Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in one swoop has silenced Shashi Tharoor's detractors in the party and at the same time has given the eloquent Thiruvananthapuram MP a lesson on how to occasionally stand by Narendra Modi without making a show of it.
Three days after he had termed as 'draconian' the Centre's action in Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday tweeted that despite his differences with the government on many issues, Kashmir was India’s internal issue and there was no room for Pakistan or any other foreign country to interfere in it.
On August 24, when he was denied entry into Kashmir, Rahul had declared that the Centre had unleashed brute force on the people of Jammu and Kashmir. This was music to Pakistan's ears, and the Pakistan establishment ensured that Rahul's words were listened to by the United Nations.
The Congress leader soon rephrased his charge. “There is violence in Jammu and Kashmir. There is violence because it is instigated and supported by Pakistan which is known to be the prime supporter of terrorism across the world,” he tweeted.
Rahul's quick adoption of a nationalistic stand might have been necessitated by the realisation that Pakistan had used his scathing attack on the Centre for abrogating Article 370 to whip up anti-India sentiments across the world. The party leaders also had to run for cover when its leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said in Parliament that Kashmir was a bilateral issue.
Whatever the motive, here is the net result: the country's biggest Modi-baiter has rallied behind the Prime Minister on the Kashmir issue. This means that Rahul has seen some merit in the argument that Modi needs to be backed at times to gain the credibility to bash him at other times.
Top Congress leaders in North India – notably Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Deepender Hooda, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora, and Kuldeep Bishnoi – have already backed the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah move to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.
Rahul cannot hop over to that extreme. He will continue to attack Modi for scrapping Article 370 and on the National Register of Citizens issue but while he does so he will henceforth be careful not to be seen as pro-Pakistan. This would mean that there would be instances, like in the Kashmir issue, when the Congress party would be seen on the side of the Modi dispensation.
By taking such a complicated political stance, Rahul has subtly told the 'demonise Modi at any cost' Congress gang, especially in Kerala, that Jairam Ramesh and Shashi Tharoor have a point. This change in positioning, though not very perceptible now, is also the triumph of those within the Congress party like Tharoor and Scindia who are fully convinced that negative politics has gone well past its sell by date. “It did not work in 2014 and was thorougly discredited as a strategy in 2019,” a top Congress leader in Kerala said.
Tharoor, who had been served a show-cause notice by KPCC chief Mullappally Ramachandran for his allegedly pro-Modi comments, was understandably elated. “Spot on, Chief! This is what @INCIndia has insisted all along: J&K is an integral part of India; we opposed the manner in which Art.370 was abrogated because the way it was done assaulted our Constitution& democratic values. No reason for Pak to draw any comfort from our stand,” he tweeted.
Nonetheless, Rahul's tweet is also seen as a rebuke to Jairam and Tharoor. His pro-government stand in the Kashmir issue is more statesmanly than apolitical. Rahul was not making a public show of patting Modi on the back for what he had done in Kashmir. Modi was not valorised, like many in the party say Tharoor and Jairam wanted the Congress to do on certain issues. Rahul was only standing by his country in a moment of crisis.
Rahul emphatically makes his distrust of the Modi government clear right at the outset. “I disagree with this government on many issues,” he said. But when it comes to national interests, he seems to forcefully say that politics has to be kept aside. “But, let me make this absolutely clear: Kashmir is India’s internal issue & there is no room for Pakistan or any other foreign country to interfere in it,” he adds.
Rahul, in effect, was backing India, not Narendra Modi.
