6 min readFeb 8, 2026 06:41 AM IST
First published on: Feb 8, 2026 at 06:41 AM IST
When you are the great-grandson of a prime minister, the grandson of a prime minister, the son of a prime minister and a de facto prime minister, it must be hard to accept being just Leader of the Opposition. And this after failing to get enough seats in two general elections to occupy this relatively humble post. So, I understand Rahul Gandhi’s loathing of the usurper who has deprived him of what he seems to have grown up believing was his inheritance. It does not help his case to sound sulky and petulant about this. Why does he not understand yet that when he insults Narendra Modi, he also insults the Prime Minister?
What shocked me most of the many things that he said last week outside Parliament House was that the Prime Minister was ‘compromised’ and this is why he had been forced into the trade deal with the United States. This is not the sort of thing that can be said without proof. But Rahul Gandhi is so obsessed with damaging the Prime Minister personally that he reduces every political point he wants to make to a personal attack on Modi. He has also deluded himself into believing that the only reason that Modi remains popular is because of an ‘image’ created at the expense of many crore rupees. He ignores the reality that Modi has won two general elections with a full majority and a third one with a reduced majority. An India Today poll says that his popularity has increased since the last Lok Sabha election and that if an election were held today, he would win back a full majority.
The heir to our most powerful political dynasty for his part has lost so many elections that it is hard to keep count. The Congress Party has never once done a real analysis of why it has been reduced to almost becoming a regional party, so its deluded prince continues to live in his delusions of ‘vote chori’ and Indian democracy having died. This could be the reason why whenever there is a session of Parliament, he and his gang of obedient MPs spend more time protesting in the gardens of Parliament House than inside the House. When asked about this, Rahul Gandhi always says that he is not allowed to speak inside the Lok Sabha so is forced to adopt street fighting tactics.
Personally, I believe that this time it would have been wise for the Speaker to allow him to speak. Denying him permission has resulted in all of India discovering now what the former army chief has written in his book. In the few words that the Congress Party’s heir apparent managed to say in the Lok Sabha he made clear that his intention was to destroy the image of the Prime Minister. He wanted to prove that he was no nationalist and that he had failed to lead when leadership was most needed during the border clash with China in Ladakh. Good luck with that but what did this worthy exercise have to do with the President’s speech? This was the subject being discussed that day.
Now some free advice for the Gandhi family. Please, please allow Parliament to function so that you can raise the issues you consider important inside the House instead of in its compound. Sonia Gandhi and her daughter raised the excellent issue of Delhi’s polluted air while chatting to television reporters last week but outside the House. Sonia said children were suffering and so were people like her who had asthma. Why did she not demand a debate on this subject in the Rajya Sabha that day? It was functioning well enough for the Prime Minister to give his response to the debate. He was not allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha because, as Priyanka explained, if the Leader of the Opposition is not allowed to speak, the prime minister would not be allowed to speak either.
By the time the Gandhi family were done with their theatrics, there was no time left to discuss what seems to be a good trade deal with the United States. India stood its ground against the bullying strategy used by Donald Trump. Our Prime Minister deserves full credit for the dignified tactics he used to achieve what, in the circumstances, are some major concessions. But for a member of the Dynasty to admit this would amount to conceding that Narendra Modi has done a fairly good job and this is something they cannot do because their sense of entitlement prevents them.
It also prevents them from seeing that one reason why Modi won the first time was because India wanted a real leader to take charge instead of an imperious royal family that had become drunk on its power and privileges. If Modi has remained prime minister for more than twelve years it is because ordinary Indians have seen their lives improve. The welfare schemes that he initiated have made it easier to live in rural India than it was before.
Millions of Indians who lived in extreme poverty now live better and with a degree of hope that their lives will continue to get better. As someone who remembers well those decades of socialist feudalism when Rahul Gandhi’s family were prime ministers, believe me when I tell you that those were truly bleak times for most Indians.
