Chitrabhanu Kadalayil is deputy comment editor at The National
August 10, 2023
Ever since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the 2014 general election in a landslide, the same questions have been asked time and again. Can Rahul Gandhi, India’s leading opposition figure for the past decade, take on Mr Modi? And if not Mr Gandhi, then who?
Ten months ahead of the 2024 vote, the same tired set of queries is being posed on mainstream and social media. It is a trap both Mr Gandhi and the newly assembled alliance of opposition parties will do well to avoid.
To begin with, the fundamental premise of these questions is flawed. India is a parliamentary democracy, in which the largest party or coalition of parties to emerge after an election approaches the President, the titular head of the republic, and secures the right to form a government.
In other words, this isn’t a presidential contest – as happens in the US or Turkey.
And yet, we live in the real world – where Indians have, over three eras in their country’s post-colonial history, sought to choose a “strong and decisive leader” as prime minister so that he or she can “get things done” through sheer force of personality. Mr Modi – much like India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his daughter, Indira Gandhi – towers head and shoulders over all his peers, across party lines.
Nine years of incumbency don’t appear to have shaken the people’s confidence in him either. According to the Lokniti-CSDS Survey released at the end of May, 43 per cent of respondents would elect Mr Modi again. His nearest rival was Mr Gandhi, at 27 per cent, with other leaders registering in the single digits.
It is little wonder, then, that the governing Bharatiya Janata Party is making the 2024 election a referendum on Mr Modi’s leadership – just as it did during his re-election campaign in 2019.
The BJP has benefited from portraying Mr Gandhi as the privileged scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, claiming he is in politics only because the party he leads – the Indian National Congress – is little more than a family firm. Mr Modi, on the other hand, has been self-made throughout his political career.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during SemiconIndia in Gandhinagar in July. AFP
When there is a wealth of talent in the India alliance, the Congress shouldn’t be rocking an already rickety boat
But Mr Gandhi, who for years struggled to break out of the pigeonhole the BJP created for him, has finally managed an image transformation after his hugely successful Unite India Rally. He undertook a 4,000-kilometre walkathon across the length of India that began late last year and spanned almost 150 days.
The journey, punctuated with soaring speeches and rich interactions with the public, celebrities, civil society members and former bureaucrats, established his pre-eminence not just in his own party but also among leaders of other opposition parties that have spent the past decade co-opting some of the Congress’s shrinking vote base.
Mr Gandhi has continued to be in the news lately. In March, a lower court ruled that he had defamed all people with the same surname as Mr Modi in remarks that he made during an election speech in 2019. The court in Gujarat, Mr Modi’s home state, sentenced Mr Gandhi to two years in jail. As per the law, he was consequently disqualified from parliament.
But the Supreme Court’s suspension of his conviction last week, and his subsequent reinstatement as an MP this week, could be both good news and bad for the anti-BJP voters – who make up 60 per cent of the electorate.
For the past six months, an emboldened Mr Gandhi has been hitting the BJP hard over a range of issues. He has accused them of fuelling religious polarisation, undermining democratic institutions, and indulging in what he claims to be crony capitalism.
His political resurgence, and the fact he has been consistently in the news, has undoubtedly revived the Congress’s fortunes in recent state and local body elections by creating a buzz among those who are ideologically opposed to Mr Modi. But counterintuitively, it might also serve the BJP to revive the “Modi versus Gandhi” head-to-head contest in the general election and, in the process, distract the electorate from bread-and-butter issues, such as price rise, unemployment and rural distress.
BJP MPs were already targetting Mr Gandhi during this week’s parliament sessions, and an op-ed penned by a BJP leader appeared in one of India’s largest mainstream dailies, in which he critiqued the Congress leader’s record as an MP.
The 26-party 'India' alliance meets in Bangalore in July. EPA
All this might worry some of the leaders in the recently constituted 26-party coalition named the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance – or simply “India” – of which Congress is one. The alliance was formed during Mr Gandhi’s suspension, and he clarified that he wasn’t seeking to become its prime ministerial candidate.
The question is, will that change now that Mr Gandhi is back in Parliament? Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, one Congress’s most senior and powerful leaders, last week said: “For us, Rahul Gandhi is the PM face.”
To be sure, Mr Gehlot will point to the fact that Mr Gandhi has been one of the government’s most high-profile critics. He might also suggest that Mr Gandhi, more than any other leader in the country, has stood up to defend the republic’s secular underpinnings – which the BJP’s rise has challenged, given the party’s ideological emphasis on Hindu cultural prominence.
And yet, when there is a wealth of talent in the India alliance, with leaders with far more political and administrative heft and experience, the Congress shouldn’t be rocking an already rickety boat that includes parties with competing interests and vote banks. They should, instead, focus on offering a coherent message, displaying opposition unity, and talking about bread-and-butter issues.
After almost a decade of a Modi-led government, it might also be the time for the opposition to test the proposition that, given India’s size and the array of challenges it faces, a “team” with a deep bench might be a better proposition for the voters.
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Reform is a right-wing, populist party led by Nigel Farage, a former MEP who won a seat in the House of Commons last year at his eighth attempt and a prominent figure in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union.
It was founded in 2018 and originally called the Brexit Party.
Many of its members previously belonged to UKIP or the mainstream Conservatives.
After Brexit took place, the party focused on the reformation of British democracy.
Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson became its first MP after defecting in March 2024.
The party gained support from Elon Musk, and had hoped the tech billionaire would make a £100m donation. However, Mr Musk changed his mind and called for Mr Farage to step down as leader in a row involving the US tycoon's support for far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson who is in prison for contempt of court.
The flights
There are various ways of getting to the southern Serengeti in Tanzania from the UAE. The exact route and airstrip depends on your overall trip itinerary and which camp you’re staying at. Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Kilimanjaro International Airport from Dh1,350 return, including taxes; this can be followed by a short flight from Kilimanjaro to the Serengeti withCoastal Aviation from about US$700 (Dh2,500) return, including taxes. Kenya Airways, Emirates and Etihad offer flights via Nairobi or Dar es Salaam.
About Takalam
Date started: early 2020
Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech and wellness
Number of staff: 4
Funding to date: Bootstrapped
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
