Finally the BJP and the Sangh Parivar have got Rahul Gandhi, the best known face of the Congress Party and Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad, where they want him – out of Parliament. That the BJP has been rattled since Rahul Gandhi launched the Bharat Jodo Yatra goes without saying. Hence the need to rake up a statement he made some years ago. The BJP has railed against Rahul Gandhi and insulted him by calling him “Pappu” which implies immaturity – the literal meaning being a small boy. If a record is kept then much has been said by the BJP against Sonia Gandhi too and in recent times even Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister was not spared. He is blamed for all the ills in the country today and the implication here is that only the BJP is in a position to right all those wrongs hence people should keep electing it. Most times Rahul Gandhi must be letting loose a volley of words against Prime Minister Modi essentially to let out steam since it must be painful to listen to the disparaging remarks against several members of his family and for himself to be the butt of all jokes.
Ironically the person who filed the defamation suit in a Surat court only happens to have the surname Modi. Purnesh Modi is a BJP leader from Gujarat who feels that anyone with the Modi surname stands defamed when Rahul Gandhi says, “Why does every thief have the surname Modi?” It must be stated without any prejudice to anyone that the political vocabulary across the political spectrum has degenerated to an asinine degree. There is no need for any political party to hit its rivals below the belt but what we witness today are barbs thrown at political rivals in an almost unforgiving litany of abuses. Naturally the tendency is for one-upmanship. In this never-ending political war of words a sort of vulgarity has replaced decency.
Political parties should stick to issues and leave the personal attacks as long as a person’s personal character handicaps do not affect his/her performance as a parliamentarian/legislator. In the past all those disqualified from the Assembly and Parliament has serious cases or corruption, rape, assault, murder, fraud etc. This is the first time that an MP has been disqualified for being convicted on a criminal defamation case. This says a lot about the direction things are moving in this country today and the vindictive nature of politics today. What are the youth learning from all this political bickering and the lowering of the standards of discourse in the life of the nation?
