How is the present incident of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification different from the disqualification of Indira Gandhi way back in the 70s?

March 29, 2023

Indira Gandhi was PM and iron lady who made least strategic blunders unlike his father Jawaharlal Nehru who made hundred of blunders and she was hailed for her decisions in 1971 Indo-Pak Bangladesh war and 1975 Sikkim inclusion. Indira Gandhi was disqualified and barred from holding office after the Allahabad High Court found her guilty of engaging in 'corrupt practices' during her election campaign. This disqualification was followed by the declaration of Emergency in 1975.

Rahul's disqualification is different compared to Janata Party meted out to Indira Gandhi in October 1977 when government arrested her and four former ministers on charges of corruption and misuse of authority. Bholanath Pandey and Devendra Pandey in December 1978 hijacked Indian Airlines flight from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Lucknow, and forced it to land at Varanasi. They demanded the release of Indira Gandhi who had been arrested and the withdrawal of all the cases against her son Sanjay Gandhi. They carried only toy weapons. After keeping 130 passengers and crew hostage for some hours, they surrendered in the presence of media with full publicity as one of them was a congress politician. Congress rewarded them with giving MLA election ticket in UP and they became MLA under Indira wave prevailing that time. This incident not just highlight corruption, nepotism and sycophancy prevailing in congress most of the time but also popularity of Indira Gandhi in north India.

In comparison MP Rahul Gandhi is providing just useless entertainment in Parliament, sleeping and winking often on camera and once hugging PM Modi for publicity. His attendance record in Parliament, ability to ask tough questions on economic development was lacking inside Parliament. His ability to develop his constituency Amethi was poor. Rahul Gandhi has no achievements since he became MP in 2004. Indira Gandhi’s opponent was Morarji Desai and Rahul Gandhi’s opponent is Narendra Modi. Neither Rahul Gandhi is Indira Gandhi nor Narendra Modi is Morarji Desai. So, situation is different.

Rahul Gandhi has no such popularity left in north India. His future lies in south India and he knows that. Congress’s vote bank has reduced to minority communities specially so called peaceful community. Congress has become Muslim League of 1930’s. Congress is getting international funding from China and Christian religious NGO’s. Congress and China’s CCP signed a hush-hush agreement in 2008 and since then congress is supporting China’s Belt and Road policy. Recently, he praised China’s B&R scheme in Cambridge on which EAM S Jaishankar criticised him. Criticism from BJP or government does not matter to him as long as he gets money from China, George Soros and Ford NGO’s.

Despite the allegation against Rahul Gandhi is not so severe and it was a hate speech on Modi surname during 2019 general election campaign, it is highly unlikely that he will be able to utilize this opportunity of suspension from Parliament to create sympathy wave. One of the reason for lack of sympathy is the allegation was casteist in nature and BJP may exploit this anti-OBC comment.