Chicago – February 27, 2024
His voice hoarse from all the speeches he had made during his 4,000-mile march across the breadth of India, Rahul Gandhi urged people at a rally in Uttar Pradesh state to think hard.
Specifically, to think hard about caste. “Are there any of you Dalits or other low castes in the judiciary?” the leading face of India’s opposition Congress party, asked the crowd. “Are any of you in the media? Do any of you own even one of India’s 200 top companies? Of the civil servant class which rules this country, are any of you among them?
“Why are you all asleep? Don’t you see you’re being fooled? There are hardly any of you in these institutions. You are 73% of the population. What kind of society is this where you don’t make any decisions?”
Gandhi is the fifth generation of the illustrious first family that used to tower over Indian politics but which has lost some of its aura in recent years. As he makes his third attempt to defeat the Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, after defeats in 2014 and 2019, he has pitched himself as an unlikely man of the people, calling for a “caste census” that would shine a light on who owns wealth and wields power.
At the heart of his campaign ahead of the election, which is likely to be held in May, Gandhi has been walking across the country, from east to west, holding rallies every day.
Although Gandhi used to be an indifferent speaker, the long march with its endless rallies has lifted his oratory. His voice carries more conviction. He is more adept at working a crowd. Long dismissed as an irrelevant dilettante by the ruling Bharatiya Janata party of prime Minister Modi and scorned as an entitled dynast, Gandhi has proved on this march – and on his first march last year which took him from south to north – that he can handle the grind of grassroots politics and connect with ordinary Indians.
