Congress was already on its deathbed when Modi became Prime Minister in 2014. After Dr. Manmohan Singh’s ten straight years in power, the party was left leaderless. Neither Rahul Gandhi nor Priyanka Gandhi wanted to plunge fully into politics—perhaps out of fear, or perhaps because they didn’t want to waste their youth in India’s unforgiving political battlefield.
Meanwhile, BJP had grown into a formidable force, the second-largest party with a cadre of strong leaders. They sold the right product at the right time to Indians searching for a lost identity—Hindutva. They packaged Ram Mandir, Muslim hatred, and a little “development” (which in any case would have come naturally with the Internet boom).
At that point, BJP should have stayed the course. Just keep playing the same game, keep feeding the same narrative, and Indians would have kept voting for Modi. But then came the blunder. Instead of enjoying its dominance, BJP poked the hornet’s nest. They dragged the great Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru into every debate to justify their failures on core issues. And in doing so, they awakened a sleeping lion—Rahul Gandhi, Nehru’s great-grandson.
Had BJP ignored Rahul and his family, Congress would have died its natural death. But ironically, the revival credit now goes entirely to BJP. Today, BJP stands where Congress stood in 2014—facing a leadership vacuum after Modi. Who’s next? Yogi? Please, let’s be serious.
And here we are: the man once mocked as “Pappu” is steadily being transformed into a political hero, whether you like it or not.
Which makes me wonder: did BJP secretly consult an astrologer years ago, one who read Rahul’s chart and warned them he was their only real threat? Maybe that’s why BJP has been obsessed with tarnishing the Nehru family—as if they could bend destiny itself.
But history and mythology remind us: even Lord Rama could not rewrite destiny. How then can BJP hope to? 🙂