do you take full responsibility for it?
If we don’t win, I am the VP of the party. Of course I will take responsibility for it. 

Throughout the interview he did not make eye contacts with Arnab, his shoulders where dropping, he looked tensed, fumbling on his thoughts, poorly prepaid for the interview in what could have really made a impact on the people if he was more sensible and used some brains  in tackling the questions. In the end after some 100 questions, the nation got to know many things from Rahul Gandhi. It’s just that most of them were not answers to questions Arnab asked.

 Frankly speaking: it was a total non-sense!

AAP: All Noise and No Substance

Today I want to ask what did the people of Delhi get and what has Arvind Kejriwal proved? Running havoc on streets, running anarchy and breaking the law and order situation by the CM and his gang of unruly hooligans! Is this the struggle of Aam Aadmi?

In an unprecedented dharna in the heart of the capital came to an abrupt end tonight after two police officers were sent on leave under a neat compromise with the Centre over his demand for suspension of five officials for alleged dereliction of duty.  Kejriwal was on a dharna demand for control over Delhi Police and how he chooses to take control? By taking on the street, sleeping on roads and causing inconvenience to the people of Delhi, stone pelting, and challenging to run havoc on republic day! Is this what a CM of a state suppose to do? Finally the standoff ends in under the compromise, the SHO of Malviya Nagar, who refused to raid an alleged drug and prostitution ring on the orders of Law Minister Somnath Bharti, and PCR van in-charge of Paharganj, where a Danish women was gangraped last week, were sent on leave, paving the way for an end to the confrontation with the Centre.

The theatrics and dharna have got them results until now, so a self-absorbed Aam Aadmi Party government can hardly be expected to give up that weapon. Who's to say if the everyday lives of the Aam Aadmi Party going to work by public transport are somehow less relevant to him than a group of residents who undertook a sting operation codenamed 'Black Beauty' and forcibly detained women who they believed were prostitutes and drug peddlers with scant regard for legal process? Both sets of Delhiites are Kejriwal's voters, aam aadmis, but then the former is simply not an evocative enough picture.

Today Arvind Kejriwal just stands exposed on what actually is running in his mind. Apart from the frequent U turns that he takes on his statements and the abusive language he himself uses there is another thing that comes out in open is that is greedy for power. An instant success in the elections has made him arrogant and intolerant to others opposing his views.

Out of the 3 weeks in power, and all that he managed is to give interviews and attract media attention and nothing substantial. At least going by his performance so far if you closely analyse AAP’s theatrics it’s very clear that he desperately wants to resign as CM and finding it tough to meet the high moral standards and promises that he made to the people. He needs a reason to resign and that he found in this act of staging a dharna where he wanted to seek control of the police under the Delhi Govt. He fully knew that this was not possible as it required a constitutional amendment and would require time. By this act he wanted to tell the people that he wants to work for the people but he has no control over police and the congress does not want it investigate corruption charges again former CM.
Even today Arvind claims that he has won! I don’t understand how? Just by sending the cops on leave? Where is Law minister’s resignation? What is even bad is that the Central Govt. bucked down to this arm twisting and asked the cops to go on a leave. What a pathetic way to give justice! Home minister has not only succumbed to this nautanki but also demoralized the police forces; also he gave AAP a nice tool to use just go on dharna cause anarchy and gets your ways mended. Instead of cordoning off the area of protest and cutting off the supplies of water and food and arresting the protestors he has sent in 4000 police men to guard them. All this protest has proved nothing but in one week of mayhem in Delhi, Kejriwal shattered his own image, doing all the things the average politician – whom he so despised and derided – would do. Neglecting the law, bullying, browbeating and threatening all his detractors, including the media, throwing the capital of India into chaos, abusing the home minister of the country and even threatening to disrupt the most visible event that projects India as a united, powerful nation.

Decade of Decay!

Finally the PM comes out of the hiding and opens up to the media, so he was in out of the mute mode turned on in general mode. Now the question is what was he trying to convey? As always it lacked a sense of purpose and did not appear intended to convey anything meaningful. Now, getting onto the next question was this his farewell speech like most of the media was speculating? If yes then it was more disastrous than Rahul Gandhi’s election speech. The prime minister went on to say he did not want a third term and Rahul was the most suited for the job (ok wait the joke lies in next paragraph). Both the sentences put together would have sounded a little significant had it come a bit earlier
the bus has passed and it’s too late now. So what was his meet all about? Confused?  Let me tell you.

Manmohan feels he is being unfairly targeted by all and the air needed to be cleared. So going by his speech today where he wanted to dispel the negative perception around him, here also he failed miserably and could not achieve much - ironically he is still considered by many an honest man, incorruptible at a personal level, and, believe it or not, his government has been the most reformist in the last few decades despite the coalition constraints. Had he communicated more frequently and more honestly with people, history would have been kinder to him. His effort comes too late in the day. But he forgets that Never in India's history has the office of the Prime Minister been the subject of such ridicule. MMS makes Devegowda look good!

Here is the real fun; this presser was aimed at berating Narender Modi. He also said that the BJP spoke of the Gujarat chief minister as being a strong candidate. "Strength is not massacring innocent people in the streets of Ahmadabad”. The prime minister was uncharacteristically direct in his attack on the BJP’s Prime Minister Candidate; he went on to say that Modi would be a disaster if he becomes PM. Here the Irony dies a million deaths, a prime minister who has been sullied by a novice, dumb, foolish and a drug addict Rahul Gandhi calling the ordinance non-sense and thrown out, from being weak to spineless to puddle to Gandhi family supplicant. For five years at least he led a government many felt did not exist. Ministers chose to ignore his authority and the biggest scandals in the country took place under his watch. As quality of governance took a dip, everything else around, including the economy, slipped. All the while public anger was growing. The only response from the government was silence. Pakistani soldiers come and behead our soldiers, attack our cities, openly threaten our country. Chinese army comes and occupies our land for more than 20 days, Sri Lankan navy openly shoots out innocent fishermen and we do nothing. Italian marines shoot our citizens and what did you do? Sent them home to celebrate Christmas! And later they refused to come back only after the Supreme Court intervened did they come back. But PM chooses to continently ignore all the facts and instead uses adjectives like outstanding credentials etc to describe Rahul Gandhi.

When asked about corruption, Manmohan Singh said those things happened in UPA-1 (2004-09), and since his government got a stronger mandate in 2009, even assuming the Congress got a mandate to rule in that election, does this mean corruption gets sanctified? He admitted that the scams did unearth some “irregularities”, but “the dimensions of the problem were overstated by the media and the CAG” (Comptroller and Auditor General). Again, blames the media for his failures. Then on a question whether he ever thought of resigning during his nine-and-a-half year tenure so far as PM. He said he “never felt like resigning anytime.” What a revelation! If he “never felt like resigning” in a scam-scarred regime and during an era of acute economic mismanagement (during UPA-2), for which he blamed coalition compulsions or global factors, clearly he is immune not only to criticism, but to attacks of conscience too clearly he has developed a thick skin in these years, then an equally bad answer came in response to a question on inflation. While admitting that inflation was a problem, he said this had to be counter-balanced by the fact that the UPA government gave farmers better prices and rural wages were rising faster than inflation. In the past he has famously said that food inflation was caused by higher wages and because people were eating better, and now he says that as long as wages are rising faster, inflation is less of a problem. Well, Mr. Economist PM. When inflationary expectations get generalised in the economy, wages and prices will indeed chase one another in an endless spiral. In effect, inflation will never come down in this situation. It’s simple law of economics, which unfortunately you have forgotten in the attempt to justify your wrong doing.  An achievement he said he was particularly proud of was the Indo-US nuclear deal. But to be straight, the irony is this deal hasn’t delivered any increase in nuclear power investment in India, and in-turn this should have been the lowest point of your career where the infamous cash of votes scam broke out which not only sullied your image but the entire country’s reputation in the eyes of the world. It’s the result of which India and Indians are looked down upon and are subject to humiliation on foreign countries.

My personal view is Manmohan Singh is the ultimate survivor. Manmohan Singh has survived 10 years as PM by saying Ji Huzoor, Yes Ma’am, to the Dynasty. Some would think it was a high price to pay for being a doormat to Dynasty. To sum it all it was DECADE OF DECAY!!