Rahul Gandhi doesn’t like backseat driving: Jairam Ramesh

Hyderabad: Rahul Gandhi doesn’t like backseat driving or asserting his authority and his best worth going ahead can be to play the function of an “ideological compass” for the Congress, senior chief Jairam Ramesh stated on Wednesday.

Every week after Mallikarjun Kharge, the primary non-Gandhi president in over 24 years, took cost of the get together, Ramesh stated some individuals are calling Gandhi the elephant within the room however his response is that the previous get together chief is definitely a “tiger on the highway”.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra, Ramesh advised PTI, has been a “actual booster dose” for the general public relationship of the get together and its “two Cs”- connectivity for Gandhi and collectivity for the organisation.

“Essentially the most tangible affect is on Congress organisation. Congress morale is now at extraordinary excessive ranges. Whether or not it will translate into lengthy lasting public assist is now depending on the organisation,” the senior chief stated.

Ramesh, who can also be strolling within the Yatra, cited thinker and thinker Albert Camus to explain Gandhi’s management model — “Do not stroll behind me; I’ll not lead. Do not stroll in entrance of me; I’ll not observe. Simply stroll beside me.”

“Having recognized Mr. Gandhi for 18 years, and I do know him pretty properly, he doesn’t like backseat driving, he doesn’t like asserting his place or authority, he’s a really democratic particular person,” Ramesh stated.

The journey undertaken by the get together has had a transformative affect when it comes to perceptions of Gandhi that had been “distorted very closely” by the “BJP troll machine”, he stated in an interview with PTI throughout the Yatra right here.

For him personally on the age of 68 in addition to for the get together organisation, the Yatra is the “final throw of the cube” and a “large gamble”, Ramesh stated.

Requested what function Gandhi would play with Kharge taking on the get together’s reins, the Congress common secretary in-charge communications stated it’s as much as Kharge and Gandhi to determine that.

“Talking as a Congressman, an workplace bearer, member of Parliament, I believe Mr Rahul Gandhi’s best worth can be to play the function of an ideological compass for the get together,” he stated.

Each get together wants an ideological compass or an ethical compass, and Rahul Gandhi is ideally fitted to that function, Ramesh argued.

“Now whether or not he performs that function or not is fully between him and Mr Kharge. I can solely converse for myself. I believe his comparative benefit lies in enjoying the function of an ideological or ethical compass, one thing just like the function Mr PN Haksar (former principal secretary to PM) performed vis-a-vis Mrs Indira Gandhi from 1967-73,” he stated.

“In fact Mr Haksar was a backroom man whereas Mr Gandhi could be very a lot a entrance room particular person,” he added.

Discussing the Yatra, which began at Kanyakumari on September 7, Ramesh stated what it has carried out very visibly is energise the Congress organisation, be in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh or Telangana.

“… The Bharat Jodo Yatra, I’d not say has opened a window of alternative, it has opened a door of alternative.”

The narrative across the Congress and Gandhi has been reworked, it’s now not a adverse vilification narrative, the senior Congress chief stated.

It’s a narrative that acknowledges that that is fairly a singular try at mass contact, Ramesh stated.

Requested if Gandhi has been a revelation throughout the Yatra, Ramesh stated, “I’d not say revelation, it’s a revelation for the individuals who vilified him, who ran him down. It’s the actual one who is masking 22 km on daily basis. So it isn’t a brand new Rahul, it’s the actual Rahul that has come out.”

There was a marketing campaign ever since 2009 — when the Congress got here again with a heightened majority — to break, vilify, malign and defame him, and in addition the Congress get together, he stated.

“The election defeat in 2014 and 2019, I do not suppose the blame is his (Gandhi). The defeat actually affected his public persona and the truth that he misplaced from Amethi as properly.

“What this Yatra has carried out is that it has given a chance for Rahul Gandhi to have an unmediated reference to the folks with out the media. He doesn’t have a spin machine round him, he’s strolling 22-23 km each day assembly hundreds of individuals and interacting with quite a lot of organisations.”

There isn’t a doubt that post-Bharat Jodo Yatra Rahul Gandhi could be seen dramatically in another way each throughout the organisation and out of doors as properly, Ramesh stated.

“What I discover attention-grabbing is that by and huge 9 of the ten critics who vilified Gandhi have modified their view or have stored quiet.”

He dismissed strategies that the Congress was solely focussed on the Yatra and never on the upcoming meeting polls, saying the get together organisation was in place and whereas Ashok Gehlot was main the cost in Gujarat, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was doing so in Himachal Pradesh.

If Rahul Gandhi known as upon to marketing campaign, he would take a few days off and go for the marketing campaign, he added.

Ramesh additionally rejected claims that the Congress is powerful within the South and weak within the North.

The Congress after having gone by the Covid pandemic is now going by ‘Yatra-itis’, he stated, citing the principle Yatra and sub-Yatras being held in varied states.

Requested in regards to the affect the Yatra would have in the long term, Ramesh stated it depends upon the organisation and the kind of modifications AICC chief Kharge and his crew are capable of put in place.

“It isn’t a magic wand, as I stated, It’s a booster dose. We hold needing booster doses every now and then. This I believe is the primary actual significant booster dose after a very long time,” he stated.

On whether or not the get together was on the trail to revival on the highway to 2024 common elections, Ramesh stated he could be very circumspect as he believed within the Narayana Murthy mannequin of administration which is below promise and over obtain.

“I’m not going to take a big leap and say the Bharat Jodo Yatra is a metamorphosis for 2024, it’s a lengthy haul, we have now very many deep challenges that we have now to confront, it is a chance that has been opened,” he stated. 

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