Is Rahul Gandhi a "Half Politician"?

New Delhi: Vinay Sitapati’s marvellous book on former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao was aptly titled “Half Lion” and (with apologies to Sitapati) if we have to sum up Rahul Gandhi’s political journey so far, would it be apt to call him a “Half Politician”?

Well, the jury is still out.

As Rahul Gandhi politically deals with his disqualification from Lok Sabha, we may get an answer to the question posed above.

The Wayanad MP’s membership of Parliament was cancelled after his conviction and sentencing by a Surat court in a criminal defamation case. The Lok Sabha Secretariat said Gandhi stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction (March 23, 2023) in adherence to the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

During his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi tried to build a narrative that he has not been able to speak freely against the Narendra Modi government due to the absence of platforms - in Parliament or outside it and therefore he ventured out on a cross-country march to speak directly to the people.

He can continue with the same narrative that his disqualification is another step by the government to gag him.

Fine, he will get sympathetic coverage in the foreign press and some lacklustre protests from Congress workers all across the country.

But it is still not going to be sufficient to make a “Half Politician” into a full-time neta.

What is going to make Rahul Gandhi an attractive proposition in Indian politics will be his ability to garner votes for his party and get candidates elected to state assemblies and Lok Sabha. 

His disqualification from Lok Sabha will become politically uncomfortable for the ruling party only if Gandhi can bite them politically. The ruling party could have easily waited for a month for his disqualification to take finality given the fact that the Surat court had also given Gandhi 30 days to file an appeal again the conviction. But the BJP could get away politically from the disqualification because in its calculation, the issue would have no bearing in the upcoming Karnataka assembly election.

By all accounts, the Karnataka assembly election is wide open. It will be difficult for BJP to retain Karnataka unless Prime Minister Narendra Modi finds a new connect with the voters there. And BJP is making all the efforts to retain Karnataka. PM and central ministers are touring the state frequently. But in contrast, Rahul Gandhi is totally absent from the scene.

He might go there and address a few rallies and Congress may snatch Karnataka from BJP but it will not be a victory of Rahul Gandhi as he doesn’t seem to be in command of the overall campaign in the state.

If Congress emerges victorious in Karnataka. It will be a victory of Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar and hence they will not be politically indebted to Gandhi.

Hence the question: is Rahul Gandhi a “Half Politician”?