My maid has a new pin-up. It's Congress' heir apparent Rahul Gandhi. This came as bit of a surprise on Sunday morning.
My maid has a new pin-up. It's Congress' heir apparent Rahul Gandhi. This came as bit of a surprise on Sunday morning.
Being a Dalit, and being from Uttar Pradesh, my maid's loyalty to Mayawati was for keeps. Or so I had thought.
But like in politics, in life too, there are no permanent friends, enemies or ideologies.
Why Rahul Gandhi but? "He's so good-looking," she giggled. Hmmm. And? "Well, while touring my village he said he would solve water and power crisis.
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My folks back home voted for the Congress this time because of him.
I will too, next time." But didn't Behenji make similar promises? "She did, but she doesn't keep her promises. Rahul will.
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He's so young and sincere," she said. But Rahul is no Dalit? "So what? No Dalit leader has cared for us."
Her words got me thinking. My maid comes from Arvind Adiga-land. That heart of darkness op-ed hacks love to write about while sipping Chardonnay, but never care to dig.
If they did, they would have known how some smart thinking by Congress think-tanks made Rahul Gandhi a symbol of change that the country so badly needs.
The urban voter may have swung it for Manmohan, but the Congress spin doctors made Rahul a counterfoil to the Mayawatis and the Narendra Modis.
No hate speeches, no persecution complex, no exclusionist agendas, just good, ol' hope with dollops of charm. That worked.
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Rahul talked bijli, sadak, paani, while the BJP talked about the Ram Mandir. He said reduce poverty in villages and terrorism will go, and while such a statement may have cost the National Security Advisor his job, it was better than the BJP line that terror occurs because the Congress panders to the Muslim votebank.
While the Third Front and the BJP displayed a paucity of fresh ideas, the Congress got Rahul to say and do the right things.
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Mayawati wasted time on caste arithmetic and Prakash Karat. LK Advani attacked Manmohan for being a weak PM. But Rahul steered clear of all caste and communal agendas and negative-speak.
And while he may need a few lessons in realpolitik before taking on the Big Job, he's a better deal than a man in his eighties who still dreams of a mandir where a masjid once stood or a leader who gets off on her own
statues. They don't appeal to the Indian voter anymore. A fresh face and fresh ideas do. Ask my maid.
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