Is Indian Political Linguistics Suffering Through A Phase Of New Low?
Very recently, Rahul Gandhi during an election rally said that he would die but won’t insult PM Modi’s parents. Rahul gave this statement after PM Modi insulted Former PM Rajiv Gandhi during an election rally. This statement indicates that despite a relatively young age in comparison to his opponent, Rahul Gandhi has a much higher political understanding and maturity level. We have seen that during this long election campaign, many times Prime Minister Modi and his party members have lost their control and have said such things against the Indian National Congress and its chief, which are derogatory and have brought a new ‘low’ in the level of Indian political linguistics.
Rahul’s Interaction With College Students: New Target Voters?
While Prime Minister Modi has never met and discussed anything with college students, campaigns of RaGa include meetings with the students of various colleges and Universities, where the question-answer session is of course not scripted rather; they are one to one rapid-fire type, so much so that one can ask questions about Robert Vadra from him in those sessions. I have never seen Amit Shah responding to any question regarding his son Jay Shah, as no one dares to ask him such questions, not even press and media journalists. This is not about Rahul’s response to such questions, this is rather about whether one has the courage to ask him such questions or not?
PM Modi visited Varanasi in 2017 when there was a protest going on in BHU against the administration and his visit was scheduled from the same road, but he changed his way after he came to know about the protest. As an MP from Varanasi seat, the least that Modi could do was to visit the campus, interact with the students and know their grievances. But PM Modi seemed not to be affected by any grievance of students, he simply changed his way to the destination.
The kind of narrative that Rahul is trying to build up during his college visits and interactions with the young students is actually a positive change in the Indian mainstream politics that many oldies of Indian politics including Modi and Shah have failed to target. While Modi recently gave a scripted interview to the journalists in which he recited a poem as well, we have never seen Rahul with a script. However, the script was captured in the cameras and it went viral in no time. In fact, the non-political interview of Prime Minister Modi given to Akshay Kumar last month was quite famous for the Aam Questions asked to him.
Just Because Rahul Is Not ‘Dangerous‘, People Call Him Pappu
Rahul Gandhi’s image has always been tarnished by his opponents, who fondly call him as ‘Pappu’ or ‘Shehzada’. This is an addition to the degrading linguistic history of Indian politics. In Indian political history, there has been no single instance where the political opponents instead of criticizing the deeds of the candidate are busy in criticizing the deeds of his family members. Also, in my opinion, India is the only country where a ‘tea seller’ cannot be criticized or called by such awful names, but Stephen’s grad can be mimicked as ‘Pappu’, for no reason. Just because he is civilized enough to not to answer back, it doesn’t mean that he is feared.
And yes, we all know the truth of that- Alu Daalo Sona Nikelega video, which was creatively cropped by the IT cell workers of the ruling party.
Rahul Gandhi has never behaved in an indecent manner in public. The way he says that he has no personal enmity or hard feelings against PM Modi, makes us feel that ‘Yes, there is someone in Indian politics at the moment who reliably ensures that the high level and standard of debate does not go low.’
In spite of provocative remarks by any Tom, Dick, and Harry of the ruling party, INC President has never lost his cool. In my opinion, India does not need a Prime Minister with aggression; rather it needs a Prime Minister who is educated and civilized, with the sense of composed behaviour and minimal civic sense.
The Congress Manifesto Controversy
Today in the twenty-first century when the entire world is concerned about environmental protection and changes, it’s the Indian National Congress which has included in its manifesto about the laws and policies for environmental protection. This is a great change, which we should notice and welcome positively.
But instead of noticing and appreciating this, what people noticed was that INC will amend the provisions related to sedition laws. As a law student, I know that for a prosperous democracy, we need to give our citizens a fearless space where they are not feared by any law before they put forward a fair criticism against the government. There’s nothing wrong in Congress’s manifesto. In fact, this is what India as a democracy stands for.