Sonia Gandhi as interim president: Where Congress missed to pin BJP down

NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi completed one year on Monday as Congress’s interim president. However, her tenure has failed to uplift the mood of party workers or pin down the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the centre.
The Modi government has been found on the backfoot on several issues in this past one year.
But the Congress has been found wanting in cornering the BJP government.
Worse, it lost Madhya Pradesh due to rebellion by its senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and his supporters.
The situation in Rajasthan also does not inspire confidence for the Congress. He may have called truce for now but the former deputy chief minister and state president, Sachin Pilot, had also rebelled against the party high command and state CM Ashok Gehlot.
But more than the state issues, the Congress is seen unable to counter the BJP on the national scale.
The Congress had the chance to embarrass the BJP on at least three issues in the recent past - economy, COVID-19 and border issue with China in eastern Ladakh.
However, Sonia Gandhi occasionally aired her views on the controversial issues.
Her son Rahul Gandhi has been active on social media. Except for once when he met the migrant workers who were returning to their villages in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal in the wake of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown, he has not been seen hitting the streets to protest against the BJP government’s alleged failures over the three issues.
Moreover, ever since Rahul Gandhi quit the Congress president’s post last year in the wake of the embarrassing defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and himself lost the family bastion Amethi, his credibility appears to have taken a major beating.
As a result, the Congress seems to have given a walkover to the BJP.
Taking on the BJP over the three issues, Rahul Gandhi said, “BJP has institutionalised lies. 1. Covid19 by restricting testing and misreporting deaths. 2. GDP by using a new calculation method. 3. Chinese aggression by frightening the media. The illusion will break soon and India will pay the price.”
Migrant labourers
On the first anniversary of his government’s second term on May 30, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote an open letter to the people. Among other issues, he admitted "tremendous suffering" of migrant workers among others.
Modi said, “Our labourers, migrant workers, artisans and craftsmen in small scale industries, hawkers and such fellow countrymen have undergone tremendous suffering. We are working in a united and determined way to alleviate their troubles.”
Rahul Gandhi has been highlighting the woes of the migrant workers even before PM Modi's admission in this regard.
On May 14, he said the Congress would ensure that the “screams of the migrant workers” reached the government.
In a tweet in Hindi, Rahul said, "There is a dense darkness and these are difficult times, have courage, all of us are standing for the safety of all of them. We will ensure that their screams reach the government and they get the help they deserve. They are not the ordinary public of the country, they are the flag bearers of the country's self-respect. We will never let them bow down."
Economy
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das, in a press conference on August 6, announced the discouraging news about Indian economy.
He said, “The real GDP growth in the first half of the year is estimated to remain in the contraction zone. For the year 2021 as a whole, the real GDP growth is also estimated to be negative.”
The very next day, Rahul Gandhi attacked the Modi government by taking a swipe at “mood of the nation”.
He said in a tweet, “RBI reveals the real 'Mood of the Nation': People's confidence at all time low. Fear and insecurity at all time high. Expect more bad news on the economy and jobs front.”

Three days before that he had come down hard on the government when he said, “People’s trust and confidence in the economy has evaporated. The atmosphere has deteriorated. PM and his team have neither the understanding, the tools nor the ability to fix the problem.”
China
Ever since skirmishes took place between the Chinese and Indian troops in Pangong Tso area in eastern Ladakh on May 5, Rahul Gandhi has been on the offensive even as senior military commanders of both the countries have held several round of talks in order to ensure early disengagement of troops from all the friction points.
A day after the fifth round of corps commander-level talks took place on August August 5 over the clashes along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, Rahul Gandhi was at it again, mocking PM Modi.
In a tweet, he said, “Forget standing up to China, India’s PM lacks the courage even to name them. Denying China is in our territory and removing documents from websites won’t change the facts.”
Earlier on July 18, he had tweeted on the same lines and said, “China has taken our land and GOI is behaving like Chamberlain. This will further embolden China. India is going to pay a huge price because of GOI’s cowardly actions.”

However, Rahul Gandhi’s attacks are not having the intended impact on the government. The Modi dispensation does not seem to take him seriously.