Opinion Rahul Gandhi’s ‘panauti’ comment on PM Modi: Stooping low

MUD flies, adjectives flow in every election campaign and Rahul Gandhi’s name-calling should not surprise. After all, this is not the first instance of Congress incivility in the political exchange. On the other side, the BJP has not exactly been known to be demure either. It has often taken the lead in the bid to use rhetoric to label, provoke and polarise. And yet, Rahul’s reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “panauti (harbinger of bad luck)” at a rally in poll-bound Rajasthan – the PM’s presence at the cricket World Cup final in Ahmedabad made “hamare ladke (our boys)” lose a match they were all set to win, he said — stands out. It is offensive, it is in bad taste, unabashedly employing the language of superstition and unreason. It is also a crude bid to use a moment of community and togetherness, woven deliberately and also unselfconsciously around a shared love and passion for the game, in a political taunt and low blow. PM Modi’s visit to the players’ dressing room after the heartbreaking defeat of a team that had a stellar run in the tournament, was to lend a shoulder, not to flex a political muscle. Rahul’s remark is also bad politics and a striking self-goal.

In this round of state elections, when PM Modi steps into the fray, his party showcases his record in governance at the Centre for nearly two terms. By all accounts, whatever the verdict on the performance of BJP as incumbent or challenger in the state, the Modi incumbency is projected as an advantage for the party, a trump card it flaunts even though it may work, or not. Indeed, the limitations of this strategy are visible to many in the BJP in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Rahul, on the other hand, lacks a CV of his own. It is arguably an acknowledgement of this that has contributed, in state after state, to the Congress campaign going pointedly local. While the BJP centralises and Modi-ises its state campaign to paper over its local wear and tear, the local Congress candidates are stars of their own campaigns, distant from their party high command. In this situation, Rahul’s direct targeting of Modi only plays into the BJP’s plan, and undercuts the Congress’s electoral strategy. It raises a question — is the Congress’s plan even a coherent plan? Or is it, instead, the absence of one, a fumbling escape into the local, much noise lacking in conviction?

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The Congress response to criticism of the “panauti” pejorative has been whataboutery — doesn’t the BJP say more, and worse? That defence draws even more unflattering attention to the party. It cannot both claim to mount the high ground and upend a polarising politics by opening “mohabbat ki dukaan,” “nafrat ke bazaar mein”, change the subject from hate to love, and also, to wound the opponent, stoop low.