Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, many say, speaks from his heart and with a generous dose of genuineness. Gandhi does appear to be authentic in what he says whether from an election rally platform, in an auditorium somewhere, or in personal interactions during his yatras. Why then does he speak his way into controversy so often or rile so many all the time? Is it his message or the language he chooses to wrap his message in, or both? Political communication and the use of language in it has been the matter of great scholarship and long debates around the world, leading to several useful theories and normative concepts. What stands out, among many elements, is that politicalcommunication is not easy but it should not come from a place of impulsiveness or anger; besides, its purpose is most important and all political communication should fulfil it for politics is nothing without effective and purposeful communication.
Gandhi, now on a tour of the United States, has hit it out of the park twice in two days but the questions remain — to what avail, for whose good? Earlier this week, speaking at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Gandhi mocked India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “one such specimen” who believes he knows everything and can teach “history to historians, science to scientists, warfare to generals” and so on. He was trying to neatly encapsulate the personality and behaviour of Prime Minister Modi and gently deal a hard blow about his professed expertise in every field of life. Modi’s image managers have, of course, assiduously constructed his image as a know-it-all man who is super powerful and can make the world turn on his command. In closed trusted circles, this is often discussed with the customary shrug but in public everyone laps up the constructed image — and feeds it.
Taking it down or mocking it is legitimate political communication – just as legitimate as Modi’s party, Bharatiya Janata Party, repeatedly dismissing Gandhi in 2013-14 as “Pappu” to signify a goofy good-for-nothing fellow who could not be a real contender to Modi in the 2014 general election. That image stuck; Gandhi has not been able to shrug it off despite attempts by his managers. His mocking remark of “one such specimen” should, therefore, not hurt Modi or his managers for all is fair in politics and war. In fact, for once Gandhi showed political acumen and fine knowledge of how to take down an opponent without sounding harsh or using thunderous language and cheap jibes. That so many ministers in the Government of India trotted out to defend Modi and hit back at Gandhi shows that the mockery hit home.
At times, such trading of insults and name-calling can be entertaining while conveying important messages, but they can also easily cross the line to become debased. During an election rally in the 1990s, the late Mr Bal Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena, took down the political might of Sharad Pawar, then chief minister of Maharashtra and always dressed in white, by calling him “a large sack of flour” with gestures to indicate Pawar’s large frame. Pawar laughed it off. The former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been the butt of some of the cheapest and vile remarks over the years by the BJP. In fact, at one time, Modi himself had called her and Gandhi a “Jersey cow and calf”.
If the purpose of political communication and deliberate use of a certain kind of language is to send out a message to people and consolidate one’s own support base, then Gandhi’s remarks cannot be faulted with. However, political communication is a minefield and its practitioners must tread with care. Nuance and delivery have their own importance. Take for instance Gandhi’s remarks about the Muslim League which has sparked off another round of debate about its secular intent. Here, he slipped up or was inappropriately advised. It’s possible that he only meant the Indian Union Muslim League in Kerala but it was interpreted as the party of Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Somehow, Gandhi despite being real and genuine tends to mix up his communication. He, like the Congress party, badly needs better communication strategies and sharper one-liners.
