EVEN as a debate rages in the country abut the number of people who attended the Ramlila Maidan mega rally of the Opposition on November 1, the Congress party is patting its back on what could be described as a successful relaunch of Mr. Rahul Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate. Given the lukewarm response of other constituent parties of the INDI Alliance to the two-day show, the Congress party might as well assert that Mr. Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the Opposition camp beyond doubt. However, considering the details of the two-day show and the overall response of the common people or Opposition political workers to it, many questions keep popping up about the Congress party’s claim about Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s leadership of the future Opposition initiatives.

 

Non-partisan political observers, however, brand the two-day political event as a flop show because it did not seem to achieve any stated or unstated purpose. Though the so-called mock parliament and the mega rally were statedly organised to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Mr. Gyanesh Kumar, that purpose has remained far from served. The political observers insist that the event was rather hastily organised without waiting for the Supreme Court hear the case in that regard on November 17. They assert that the main objective of the Opposition was to take the fight to the streets rather than follow the constitutional path. This approach, they insist, has actually alienated the Opposition from the common voters whose ultimate tilt would decide the political fortunes fully by 2029 when the country goes for Lok Sabha elections.

 

There are still many who suspect that this so-called relaunch of Mr. Rahul Gandhi would turn out to be as tame and ineffective as all the previous relaunches the party had for its leader. For, by now, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its propaganda machinery has been able to establish successfully that the Opposition in general and the Congress party in particular are working on a foreign toolkit to create anarchy in the country. The Government has also succeeded in communicating to the common people that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ lists is not a BJP or Modi initiative but had been undertaken for as many as ten times since Independence by the then Congress Government. Prior to the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, the Opposition had created much noise about the Modi Government wanting to destroy the Constitution.

 

That narrative did have some impact on the voters’ minds -- which resulted in reduced seats for the BJP (because the ruling party could not present an effective counter-narrative). This time, however, the BJP and the Government were alert and responded hard and fast to debunk the Opposition claims. The differences of opinions on SIR within the Opposition camp, too, helped in educating the people about the entire exercise. The success -- or failure -- of the Opposition’s two-day initiative needs to be weighed against the overall impact of the current political developments in the country. The common voters are well-enough informed about the hollowness of the Congress party’s claims on various points as regards resignation of the CEC or the SIR. A well informed common public is often treated as the best defence of democracy against any cunning and false narratives -- such as regime change. This time, the Government has been able to achieve a far better and deeper connect with the average Indians as it explained the reality to the masses. The two-day event by the Opposition, thus, appears to have succeeded only to a small extent to relaunch Mr. Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial face. True, for the sake of humour, he did become ‘Prime Minister’ in the mock parliament. Yet, on the ground of reality, his chances are seen as ‘good for nothing’ since he does not have the stuff to stand as a rival of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi whose leadership and impact on the Indian nation are beyond question.