कतरनें अखबारों की
प्रियंकागांधी का अपने भाई की हिमायत में चुनावअभियान में उतारना भले हताश कांग्रेसियों में नै जान फूंक गया है लेकिन इससे उनके भाई राहुल गांधी को कुलमिलाकर कुछ फायदा भी हुआ है यह मान लेने से सहमत होना मुश्किल है। भले अपने नेहरू -गांधी परिवार को संसद भेजने वाले नगरों में कांग्रेस को कुछ फायदा हो जाए लेकिन अन्यत्र इसका बड़ा खामियाज़ा कांग्रेस को उठाना पड़ सकता है।
उनके चुनाव अभियान में उतरने से राहुल पहले से भी ज्यादा प्रभाहीन लगने लगे हैं। अभी हाल फिलाल उन्होंने अपनी एक चुनाव सभा में कहा था -यदि मोदी प्रधानमन्त्री बन गए तो बाईस हज़ार आदमी मारे जाएंगे। उनसे न सही उनका भाषण लिखने वाले से पूछा जाना चाहिए -२२ हज़ार ही क्यों कम या ज्यादा क्यों नहीं। कहाँ और क्यों मारे जाएंगे भैया राजा इस बारे में भी कुछ नहीं बतलाते। क्या ये आंकड़ा मुज़्ज़फरनगर में उनके द्वारा दिए गए उस वक्तव्य की तरह नहीं है कि वहां आईएसआई के एजेंट छिपे हुए हैं।
एक और मर्तबा ज़नाब ने बतलाया -गुजरात में २७ करोड़ नौजवान बे -रोज़गार हैं। उन्हें और उनके भाषण लिखने वाले को शायद नहीं मालूम इतनी आबादी तो देश के सबसे बड़े राज्य उत्तर प्रदेश और गुजरात की कुल मिलाकर भी नहीं हैं।ज़ाहिर है उनके भाषण लिखने वाले को ये भी शायद मालूम नहीं था कि गुजरात की कुल आबादी छ :करोड़ के आसपास है। राहुल गांधी ये बतलाएं कि वे २१ करोड़ की और आबादी कहाँ से ले आए ?और वह भी सारे युवा। वो अपनी गलती को बार बार दोहराते हैं इतना तो दूसरी कक्षा का बच्चा भी नहीं करता वह भी उत्तीर्ण होने पर पहली कक्षा के पाठ को भूल जाता।
बेहतर होता प्रियंका गांधी अपने भाई को थोड़ा सा इतिहास और भूगोल पढ़ा देतीं।
भारत की राजनीति को नेहरू -गांधी परिवार के प्रिज़्म से देखने की बजाय अभिव्यक्ति के कुछ सु -स्पस्ट आयाम रचतीं। फिलवक्त तो कांग्रेस का चुनावी अभियान बे -मेल ,अ -संगत और अ -सम्बद्ध है।
किस ब्रांड की मार्किटिंग की जाए इसे लेकर ही असमंजस है।
अप्रेल में चुनाव अभियान की शुरुआत में सवाल था -क्या मोदी प्रधानमन्त्री बन सकते हैं अब सवाल है मोदी को कैसे रोका जाए।
या तो आज आप मोदी के पक्ष में खड़े हैं या फिर असमंजस की स्थिति में हैं।
हाँ कांग्रेसियों को इतनी तसल्ली भाई बहन की ये जोड़ी ज़रूर दे सकती है नेहरू -गांधी की विरासत को ये जोड़ी कालशेष नहीं होने देगी।
RIGHT AND WRONG
M.J. Akbar (extreme left) and Swapan Dasgupta (second from right) at the release of the book on Moditva
Priyanka has done to Rahul what BJP did to Advani in 2009
The details of a general election campaign are forgotten once the outcome is known. However, those who experienced the 2009 campaign that resulted in a clear mandate for the Congress-led UPA may recall the confusion that resulted from a BJP leader's contention in Ahmedabad that Gujarat was lucky because it was giving India two prime ministers. The reference was to L K Advani, the candidate from Gandhinagar and the BJP-led NDA's prime ministerial candidate, and Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, who many BJP supporters felt was the leader-in-waiting.
This praise of Advani and Modi was made in all sincerity and may not have aimed at undermining the veteran leader. However, it was seized by the media and the BJP's opponents to suggest that Advani was just a stop-gap candidate and that the BJP's hidden agenda was the installation of Modi through the backdoor. In pure marketing terms, it contributed to blurring of the main brand and, in effect, punctured Advani's claim to be a decisive leader awaiting national endorsement. The subtext of the two-PMs-from-Gujarat boast was that somehow Advani wasn't good enough.
In 2014, the BJP hasn't repeated that mistake. Indeed, its entire campaign has been devoted to creating an aura around Modi and presenting him as the man for all seasons. There may well be a so-called 160 Club that believes in upstaging Modi in a palace coup but so overpowering has been the promotion of Modi that the occasional awkward voice has been drowned out in the euphoria. The BJP campaign slogan is for a "Modi sarkar".
The Congress, however, has not been so lucky. First, it dithered over whether or not Rahul Gandhi was its PM candidate because it didn't want to be drawn into a presidential contest. Secondly, it presented an alternative to the muscular, no-nonsense Modi by packaging Rahul as a team player. Far from bolstering Rahul's image as a genial consensusbuilder , the tentativeness of his projection unwittingly showed up the Congress vice president to be somehow lacking in the attributes of captaincy.
Finally, after the early rounds of a long campaign, the Congress repeated the mistake of the Grand Alliance in 1971 and made opposition to Modi the centrepiece of its campaign. When the campaign began in early-April, the question uppermost in many minds was: can Modi make it? By the final rounds of voting, the Congress had reshaped the issue to: how can we stop Modi? The Congress helped make Modi the only issue of 2014. Those who endorsed him had just one way to vote but those who were opposed to him were confronted with multiple choices, an enviable situation for Modi.
As a campaign theme, Rahul was already fading from the national imagination when his sister Priyanka Vadra entered the campaign in Rae Bareli and Amethi and began hogging air time. A new face who spoke spiritedly and consciously sought to emulate the style of grandmother Indira Gandhi and added a touch of imperiousness, Priyanka certainly boosted the morale of dispirited Congress supporters who were mentally preparing for a debacle. However, in grabbing media space Priyanka successfully overshadowed her brother and even gave Arvind Kejriwal a run for his money. As more and more demoralized Congress supporters started talking about Priyanka as a potential saviour of the Nehru-Gandhi legacy, the more the Congress campaign appeared out of focus and incoherent.
In mounting an energetic campaign for her mother and brother in what has been quaintly called the family pocket borough, Priyanka's intentions were noble. Indeed, family interests were foremost in her mind and all her speeches centred on the theme of Indian politics as seen through the prism of the family. However, in trying to make media exposure a force multiplier, she blanked out all interest in Rahul. Quite unwittingly, she did to her brother what the over-zealous BJP supporters did to Advani in 2009: she exposed her brother's limitations.
Priyanka may well have a future in politics, particularly if she can articulate concerns that resonate beyond the family dining table. Indeed, the Congress may well be tempted in future to use the brothersister duo to safeguard dynastic politics. In this election , however, her efforts may succeed in a corner of Uttar Pradesh but boomerang on the Congress elsewhere . In marketing a product politically, there is no scope for confusion and haziness over what the brand stands for. By now voters know what Modi stands for; there is no clarity over the Gandhis in 2014. In a long campaign, mid-stream improvisations can ruin the larger plot.
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