Rahul Gandhi doesn’t like backseat driving: Jairam Ramesh

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

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

The Bharat Jodo Yatra, Ramesh informed 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.

“Probably 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 type — “Do not stroll behind me; I’ll not lead. Do not stroll in entrance of me; I’ll not comply with. Simply stroll beside me.”

“Having identified Mr. Gandhi for 18 years, and I do know him pretty nicely, 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 by way of perceptions of Gandhi that had been “distorted very closely” by the “BJP troll machine”, he stated in an interview with PTI in the course of 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 “enormous gamble”, Ramesh stated.

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

“Talking as a Congressman, an workplace bearer, member of Parliament, I feel Mr Rahul Gandhi’s biggest worth will likely 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 solely between him and Mr Kharge. I can solely communicate for myself. I feel his comparative benefit lies in taking part in 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 completed 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 remodeled, it’s not a unfavorable vilification narrative, the senior Congress chief stated.

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

Requested if Gandhi has been a revelation in the course of 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 that is overlaying 22 km daily. 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 likewise 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 nicely.

“What this Yatra has completed 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 day by day assembly 1000’s of individuals and interacting with a wide range of organisations.”

There is no such thing as a doubt that post-Bharat Jodo Yatra Rahul Gandhi could be seen dramatically in another way each inside the organisation and outdoors as nicely, Ramesh stated.

“What I discover fascinating is that by and enormous 9 of the ten critics who vilified Gandhi have modified their view or have saved quiet.”

He dismissed solutions 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 is named 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 robust within the South and weak within the North.

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

Requested concerning the affect the Yatra would have in the long term, Ramesh stated it relies on the organisation and the kind of modifications AICC chief Kharge and his staff are in a position to put in place.

“It’s not a magic wand, as I stated, It’s a booster dose. We hold needing booster doses occasionally. This I feel 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 street to 2024 normal elections, Ramesh stated he could be very circumspect as he believed within the Narayana Murthy mannequin of administration which is underneath 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, now we have very many deep challenges that now we have to confront, it is a chance that has been opened,” he stated. 

end-of