(This article first appeared on DailyO)
It’s 2019 and India is in the slog overs of its crucial
General Elections. With just a week left, you would think that the poll pitch
would now be on the wane when Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who has been the
single focus point of this election — says “Rajiv Gandhi was corrupt number 1”
and all hell breaks loose.
Why, 28 years after his death, was Rajiv Gandhi invoked? How
is he relevant to the contemporary political debate?
This election, as has often been reiterated, is a face-off
between two distinct styles of politics that have taken shape in India. These
two, today, are manifested in the form of the Narendra Modi-led BJP, on the one
hand, and the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress on the other.
These two leaders represent two different narratives of
Indian politics.
Prime Minister Modi, over the last five years, has come to
stand for development, nationalism and security. However, the Congress still
functions as a fiefdom of the Nehru-Gandhi family with the party president,
Rahul Gandhi, flaunting the legacy of his father, the late Rajiv Gandhi. To
many, it continues to represent the narrative of dynasty, appeasement and
corruption and, without a doubt, to my mind and several others, Rajiv Gandhi
was the epitome of this brand of politics.