The constant attempt that Mr. Rahul Gandhi made in his 1st Televised interview in his 10 years in politics to project himself as an outsider-the one who has come here to change the things in the country, seemed very contrived and high on rhetoric.
Mr Goswami asked Mr. Rahul Gandhi some very specific questions on wide range of issues but Mr. Gandhi tried to dodge them each time by boasting of what he intends to do in the Congress party but never really answered what the Congress party actually did to address these issues in last 10 years being in the power.
He dodged the question of the indictment of Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh Commission of inquiry report; He dodged the question of allegations of corruption against Virbhadra Singh. He tried not to answer them at all and instead kept blabbering about how Congress has empowered the people of the country by giving them RTI and Lokpal(Frankly, even RTI and Lokpal have also been passed because of the Civil Society movement, Anna and the Kejriwal effect ).
The thing that amused people the most was not that he dodged the questions, but the manner in which he dodged them. Irrespective of the question asked, Rahul Gandhi consciously attempted to project himself as an outsider and one who has come here to take on the system. What he forgot in the process though is that it is his very own party who is to blame for creating this rotten system.
Mr Gandhi never answered whether he will apologize on the behalf of his party for the role of Congress Party in 1984 Sikh riots which has been proven by implication of various Congress leaders like Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar for their alleged role but he chose to criticize Narendra Modi for abetting the Godhra Massacare even when he has been given clean chit by the SIT and then by the metropolitan magistrate. Is Mr Gandhi trying to question the wisdom of the court here??
Mr Gandhi certainly recognizes that there is a strong anti-incumbency factor in the country working against Congress. There is a great anti –Lal Batti,anti –Neta, anti-establishment sentiment prevailing in the country. There is a huge disenchantment with the dynastic politics that has crept very deep into the system. Congress who has headed the country for 60 years is certainly at the back foot and being a Gandhi Scion is certainly not working to his advantage at this point of time. And that is probably the reason why he constantly talked of bringing a new kind of politics and questioning the system. Whether his answers sounded plausible to the electorates or not ,only time will tell, but the interview has already become a topic of much ridicule on Social Media for the way Mr Gandhi tried dodging the questions. Probably Mr Gandhi needs a lesson or two from The Sibals, The Tewaris and The Singhvis of Congress on “The art of dodging”.