Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the least decisive leaders that India had seen in recent years. She gave written responses to questions submitted by The Hindu, which was followed by a brief interaction.
As the seven-phase elections are coming to an end, what is your assessment?
My focus is primarily in U.P., so I have a clearer picture about U.P. In U.P., I see a lot of public anger, people have suffered tremendously in the last five years and I believe that this suffering is going to directly impact the elections. I think what applies to U.P. applies to the rest of the country as well. The government has acted as the creator of problems rather than the resolver of problems. Whether it was demonetisation, the complex structure of the GST (Goods and Services Tax), the government’s refusal to address the crisis in the agricultural sector or their dismal performance on job creation — they contributed consistently towards increasing the everyday struggles of the common man. I believe the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) will be held accountable for its failure to deliver on the promises it made to the public five years ago.
The BJP has made this election about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decisive leadership versus none in the Opposition to take him on. Isn’t that a disadvantage?
I believe this is a myth built by the media and the BJP together, and of course it suits the BJP. The truth is that our Prime Minister is one of the least decisive leaders India has seen in recent decades, both in terms of his political leadership and in terms of leading India as a nation in the larger geopolitical sphere.
He has shown tremendous weakness in his responses to the problems that the common man has faced. He did not even have the courage to meet thousands of farmers when they marched to Delhi asking for justice. His weakness is most evident in his insistence on surrounding himself only with crony capitalists and fawning colleagues and isolating himself from the public. In addition, his obvious inability to face questions, his refusal to accept dissent and his blatant attempts to silence all detractors is a sign of tremendous political cowardice.
In several public meetings, you said Mr. Modi never visited the villages of Varanasi even once. Do you think you could have seriously challenged him if you had contested from Varanasi?
Firstly, have you ever seen a photograph or videos of Mr. Modi at any event where he is interacting directly with the public? All we see are events that look like rock concerts: massive LED stages on which huge amounts of money is spent, and people are brought in by the truckload. He is always talking at them, telling them what he believes, never once does he ask them what they believe. I bring his absence from the lives of the common man in Varanasi up in my speeches to emphasise that the leader of a country like India cannot lock himself up in a bungalow in Race Course Road and imagine that he truly represents the people of India. He has to move among them, he has to meet them, he has to listen to them and he has to make himself available to them. Secondly, if I had fought him in Varanasi, I would have given it my best; whether that would have been a serious challenge or not would have been for the people to say.
What do you think of the BJP decision to field Pragya Thakur? What signal are they trying to send to the country?
I think the signal is very clear. They are fielding candidates who have extremely radical and destructive views which only means that the BJP supports those views. They have not categorically said what their view on Nathuram Godse is. The Prime Minister said ‘I can’t forgive Pragya Thakur from my heart’ what does this mean? You are fielding a political candidate, nobody is interested in what you feel in your heart. People are interested in you as a political party, as the Prime Minister of India, they are interested in your actions, in who you are supporting and why you are raising such people to the public platform as their representatives.
How will the Congress fare in U.P.? How many seats do you think you can win?
I’m not in the habit of making predictions on the number of seats, but what I can say is that the Congress has fought this election well on its own strength. I expect our vote percentage to increase and am hopeful of improving on the number of seats we win as well. Our focus this election has primarily been to defeat the BJP. In many constituencies where we felt that we may not be able to be in the fight, where our base is weak, we have ensured that our candidates do not hurt the prospects of the alliance candidate.
Is Rahul Gandhi facing a serious challenge in Amethi?
I don’t believe so at all.
What is your assessment of SP-BSP (Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party) alliance? How will they perform?
I really can’t say how well they will do, it’s for the people to decide and we will see when the election results come.
Your brother Rahul Gandhi had talked about how you are now in politics for a long innings. Are you willing to be the face of the Congress party in the U.P. Assembly election in 2022?
I’m willing to be anything that my party wants me to be.
Your detractors say you delayed your formal entry into politics because you were worried about the corruption cases against your husband Robert Vadra. How do you respond to such charges?
This is a completely baseless charge. My family has borne the brunt of malicious political campaigns for generations. I am not in the least “worried” about such things. The more they attack us, the stronger we become.
Of late, there had been several references to your father late Rajiv Gandhi, and his visit to Lakshadweep onboard INS Virat by Prime Minister Narendra Modi...
The interesting thing about this election campaign has been that Mr. Narendra Modi has spoken more about my family than he has spoken about his policies and plans for the next five years. His focus has been to distract the public from real issues because he knows that his record on delivering on his false promises is abysmal. Our focus has been to speak about job creation, strengthening the agricultural sector, increasing expenditure on education, improving healthcare, and other matters that we feel concern the nation.
We hear there is a lot of demand from Congress candidates to address their rallies and roadshows. This time you have done so in Assam, Kerala and Haryana. How do you decide which constituency, candidate you want to campaign for?
Besides Uttar Pradesh, I have been to Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Kerala and Haryana. These decisions are not taken by me, they are taken by the party leadership. I give them the days that I can be available to travel outside Uttar Pradesh and they decide where I go. For the first few phases, I had too many commitments within U.P. to be able to spare days for other States.
There are inevitable comparisons between you and Rahul Gandhi. How do you deal with it?
I don’t. Frankly, I feel that the comparison between Rahul and me has been a politically motivated exercise right from the beginning. It is part of the vicious propaganda campaign that has been carried out against my brother.
The truth is that there is no comparison. He has been in politics for 15 years and I have entered politics 15 weeks back. He has massive experience, he has travelled all around the country, he understands this country, its religions, the forces that are at play within and outside it, better than most politicians I have come across do. He is far wiser than I am, and I learn from him every minute. So, to me this is a manufactured comparison.
Also, people often talk about your striking resemblance to your grandmother Indira Gandhi. What emotions do they evoke in you?
I am her granddaughter, it’s natural that I should look like her. Sometimes, when I see older people waiting for me and greeting me with so much affection, I can see that they are reacting to me so emotionally because of her work and her commitment to our country. It makes me even more aware of what a formidable and courageous woman she was. So many years after her death, she is still remembered with love. It says a lot for the life she lived.
As children, we all want our parents to take it easy after a certain stage. Is that the reason why we have seen very little of Sonia Gandhi ji in this election?
No, it’s not to do with what her children feel. She herself felt the need to be less engaged in politics than she was before. She had been in politics for two whole decades and been totally committed to it. She now spends her time doing things she enjoys and likes to spend time with my children. It was her choice entirely.
If your children express their desire to enter politics at some stage, how would you react, especially since the Congress is accused of encouraging dynastic politics?
I have made every effort to keep my children away from politics and encouraged them to do anything they would possibly want to do, other than politics! That has been my effort as a mother but, as we all know, sometimes children end up doing exactly what their parents have vehemently discouraged them from doing. I have no illusions about the fact that they will choose their own paths as adults and I am not the kind of mother who would force them to do what I want them to do.
