Narendra Modi Vs. Rahul Gandhi

It is a war-of-rallies, Sunday - as India gets set for a Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi show.  

While the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is all ready with his armour of words and social media for the much anticipated Hunkar Rally in ally-turned-foe Nitish Kumar's Bihar, the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Delhi's Mongolpuri area.

It is Modi's maiden stint at a rally in Patna, it is also the first time that both Modi and Rahul will have rallies on the same day.

Rahul Gandhi has shied from talking about Modi in his rallies but the BJP prime ministerial candidate has thrashed and battered the 'Shehzada' despitefully in his recent rallies, last in Udaipur yesterday, claiming a Rajasthan police officer, who wanted to contest elections, had given Rahul "information" on Pakistani spy agency ISI contacting Muslim youth victims of Muzaffarnagar riots.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and other senior Congress leaders are expected to be present at Rahul's rally. Dikshit, in a recent interview had said "Rahul is learning. Let us not pre-judge him,start judging him if he is chosen prime minister when Congress comes to power."

But it is Modi's Rs.100 crore rally that is a high-level game with the BJP claiming to change political equations in Bihar. BJP is eyeing almost one crore first time voters in the state who could be decisive in seeing its prime minister nominee sail through in 2014.

In order to make Modi's 2013 visit to the state a grand success, a 15 member BJP's IT-cell has been working day and night behind the scene to mobilise support for the rally. Seven hard core IT-professionals have been deployed by the party's Bihar unit to formulate a strategy to make a maximum reach to the voters. 1.5 lakh people have affirmed their participation in the rally through social media, online and mobile registration.

From asking the President to reschedule his Bihar visit to not charging people to attend the rally, BJP has meticulously planned every move to ensure the making of a historic rally.

But actually, we as a public should consider which one of these big names as our future Prime Minister of India? Confused? Well don’t worry, actually everyone is confused on the point, apart from the diehard followers.  Let’s try a chart of comparison between both of them and see if any one of those leader are better than their competitor? Let us hope that leaders will not mind our comparison.

Similarities:

Both talk about dreams – of others and of their own.

Both talk about the aspirations of young India.

Both claim to have a vision of a better India.

And both despite the hype surrounding them make little sense.

That is probably where the similarities in the typical Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi speeches end. The differences are more pronounced.

Differences:

One is self-conscious to the point of being diffident

The other is overconfident to the point of being unbearable.

Rahul appears to be person burdened with a role for which he has had no adequate preparation.

Modi carries the airs of a man who can do no wrong.

One is aloof, the other desperate.

The former reflects the state of mind of a confused home-grown philosopher and the latter the cockiness of a man who believes who can get away with anything, including lies. To put it unsubtly, one comes across as a novice to the job and the other as a seasoned actor good at manipulating people.

Rahul Gandhi’s speech at Baran in Rajasthan on Tuesday was insipid and soulless, the same way it was in Jaipur a few days ago. In Jaipur, he had claimed “I am ready to forgo my own dreams to fulfill your dreams’’; in his speech yesterday, he spoke about how the poorest in India should have the biggest dream. “If we don’t let you dream, India can’t progress,” he said.

The dream theme is surely getting overdone.

The Congress vice-president appears to be running out of content to make his speeches fresh and lively or he is tiring already. His speech writers must exert themselves some more.

Not a natural orator like Modi, Rahul fails to build emotional connect with the audience. He could make this weakness up with details, specifics and anecdotes. In none of his public speeches, has he appeared to have enough depth to keep the audience engaged. Possibly, it comes from his lack of exposure to real responsibility or real understanding of the people he claims to identify with: the aam aadmi.

Election speeches are supposed to be a communication exercise.

For someone who has been in politics and among people for nine years, he communicates very little that’s worthwhile. At least he could have a couple of good speakers in his entourage. Modi’s case is different. He is a competent public speaker and like all competent public speakers he knows what works with the audience. He does not mind making exaggerated claims about his achievements and he is never embarrassed about letting slip a lie or two to make a point. By now, the country is aware that this man can carry the audience with the force of his eloquence. The substance in his speeches, however, still remains a grey area.

Impressive speeches are alright but a lot more clarity on issues is required from a man who aspires to be prime minister of the country.

Rahul obviously is more disappointing than Modi.

The feeling of disenchantment is aggravated by the fact that he shows no inclination to assume any responsibility unlike the latter. Ambition and hunger for power are not bad until they become an obsession. One man is at least trying to achieve something for himself and stick his neck out, while it is difficult to understand what the other is up to.

The speeches of both reflect the difference – Modi’s have a hint of desperation; Rahul’s a touch of aloofness.

As the whole country views on television and reads in every newspaper the battle between Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Rahul Gandhi, I am only worried that we have actually come to this. We don’t care anymore about thought, kindness, honesty, action, responsibility, courage, leadership. We have one person who refuses to answer any question on the blood on his hands as Chief Minister and another who is being projected as a mature philosopher when we actually need a dynamic leader.

Recently at one of his many public appearances, Mr. Modi was asked whether he would take moral responsibility for the 2002 riots, to which he replied that he had already answered questions about the riots numerous times. But the same man has over the last few months been willing to answer time and again the same questions about his developed Gujarat.

Every time Mr. Modi’s name is discussed, the riots are a part of the narrative and the criticism is that we are trapping him within that event. But why not? Any person with some human essence must ask those questions time and again. Whether or not he was party to the violence is up to the courts to decide, but he was the Chief Minister of the State and has refused to say that he should have acted differently. How can we ever ignore that? In fact we should not. In my travels I have always met so many middle class Indians who think Mr. Modi is the Bill Gates of Indian politics. “Go to Gujarat and see the transformation, development, bridges, roads, IT companies, the speed of decision making and you will realise why he is the right person for us.” When I hear these statements I am filled with sadness that we as a society can easily erase people from our minds. We say that the courts have not convicted Mr. Modi, but we readily accuse someone else as being a criminal even when no verdict has been proclaimed. Essentially, economic growth seems to erase all sense of human decency.

I am also told that “after all the Muslims have also voted for him.” Honestly, I don’t care if all the Muslims in the world voted for him. I care that people died, not Muslims, Christians or Hindus. I am not aware of the voting patterns of Gujarat, that’s for psephologists. But I am aware that reasons for a minority community to behave in a certain way are usually driven by the behavior of the dominant group. The “dominants” manipulate and coerce the weak to act in certain ways. The positive economic changes seen in the lives of the majority also influences the behavioral pattern of the minority. I am not saying these are the reasons but let us just keep this in mind.

We as human beings are built to empathize and feel for others. Let us not lose sight of this basic quality of humanity in the dream of economic comfort or seeming political “stability.” I would rather be poor than inhuman! Narendra Modi, I will not stop asking you this: “Will you take moral responsibility for the riots?” You owe this country an answer.

While this is one end of the political narrative, there exists another in the form of a smart, genuine young man who needs to know what he is doing. Someone has to tell Rahul Gandhi that he is not a philosopher and India doesn't need one in him! We need a strong individual who is honest and willing to show courage. He need not constantly mention the problems of the political and bureaucratic class. We are only too aware of its failings, and are constantly made aware of them. We do not need a “magic wand” but someone with a will to change things and has not until date shown any will. Rahul Gandhi has floated thoughts on “what Indian society is suffering from.”  But so, what next? There seems to be a state of unconsciousness hovering over him, a cloud of inertia and intellectual lethargy. The country can ill afford a slumber of ideas, courage and determination in a man who is meant to be waking the nation up. What one misses in Rahul Gandhi is not earnestness of objective, not sincerity, but a crucial breaking of the trust barrier, a totally convincing breakthrough in winning the nation’s trust. He can fight all his political battles with Narendra Modi or anyone else but first he must be willing to fight the battle of his life for this country. Unless the nation sees him do that how can it entrust its future to him? His advisers don’t seem to see that the absence of a trust breakthrough in Rahul Gandhi is what Narendra Modi is cashing in on and substituting with his own brand of “I can do it” in surplus. India needs a good human being at its helm but also a proactive person with serious, practical ideas of how to change this nation. We have in him an exhaustively long prologue; what we need now is the main action.

Watching this presidential style battle being played out in the media on an everyday basis has only further increased my disappointment in us as a society. Urban India is intoxicated by these two people, and the so-called “real India” is being manipulated by the same individuals. The end result is that India seems to have reached a political dead end. What other options do we have? We can not only look for other options but can actually force a change from these two. It is up to us to demand decency and human empathy, responsibility-owning from Narendra Modi and courage and determination from Rahul Gandhi. If neither have it in them then they don’t deserve our votes, and nor do their parties, bereft as they are of ideas for change.

Unfortunately looking at the situation of Indian Politics, expecting a bright India would be stupidity. But in consideration with the no choice situation apart from Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi, we must tell them what could make them preferred Prime Minister.

Few things to do for Mr. Narendra Modi, in order for him to be a preferred PM of India:

• He should tender a sincere and unconditional apology to Muslims for the post-Godhra riots
• He should spell out a precise vision for India’s future—economic, political and social.
• He should be publically acceptable to at least 10 non-BJP parties that formed the NDA coalition.
• He should demonstrate his ability to build consensus—both within and outside his party.
• He should quit as Chief Minister of Gujarat after 6 to 12 months and travel across India, connecting with people.
• He should develop a better understanding of geopolitics and international relations than he has demonstrated so far.

Few things to do for Mr. Rahul Gandhi, in order for him to be a preferred PM of India:

• He should ends his splendid isolation and interacts more openly and more often with the public.
• He must try to build and shares a concrete vision for India.
• His stand on key economic issues should be made clearer.
• He must demonstrate leadership skills within his party, rather than mentioning the phrases like 'My Mom, My Dad, My Grand Mom'.
• He must speak his view rather than speaking just a overdone speech written by those script writers.
• He becomes more specific on points and topic that he is actually talking about.

Until and unless those things mentioned above are done by any one of them, in my view none of them is the appropriate or preferred Prime Minister for better future of India.