How Rahul Gandhi’s 2024 avatar took root in Gujarat in 2017

It was here, right in Modi’s fiefdom, that Rahul’s new story began with the 2017 Gujarat election, when the BJP was left with a shocking 99 seats.

Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi during his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh In February 2024. | Photo Credit: FARUQUI A.M.

From Pappu to balak buddhi, the ruling party has left no stone unturned to invent names to dismiss the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. In turn, Gandhi has shown surprising spine and resilience not just to counter the mockery and invective thrown at him but to reinvent himself, handsomely win two Lok Sabha seats, and continue challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the floor of the House.

To charge Modi and Amit Shah with a “tum Hindu ho hi nahi (you are not true Hindus)” accusation takes courage in one’s convictions and a strong belief that the lion can be bearded in its own lair. The comment went home so sharply that it evoked a reaction from Modi himself. This was unprecedented, given that Modi is not known to intercept and conserves his ammunition for his turn at the mic.

In continuation of this mood, Gandhi made a statement in Gujarat 48 hours later, claiming, “We, INDIA, have defeated them in Ayodhya, we will do so in Gujarat.”  This may sound like an inspiring statement, especially given the adrenaline flowing from the BJP’s loss in Faizabad, the constituency that houses Ayodhya, but to defeat the saffron party in Gujarat is tougher than defeating them in the entire country.

Or is it? Gandhi clearly does not think so. It is here, right in Modi’s fiefdom, that Gandhi’s new story began with the 2017 Gujarat election when the BJP was left with a shocking 99 seats, seven shy of defeat. This was the first time someone from the Nehru-Gandhi clan had stayed in Gujarat for four instalments of three days each for an election campaign.

Then too Gandhi displayed the same innocent face, the same spontaneity, the same views. Although not with the air of an Ayodhya victory, he had the same argument to offer back in 2017: that this was not Hinduism but political opportunism that the BJP practised in the name of religion. Then, as now, he did not bother if it was electorally counterproductive to try tinkering with Modi’s Hindutva, and that too in Gujarat.

His 2017 Gujarat campaign centred more around “crony capitalism” where a handful of tycoons—the Adanis and the Ambanis—grow at the cost of many others. He addressed Gujarati businessmen stating that the small and medium scale industry, which was Gujarat’s economic backbone, had been adversely affected by Modi’s lopsided economic policies. This worked, given that the businesses in the State were at that time still nursing their wounds from the twin blows of the November 2016 demonetisation and the subsequent launch of the GST regime.

Gandhi spoke of unemployment and the lack of adequate educational opportunities, which also had an impact on the youth especially from lower middle-class families. Here, of course, he had the troika of Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani and Alpesh Thakor to strongly follow up on his unemployment and education pitch. Gandhi promoted the three to take up important responsibilities in the Gujarat unit of the Congress, but the local party stalwarts ensured they were wasted and frustrated in their efforts. Patel and Thakor left to join the BJP, and if Mevani did not do so it is only because of his unshakeable ideological commitment to secular politics.

As in many other States later, Gandhi mounted a strong attack on Modi’s policies of hiving off the responsibility of education and health to the private sector, outsourcing lakhs of teaching and government jobs, and letting government medical college-hospitals be partly privatised. He alluded almost to a Nehruvian welfare state by insisting that education and health were the primary—and mandatory—responsibility of the state.

The no-holds-barred rhetoric against the Adanis and Ambanis that Gandhi employs in full flow now was shaped in Gujarat in 2017.  Of a piece with the tone in which he challenges the Hindutva forces, he has chosen to be left-of-centre and in your face and he does not hide it. He knows that he might sound idealistic, but he has stayed the course so far.

At an open house in Vadodara in 2017, he told the young audience, “I will never say Bhajpa-Mukt Bharat even if they say Congress-mukt Bharat. Ours is a democratic country, BJP has a certain ideology and the Congress has its own, so both have the right to their own opinion and can co-exist in the country.”  He echoed this sentiment now, when he tweeted asking his supporters not to make nasty or personal remarks against Smriti Irani after her Amethi defeat, displaying glimpses of the statesmanship he had shown in Gujarat. 

Rahul Gandhi addresses party workers, at PCC office, Congress Bhawan, in Ahmedabad on July 6, 2024.

Dhaba tea

Similarly, one also saw a rehearsal of sorts of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the subsequent Nyay Yatra in 2017 Gujarat, when Gandhi would suddenly sit down at a highway dhaba to sip tea and eat pakodas, or treat Gujarat Congress leaders to a thali dinner at a small, crowded restaurant in Vapi city, or when he would start impromptu conversations with just about anyone on the streets. And, unlike several State Congress leaders, Gandhi stayed at State government Circuit Houses and flew on general flights with his trademark rucksack. All of this was not really part of any pre-determined strategy but spontaneous actions that happened in the presence of this writer, as several Congress leaders will also vouch.

The 2017 Gujarat campaign was Gandhi’s best till that date, particularly given the hostile and Modified ground he was fighting on. It went on to generate the best result for the Congress in Gujarat—77 out of 182—since its demotion to the opposition space in the State in 1995. While the result ensured his anointment as the Congress president, the real recognition was because it was executed in Modi and Shah’s State. And it came after he adamantly stuck to his pet campaign themes, especially Hindutva and crony capitalism.

Gandhi’s continued belief in taking on these two themes despite their perceived political inconvenience saw the BJP losing its single-largest majority status in 2024. So, when Gandhi says, “after Ayodhya, we will take Gujarat from the BJP,” it may sound outlandish, but it is this balak buddhi—calling a spade a spade—that the Congress possibly needs the most today.

Darshan Desai is Professor-in-Practice, Journalism & Mass Communication, Navrachana University, Vadodara and Founder-Editor Development News Network.