OPINION | India Deserves Articulate and Thoughtful Opposition Leaders, Rahul Gandhi is Anything But That

Make things better if you can. If not, at least do not make things worse. This is the golden rule of constructive engagement in any endeavour world over.

However, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s public interventions are a case study in doing exactly the opposite. He is constantly looking for opportunities to make things worse, spread negativity and panic, often using fake news.

The current coronavirus or COVID-19 crisis has brought out this facet of Rahul Gandhi to the fore like never before.

In one particular press interaction, Gandhi criticised the government’s action or in his opinion, the lack of action, on fighting the virus. When asked what he would suggest to the government or what he would have done instead, he said he’s not an expert and he cannot give tactical answers on how he would have dealt with the virus.

There’s a dialogue in ‘The Dark Knight’ that showcases this kind of mindset. “I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with it if I caught one”, says the Joker, an agent of anarchy.

Criticism of someone’s action means that one has a different idea of what needs to be done. But in Gandhi’s worldview, criticism is not a means to make things better, but just a poisoned dart to be thrown around without any responsibility or information.

Gandhi has now publicly urged the government to bring back Indians from the Gulf countries which are hit by the virus. Calling for India to work with the governments of these countries to ensure the welfare of these Indians would have shown political maturity.

Calling for them to be brought back wholesale is a recipe for chaos. India and West Asian countries have a large swathe of shared interests that can be leveraged to ensure the welfare of over 9 million Indians there.

Recently, Gandhi ridiculed India’s testing strategy based on a tests per million metric. Application of simple logic would suggest that given India’s 1.35 billion population, such a metric is clearly loaded against India no matter how much we test.

And despite conducting over two lakh tests, the percentage of positives unearthed were just around 4%.

Testing kits are at a premium and India’s strategy must be carefully calibrated and not based on whims. Besides, experts of ICMR are at the helm of India’s testing strategy and they know their domain.

Such incompetence and lack of application could still be seen as amusing. But what is inexcusable is Gandhi’s habit of shooting from the shoulders of unverified and fake news with impunity.

Recently, he promoted the tweet of a profile claiming to be a doctor in Haryana. The tweet ridiculed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s request to citizens to thank doctors and said doctors did not have N95 masks and gloves. That tweet of Rahul Gandhi has over 14,000 retweets.

Subsequently, the doctor retracted her claim and apologised for spreading panic and misinformation. Protective equipment was available but she didn’t know where to find it, she said. This, however, conveniently did not get Gandhi’s attention.

Without a second thought, he perpetuated a falsehood that could have demoralised thousands of doctors and health workers who are at the frontline of fighting the virus.

Meanwhile, it would be pertinent to remember that even Opposition leaders such as Sharad Pawar came out to applaud for health workers and doctors, the same initiative of Modi that Gandhi ridiculed.

The contagious disease of fake news that looks to show India in negative light has infected Gandhi’s timeline from long before the coronavirus infection perhaps broke out in China.

In 2017, he spread said India fell over 50 places in the World Hunger Index. Such a thing had not happened at all. The next year too he spread the same news again despite knowing well that the change in India’s position was due to an internal restructuring in the analysis of introducing 44 outperforming outlier countries into the list in one go.

He ridiculed ‘Make In India’ campaign and Vande Bharat express. The train has since brought in excellent profit for the Railways while ensuring good customer service.

Gandhi’s harmful and petulant behaviour around the Rafale deal was part of the reason behind the country’s rejection of the Congress in 2019.

The way Gandhi parroted a ‘survey’ of 548 people that concluded India is the most dangerous place in the world for women was an illustrative example of his propensity to play up anything negative about India, irrespective of the facts.

His meeting the Chinese ambassador in secret while ridiculing India’s action in Doklam also showed his judgement in poor light.

The anger Gandhi has towards Indian people for voting in favour of Modi is starkly visible on his Twitter timeline and in his press interactions.

The snide remarks, the name-calling, playing up fake news to hit out at the country’s image – things that Gandhi’s devotees lap up are the same things that repel ordinary Indians.

India deserves articulate and thoughtful Opposition leaders and Gandhi is anything but that.