Tag: Rahul Gandhi

In The News, My Take

Of Books and Controversies

Mr Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Congress is the Leader of the Opposition in India’s Lower House of Parliament, the hallowed Lok Sabha, Recently, there was a sensation in the Lok Sabha when Mr Gandhi, whose supporters project him as a youth leader despite his being 56 years old made serious allegations about the ruling Government’s handling of the Galwan Crisis of 2020. He said the allegations were based on the writings of India’s former Chief of Army Staff, General M M Naravane (retd) in his memoirs ” Four Stars Of Destiny”. Initially he said he was quoting from an article in The Caravan. Later he was seen exhibiting a physical copy of Gen Naravane’s book. Interestingly, Penguin Random House India declared categorically that the book had not been published! Apparently the Govt of India has not yet cleared the book manuscript. Rahul Gandhi was seen on television programs saying that General Naravane’s book is published and is available abroad.

From the point of view of an author I must say this: Thanks to Mr Gandhi, millions who had not heard about General Naravane”s book- have now heard about it- and how! As of now, it remains to be seen in what form or shape the book will be officially published. I am sure Penguin Random House India will reap a rich harvest from this book as will General Naravane whenever it is finally published!

General Naravane’s book is not the first- nor will it be the last -book to stir up a controversy. Some books have been controversial. Some have been banned. Some have been controversial and banned!!

Over the decades, many books have been banned in India by ruling Governments. I came across this interesting blog post recently in The Himalayan Writing Retreat –“10 Books Banned In India- To Read or Not To Read? ” .

I had heard of some of them, of course, like “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie. The Government of India, banned the book in 1988, when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. You may recall how Sir Salman ( Mr Rushdie was knighted in 2007) was attacked in New York in 2022 -decades after the book was first published! . He spoke about his recollections of that day in a BBC interview in 2025.

Mr Rahul Gandhi’s mentioning General Naravane’s to be published book in Parliament – in a move to attack the “failures” of the ruling Government in dealing with the Chinese perhaps boomeranged on him. The gist of the allegation is that the Govt and Prime Minister Modi was ambiguous in his direction during the crisis. A feeling was sought to be created that the Army Chief felt let down due to a lack of clear direction. The Govt defended itself by saying that approval was given to the Army Chief to act as he deemed fit. The Prime Minister cannot be expected to act like a platoon commander on the ground.

The Parliament ruckus had two interesting-but perhaps unintended – side effects. The first is that a new generation- millions of Indian youth fed largely on social media – is hungry to know how the Congress dealt with such crises in the past. They have heard about the 1962 debacle in the hands of the Chinese in 1962 from their grandparents. They want to know in a crisp conducive to social media manner what actually happened way back in the early 1960s.

The second is that for more serious readers- several books that are based on events on the Indo-China War of 1962 are getting a new lease of life and a huge boost in the bargain. It is well settled that many published books were highly critical of the failures of the then ruling Congress Government of Jawaharlal Nehru. He was Rahul Gandhi’s great-grandfather.

I have read books like “The War That Wasn’t” by Shiv Kunal Verma; “The Battle of Rezang La” by Kulpreet Yadav; and “JKF’s Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA & The Sino-Indian War” by Bruce Riedel, to mention but a few. Every author has written of how those days were characterised by poor strategic vision and policies, total lack of preparedness, and oscillating between bravado on one day and abject surrender on another. These led to India’s defeat at the hands of the Chinese. India’s image ( and that of Mr Nehru in particular) took a brutal beating in the eyes of our own citizens if not the whole world. What stood out was the bravery and valour of poorly equipped Indian Army troops fighting against great odds and exhibiting immense courage in most cases.

In The News, My Take

Credibility Is The Name Of The Game

What credibility does Mr Rahul Gandhi, a leading light of the Indian National Congress (INC) and scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family have? At 50, the “youth icon” has never been a Minister in a State or Union Cabinet. But he is a law unto himself! All his power stems from who he is by virtue of his birth. That he ( born in 1970) publicly tore up an ordinance, in 2013 shaming the Congress-led Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ( born in 1932) speaks for itself. Continue reading “Credibility Is The Name Of The Game” →

In The News, My Take

Freedom Of Speech

The General Elections are on in India and in the heat of political campaigning, leaders of political parties sometimes get  carried away and say things they ought not to. Yes, we do have the freedom of speech and expression but that does not give an individual an unfettered right to say whatever comes to his mind, more so if it is detrimental to his political opponents .

I am reminded of our lecturer, Mr Clarence Motha who taught us Political Science. He used to tell every batch the same story every year : ” I have the right and freedom to swing my umbrella as I walk,” he would say, ” but that right  and freedom ends where the finely chiseled nose of my young friend here begins!! ”

In the space of the last few weeks, in my view, the Congress President Rahul Gandhi no less, has been guilty of breaking the law with regard to the freedom of speech. He recently implicated the Supreme Court when he suggested that they too supported his political campaign  and endorsed his “Chowkidar Chor Hai” line of attack against Prime Minister Modi. Only a few days ago the highest court of the land was not satisfied with the regret expressed by Mr Gandhi and asked his lawyer to file another affidavit with a proper apology.

If that were not enough, Mr Gandhi in a political rally in Jabalpur, used the expression, “Murder Accused” against Mr  Amit Shah, the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party several times in his speech.  It is no surprise that a defamation suit has been filed against him in an Ahmedabad court as facts indicate that Mr Shah, was acquitted in 2015.

Politicians are guilty of gross exaggeration in their speeches. I was shocked to hear Mr Rahul Gandhi claim that Mahatma Gandhi ( no relation to him whatsoever) had  been in solitary confinement for 15 years during the Freedom Movement. This is untrue. The details of Gandhiji’s imprisonments, first in South Africa and later in India are listed in this comprehensive website about him.  Also, it is widely accepted that unlike the common political prisoner, the British treated Gandhi and Nehru with kid gloves. They were typically kept under arrest in reasonable comfort and not thrown into some dingy cell and made to do hard labour like the convicts depicted in the old Hindi movies.  The Mahatma, for example, was interned in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune in 1942.

In another case, the Savarkar family have filed a case against Mr Rahul Gandhi for casting aspersions on the character of Veer Savarkar, a freedom fighter, while glorifying Gandhi and Nehru.

Mr Gandhi is not the only politician  guilty of this. Mr Arvind Kejriwal, the IIT educated Chief Minister of Delhi was sued in a criminal defamation case for the remarks made by him against the country’s Finance Minister  Mr Arun Jaitley. In that case, he was compelled to render an apology in the Court which was accepted by the complainant.

I believe there has to a salutary punishment for defamation. If the accused is allowed to get away with a written apology, as happened in the case of Delhi Chief Minister following his remarks against Finance Minister Jaitley, what is the deterrent to prevent him from doing such a thing again?

In a recent case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court fined singer and composer Vishal Dadlani and political activist Tehseen Poonawalla, Rs 10 lakhs each for hurting the religious sentiments of a Jain monk Tarunji Sagar through their tweets.

Now, that is a deterrent. I am sure they will be more careful when they tweet next time!

 

In The News, My Take

Nehru, China and the Indian General Elections

The dates for the General Elections in India have recently been announced. We will know on May 23, 2019 as to who will form the new Government to rule the world’s largest democracy with a population of over 1.3 billion people, for the next five years. It is natural that there will be a huge spike in political activity. Opponents of the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance will lose no opportunity to take pot shots at the ruling Government and its policies. However, judging from recent comments made by leading people in the Congress party, the quality of debate (if one can call it that) will be in the pits this time around.

Pawan Khera, the Congress Spokesperson said some disgraceful things about Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently in a debate that was televised nationally. He said M-O-D-I was for Masoor Azhar, Osama Bin Laden, Dawood Ibrahim, and the ISI!!!  The Congress which in the last General Elections was reduced to 44 seats in the Lok Sabha seems to have decided that this will be a no holds barred contest. The rank and file are probably taking a cue from Congress President Rahul Gandhi who has been very vocal in his criticism of the Prime Minister.

In the recent past, he accused the Government and the Prime Minister of lying about the Indian Air Force strike against Jaish E Mohammed terror camps deep in Pakistan. He asked for proof, ignoring the fact that details of top-secret strikes like these are never revealed by any country. His accusations left many shocked as the country has to come together to fight terror. They did not go down well with everybody including some in his own party. Binod Sharma, a Congress leader left the party after three decades saying Rahul Gandhi’s approach was all wrong.

Rahul Gandhi has been equally vocal about the Rafale deal, claiming that Prime Minister Modi had gifted Rs 30,000 crores to his crony, the industrialist, Anil Ambani. He has not been able to substantiate any of these charges of virtually calling the Prime Minister a ” chor” or thief.  The reputed columnist Tavleen Singh wrote that to get more credibility for his claims it is about time that Rahul Gandhi produced some evidence of his accusations.

What shocked me more was Rahul Gandhi accusing Narendra Modi of being scared of Xi, the Chinese President. “Weak Modi scared of Xi” he tweeted. Most observers would testify that Modi has shown more sagacity than his predecessors in dealing with different countries of the world including China. The fact that China, which backs Pakistan so strongly, did not object to the Indian strike against terror camps in Pakistan speaks for itself.

The irony was that Rahul Gandhi chose China as the topic to criticize the Prime Minister. The track record of the Congress has been dismal when it comes to China over the decades since India became independent. Rahul’s great grand father Jawaharlal Nehru died in 1964 a broken man following the debacle against the Chinese in 1962. His policies of appeasement and grand standing on the international stage as a great statesman came crashing down when the Chinese humiliated the Indian Army in the 1962 war.  The people of Tibet even decades later feel totally let down by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister. Here’s one example of their feelings captured in this article in the website of the Tibetan Association of Southern California titled, ” Nehru and the China-Tibet Blunder.”

The battle has just begun. I am sure in the coming weeks we will see much mud being flung on both sides. The Indian voter has to judge for himself about the political party he would like to see in power. Would he like to give Prime Minister Modi a second term which will continue the stability of the Government or will he opt to give a combination of parties the opportunity to form a Government despite their differing ideologies?