The list is long — from ‘Maut ka saudagar’ and ‘neech aadmi’ to ‘chai wallah’ among others. In private, most Congress leaders admit that each time the party called the prime minister names, it backfired on them electorally. This, despite the fact that Congress itself — and the Gandhis especially — have been the target of personal attacks from the BJP. For instance, the name Pappu stuck to Rahul Gandhi for long, so much so that he himself began making fun of the moniker.
But it’s a new, different and defiant Congress now. It’s a party which doesn’t seem to be averse to the idea of name calling and is no longer wary of calling the PM ‘panauti’.
In fact, the lead was taken by Rahul Gandhi himself. At a rally in Rajasthan, he asked the crowd what one calls someone who watches a cricket match and the team loses. The crowd shouted panauti and Rahul Gandhi smiled. But it did not stop here. Soon, statements were released by top Congress leaders, echoing the word panauti for the prime minister.
“Rahulji has said what many hve been thinking since 2 days. The world cup finals were a moment of pride for 140 crore Indians and we were all looking forward to this historic occasion, but they were desperate to hijack it for their political mileage,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal wrote on social networking website X. He ended his post with ‘#panautimodi’.
The party has decided two things. One, “if the BJP can do it so can we”. Just a few days before the ‘panauti’ jibe by Rahul Gandhi, the PM had referred to the latter as ‘murkhon ka sardar’ (leader of fools). Irate, Congress leaders Supriya Shrinate and Pawan Khera questioned the “duplicity of the outrage”. “Why is no one calling out the prime minister for calling Rahul Gandhi names in the past and present?” they ask.
Second, a top leader of the party told News18.com that the name-calling may just be harmless. “The ‘panauti’ comment may not get us any benefit, but it won’t harm us either. It’s a thing of the past when calling PM names hurt us. The people now accept it.”
This is something that only time and election results will prove. But the Congress calculates that in a cricket-crazy country where people pray, do havans, cricketers pose/use lucky charms and balls, the word ‘panauti’ could click.
More importantly, just as the word ‘pappu’ stuck to Rahul Gandhi over the years, the Grand Old Party hopes ‘panauti’ too sticks to the PM. A lot depends on the results now. In case of a poor performance by the Congress, the tables could turn on it. However, the party, upbeat for now, does not think so.
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