On Monday evening, Rahul Gandhi and his followers completed a nearly 4,000-kilometre march across the length of India. The de facto leader of the beleaguered Congress party began his Unite India Rally last September from the country’s southern-most tip of Kanyakumari, before reaching its northern-most territory of Jammu-Kashmir about 150 days later.
The purported reason to organise such a rally, as its name implies, was to begin the process of uniting a country that has, as Congress and several other opposition parties claim, been divided along a number of axes, including on religious and socioeconomic lines. But it was evidently also a part of Mr Gandhi’s mission to resuscitate his political career and revive the fortunes of a once dominant party that has been languishing in the opposition for almost a decade.
Walking 25 to 30 kilometres nearly every day for almost five months across the world’s seventh-largest country is undoubtedly an astonishing accomplishment. It is a glowing testament to the travellers’ physical and mental stamina, even if the journey was punctuated with a few breaks, and to the planning and organisation that went into it.
But the question being asked, and rightly so, is whether the rally can be characterised as a political success. With a little more than a year left before the next general election, it remains to be seen if it can help Congress defeat the governing Bharatiya Janata Party and return to power in New Delhi – its ultimate objective.
The BJP is a highly disciplined organisation that won the 2014 and 2019 general elections, and a number of state elections in between, on the back of the popularity of its leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as its Hindutva ideology and a bouquet of populist policies.
Questions remain on Congress’s ability to appeal to the broader electorate
It also played up the idea that there is no alternative to Mr Modi, positioning him as peerless, in part by painting Mr Gandhi as the entitled scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty with little political acumen, experience or even the desire necessary to govern a country as large and complex as India. Mr Gandhi has indeed proved no match to Mr Modi, whose humble beginnings and the experience of governing the state of Gujarat for 12 years before becoming prime minister continue to burnish his larger-than-life persona.
Last week, the India Today-C Voter Mood of the Nation survey put the Modi government’s approval rating at 67 per cent. Mr Modi’s own approval rating stands at 72 per cent. If a general election were to be held today, the BJP would return to power for a third consecutive term.
In which case, does the rally even matter? To be sure, much can still change in the next 12-15 months. India’s economy may be growing, but unemployment, inflation and tensions with China along their 3,500-kilometre-long border are problematic. And while Mr Modi remains popular, growing restiveness over the economy could hurt the BJP’s chances of securing a parliamentary majority on its own next year. In such situations, a multiparty coalition with a resurgent Congress at its core might still be able to form a government.
Congress has taken a furtive step in this direction. Given the attention the rally garnered – drawing in tens of thousands of people from various sections of society – it has undoubtedly helped recast Mr Gandhi’s image as a serious politician who is unafraid of the derision and criticism he has been subjected to since he entered politics almost two decades ago.
More crucially perhaps, he has returned Congress to its ideological roots by articulating the values of secularism and civic nationalism – values that underpin the Indian Constitution. This is important.
Since the rise of the BJP in the 1990s, Hindutva – which emphasises India’s Hindu cultural prominence, distinct from its secular and civic nationalist ethos – has gradually become the nation’s dominant ideology. Such is its potency that most political parties, including Congress, have over the years attempted to rebrand themselves as Hindutva-lite. In an effort to court the Hindu vote, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of the electorate, the best of them have been careful not to be seen as placating religious minorities, particularly Muslims. But this strategy has found little purchase among right-leaning voters, with many preferring the real thing – the BJP – to its cheaper imitations.
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Mr Gandhi has seemingly scrapped this experiment. In various speeches during the march, he was seen to be standing up for the ideals upon which modern India was founded, regardless of the lure of Hindutva. He did this while not entirely relinquishing his own Hindu-ness, most notably by visiting temples but also other places of worship during the journey. This strategy may not necessarily win his party elections in the short term. But by focusing much of his criticism on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological fountainhead of the BJP, he has repositioned Congress, ideologically, in stark opposition to Mr Modi’s party, thereby offering voters a clear alternative at the ballot box over the long term.
However, much as this is being hailed by many liberals and leftists across India, questions remain on Congress’s ability to appeal to the broader electorate. A majority of voters still don’t have an idea of the India Mr Gandhi wants to build, beyond simply returning it to its ideological roots. Few know how he will address issues such as poverty, unemployment and inflation, or how he will deal with China and the fallout from the Ukraine war. Can he convince voters that he, more than Mr Modi, has the solutions to all the big problems – and the ability to implement them?
That only a handful of likeminded parties joined Mr Gandhi during the course of the rally shows that, for now, not everyone in India’s diverse political class is convinced that Congress – despite being the only pan-India party other than the BJP – is worthy of leading a coalition necessary to defeat Mr Modi in 2024.
Another worry for Mr Gandhi is his inability to rein in the infighting within his party. In at least four states, two of which Congress runs, factionalism is rife. One-upmanship may be a feature more than it is a bug in politics, but it takes a strong, vote-catching leader at the top to keep colleagues and cadre alike disciplined and motivated.
Does Mr Gandhi have it in him to bring together fellow party members, as well as leaders from other parties, to forge a united front? It will all depend on whether he can build on the momentum the rally has provided in key state elections this year. If Congress can add to its tally of six states, where it is in power on its own or with coalition partners, the situation will change.
India’s grand old party has surely taken a step forward towards its revival with the rally, but equally there is no doubt that the road to New Delhi remains a long way away.
Company%C2%A0profile
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Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (all kick-offs UAE time)
Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (10.30pm)
Saturday
Freiburg v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Paderborn v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)
Borussia Monchengladbach v Bayer Leverkusen (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Sunday
Schalke v Augsburg (3.30pm)
Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)
Cologne v Fortuna Dusseldorf (8pm)
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Korean Film Festival 2019 line-up
Innocent Witness, June 26 at 7pm
On Your Wedding Day, June 27 at 7pm
The Great Battle, June 27 at 9pm
The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion, June 28 at 4pm
Romang, June 28 at 6pm
Mal Mo E: The Secret Mission, June 28 at 8pm
Underdog, June 29 at 2pm
Nearby Sky, June 29 at 4pm
A Resistance, June 29 at 6pm
Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Scores
Oman 109-3 in 18.4 overs (Aqib Ilyas 45 not out, Aamir Kaleem 27) beat UAE 108-9 in 20 overs (Usman 27, Mustafa 24, Fayyaz 3-16, Bilal 3-23)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V8
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 630bhp
Torque: 900Nm
Price: Dh810,000
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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New schools in Dubai
RESULTS
5pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner AF Nashrah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Mutaqadim, Riccardo Iacopini, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.
6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Hameem, Jose Santiago, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
6.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner AF Almomayaz, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Dalil Al Carrere, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash.
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Jayide Al Boraq, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
Kibsons%20Cares
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERecycling%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fstrong%3EAny%20time%20you%20receive%20a%20Kibsons%20order%2C%20you%20can%20return%20your%20cardboard%20box%20to%20the%20drivers.%20They%E2%80%99ll%20be%20happy%20to%20take%20it%20off%20your%20hands%20and%20ensure%20it%20gets%20reused%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EKind%20to%20health%20and%20planet%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ESolar%20%E2%80%93%2025-50%25%20of%20electricity%20saved%3Cbr%3EWater%20%E2%80%93%2075%25%20of%20water%20reused%3Cbr%3EBiofuel%20%E2%80%93%20Kibsons%20fleet%20to%20get%2020%25%20more%20mileage%20per%20litre%20with%20biofuel%20additives%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ESustainable%20grocery%20shopping%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ENo%20antibiotics%3Cbr%3ENo%20added%20hormones%3Cbr%3ENo%20GMO%3Cbr%3ENo%20preservatives%3Cbr%3EMSG%20free%3Cbr%3E100%25%20natural%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
