I am surprised at the number of experts on Twitter, Facebook, Threads, Instagram, and LinkedIn who seem to know how to conduct national politics, how to counter Modi, how to defeat the RW authoritarian majoritarianism, how to keep and hold the INC together, how to campaign, how to give speeches, how to keep regional partners together, how to win elections, and how to conduct oneself on the national stage far better than the very candidate they claim to support, viz., Rahul Gandhi.
These brilliant strategists and tacticians, political scientists and PR gurus, media experts and psephologists, keen India hands and true patriots, all sit regally at their desks in splendid isolation, no doubt of their own choosing (since the teeming crowds of needy Indians would rather have them guide the nation if only they weren’t so reticent about carrying the burden of leadership), ruing his choice of words, his clothes, his actions, his advisors, his coalition partners, his speeches, his oratory, his walk, his talk, his understanding of religion, his interpretation of philosophy, his ideological comprehension, and basically his very existence, facepalming that he, even at this stage and age, with his privilege and upbringing, is unable to see what is so plainly visible to anyone, especially the genius minds behind the computer screen who put these fantastic and obviously sensible suggestions out.
To everyone advising Rahul Gandhi about how to behave, what to say, what to avoid, what to do, how to do it, who to keep, who to discard, I’d highly recommend Teddy Roosevelt’s 1910 Paris speech, ‘Citizenship in a Republic’, specifically the part about ‘The Man in The Arena’.
I know I’ve said it multiple times before, but since this is worth repeating, let me copy-paste my own writing about the time I went to walk with him at the BJY in September 2022,
‘You may prefer Priyanka. Or Arvind. Or Stalin. Or Mamta. Or Babasaheb. Or Patel. Or even the Mahatma. You may claim it would be better to have a Mandela. Or an MLKJr. Or a Nehru. Or whoever you fantasise about. It’s all academic. The truth, as you can see clearly, is that right now, at this very moment, as I write and you read this, it is Rahul who’s walking. Not woulda, coulda, or shoulda.
So, if you wish to join the walk and vote for the Rahul Gandhi-led INC-backed candidate in your area whenever elections come around, join me. Or not. Join Rahul. Or not. Agree with what he’s saying. Or not. It is up to you.
But having said that, remember that he is on the field, on the ground, in the arena. And we are but spectators. And critics.’
