David Turns Goliath

Snubbing tricky allies and collecting 87,000 campaign kms, Rahul Gandhi touches new heights

Using the examples of a basketball coach, David in the battle against Goliath, and TE Lawrence taking on the mighty Ottoman Turks with his rag-tag bunch of bedouins, bestselling analyst of turning point trends, Malcolm Gladwell says surprise victories are results of two things: When the underdog chooses not to play by Goliath’s rules, and when they work harder than anyone else.
By insisting that the Congress go it alone in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Rahul Gandhi changed the rules of the game. And by traversing 87,000 kilometers addressing 110 rallies in punishing heat, he worked harder than most.The results have been remarkable. In Uttar Pradesh the Congress upped its tally from nine to 21, the same as Mayawati; nationwide the party got 203, the second highest after 1991 when it won 221 seats following Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.Rahul, who will be 39 next month, entered active politics only in 2004 and for the longest time his low-key approach was the despair of Congressmen. They couldn’t understand why a young man who could fast-track his way to prime ministership wanted to work at the grassroots level. Why, they secretly questioned, couldn’t it have been the other Gandhi, Priyanka, who was leagues ahead in the charisma stakes, in the fray.
But Rahul, not to be hurried, was determined to be the humble party worker. In his case he lived the cliche. He travelled to Amethi, his constituency, every two months, and in the last two years, he’s made over two dozen trips to travel across the state that he was determined to wrest back for the Congress. “He has just been going to schools, colleges, youth seminars punctuated with visits to dalit villages and homes of distressed farmers,” says Congress spokesperson in UP Akhilesh Pratap Singh.
Like his father, he is familiar with most voters in Amethi and when he interacts with them in a village, he just “solves their little problems like getting a water tap installed in someone’s house. He also doesn’t make false promises. Once a man asked him in one of his campaigns in Amethi that the last time he had visited he had promised him a job. Rahul immediately said, ‘I don’t promise jobs. Study well and may be you will get one’,” recalls journalist Vijay Simha who reports on the Congress Party and who has been keenly following Rahul’s progress.
The similarity with his father doesn’t end there. Rahul’s style of functioning is people-oriented. Like Rajiv Gandhi he often jumps into crowds, hugs people, kisses their children, makes it a point to eat in a dalit’s house and seems perfectly comfortable talking to people by the side of an open sewage.
So while the opposition was ridiculing his Discovery of India yatra and his photo-op with UK minister David Miliband at the house of a dalit farmer, Rahul was going beyond mere symbolism and building a real bond with the down-trodden. “What he has achieved in UP has given great thrust to the Congress and the real results would be seen in the assembly elections in the state three years later,” says senior Lucknow journalist Suman Gupta. “The results are a complete rejection of caste and communal politics and voters turning out for development. This has a lot to do with Rahul wooing emergent India’s young voters, who have no space for caste and regional politics. They want jobs, amenities, money, and that’s what Rahul has been talking about.”
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Sanjay Dutt recalls, “While supervising the preparations for rallies in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana, I saw him travelling tirelessly in 45 to 48 degree celsius, asking partymen whether the people there were provided enough tents, drinking water, first aid in the event of sun strokes. On his way to the public meetings I have seen him interacting with people on the roads, bystanders from the crowd. To my experience in the rallies, what helped the party to score was his way of explaining the nuclear deal and its impact on the future of the nation. He said we will not hesitate to put the government at stake while sticking on with the deal. That helped greatly to clear doubts among the younger generation.”
While most parties have been using the totem of youth, Rahul Gandhi made wooing that demographic his one-point agenda. His complete rehauling of Youth Congress, traditionally a den of thuggish leaders, is a pointer. As also his insistence on greater allocation of tickets to the under-40.In the Congress finally there is acknowledgement of Rahul’s role in the historic win and the clamour has begun to appoint him to the Cabinet. Typically, Rahul responded by saying he’d join only if he was forced to “by the prime minister or his boss.”
Unexpected wins, points out Gladwell, are anomalous. It’s not as if Davids win all the time. He then quotes political scientist Ivan Arreguín-Toft who recently looked at every war fought in the past two hundred years between strong and weak combatants, and found that in 71.5 per cent of the cases the Goliaths won. Rahul Gandhi has just turned into a Goliath himself; he now needs to learn to fight the conventional battle well.

THE CHARMER

Rahul Gandhi still attracts like a movie star. But, as was evident in his election campaign in Nanded, people now want his charm to transcend his looks, demeanours and lineage

It is difficult to stand the searing heat of summers in Nanded even in the comfort of one’s home, let alone waiting for someone in anticipation right under the scorching sun. Still, by 10.30 am the Deshmukh Nagar maidan in Nanded city has started filling up. Even though, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi is expected to reach only by 1 pm to start Congress’s election campaign in Nanded, no one wants to be late.
Farmers, labourers, shop owners and political aspirants from adjoining villages have travelled in crammed buses, trucks and jeeps and reached early to get a closer look of what has been told to them is their great hope. There is an atmosphere of great expectation as people talk among themselves about Rahul’s chopper having started from Wardha. Congress workers are upbeat. Draped in quintessential whites and donning shades in golden frames, they dart around with great anxiety — some managing things, others pretending to.
But they have done their job well, by 12.30 pm the maidan is filled to capacity. The 40 degree heat is having its effect. Sweat is dripping off foreheads and cotton stoles are being furiously swirled for some air. But everyone waits. Says Vikram Jadhavrao, a farmer who has travelled from Lahan village to see Rahul, "I have been a Congress voter for a long time. I have heard a lot about this young boy. I have come to hear what he says."
Nanded’s heat can easily sap enthusiasm, especially when small local leaders, trying to make the best of their five-minute opportunity, thunder out clichéd political platitudes. But Rahul is pleasantly punctual by Indian standards. He has arrived by 1 pm and is on the dias by 1.15 pm.
The crowd roars as he waves to them. People stand on their feet, even as those behind them shout: "Baith, bath!" He has the charm of a movie star. As a young boy sitting behind the press enclosure tells his friend, "Chngla disto ahe. (Looks good!)" As he settled down after customary welcome by Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan, former home minister Shivraj Patil and other local leaders, the crowd too fell silent in anticipation of Rahul’s speech.
Nervousness was palpable among some local leaders as they made introductory speeches. Congress candidate from Nanded Bhaskarrao Khatgaonkar ended up promising an ITI in Nanded instead of an IIT. And Shivraj Patil, who promised to keep his speech short, almost put half the crowed to sleep with his drawl, before Chavan took the mike.
Finally, Rahul came to the podium and the crowed lit up. Those dozing off straightened up and became attentive. Suiting his image of a young, dynamic leader, Rahul cut short on salutations and thanks-giving — limiting them to "bhaiyon, behenon aur buzurgon" — and quickly went over to what he wanted to say.
In a speech spanning not over 10 minutes Rahul spoke what appeared to be a very controlled and prepared speech. He talked of UPA’s achievements in the past five years and attacked the opposition for its divisive politics. He was soft and to the point.
Reiterating the old Congress line of being with the ‘aam aadmi’, he said, "The UPA for the past five years has worked for the aam aadmi. All progress and development done by this government has gone to the poor and the down-trodden. We have implemented the NREGA, the largest employment guarantee programme in the world, given poor children meals in schools, common people right to information and waived off loans of distressed farmers. UPA thinks that if India moves forward, every person should progress along with it. No one should be left behind. And this progress should happen irrespective of caste, creed or religion."
He attacked the opposition for its divisive politics and apathy towards the poor. He also spoke of his hurt at being mocked at for his Kalawati episode in Vidarbha. He said, "The opposition doesn’t talk of the poor. They talk of stock market and privatisation. During its regime, the NDA has not implemented one single program for the poor. When elections come they play divisive politics. They say: ‘Maharashtra mein UP ko nahi aane denge. Ek khas dharm ke logon ko aage nahi jaane denge.’ They do not talk of development. But when UPA goes to the poor, then they mock us."
He even invoked the Mahatma, saying he fought the English with poor, while asking people to vote a pro-poor Congress to power. But at the end of Rahul’s speech, not many looked impressed. The anti-climax had set in and was evident with the sparse and muffled applause, mostly coming from Congress workers.
Many looked disappointed that his attraction did not transcend his charm that came from his demeanours, lineage and looks. Said Laxman Gole, a shop-owner from Nanded, "He is a simple and nice man. He doesn’t behave like the haughty politician. He roams around in his car with windows rolled down. He likes to meet people. I like him very much for that."
Gole, who has even heard Rahul’s father, Rajiv, speak, is however a tad disappointed with him. "Rajiv spoke of new ideas and technology. He gave great hope of realising dreams. Rahul is too soft and does not say anything very different from other politicians in the Congress," he says, "Even Sonia speaks more than he does."
Agrees Sudhir Rathod, a hotel employee, "I vote for Congress because of Ashok Chavan. He has brought a lot of progress in the region. I was just very curious about Rahul. He comes off as a nice boy. But I do not know what and how much he is going to do."

The Psychotic Patriotism of Purohit

How the Malegaon blast prime accused, Lt Col Prasad Prohit, degenerated from being a top military officer to a dreaded terrorist

Sometime circa 2003, while sitting with his colleagues during a casual chat in the army mess abutting the military intelligence office in Avantipora district of Kashmir, an army man, much decorated for his work in the Valley by then, said: "To serve the nation, one needs to go beyond the call of duty." Little did his colleagues know at that time that the seemingly innocuous statement probably hid in it nascent signs of great tragedy to come.Merely a few years later the officer was arrested by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of Maharashtra Police for masterminding the 29 September 2008 Malegaon blasts that killed six and injured at least 100.

STARTING WITH SHIVAJI

Born to a banker father in Pune in 1972, Purohit grew up reading nationalistic Marathi literature. Books eulogising Shivaji's war against the Mughal Empire and his various triumphs had made a deep impression on the adolescent's psyche.

They had managed to influence him to the extent that even as a school boy the only profession he deemed fit for himself was serving in the armed forces. As a relative of Purohit, not wishing to be identified, put it: "Patriotism was running in his veins since childhood. He fancied himself to be the saviour of the nation."Purohit's moves towards his goal were determined and speedy.

While studying in the Abhinav Marathi Medium School in Pune, Purohit joined the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and did exceedingly well. So much so that not only did he rise up the ladders in the NCC quickly but was even selected to represent Maharashtra in the Republic Day parade in Delhi when he was studying B Com in BMCC College in Pune.

AN EXEMPLARY CADET, A DEVOTED HUBBY

Says his teacher for marketing in BMCC College, Prof G K Bengale, "Purohit was very sincere and hardworking. He was under my guidance as an NCC cadet. He was so good that within months of him coming under my tutelage, I had promoted him as an under-officer. He was very meticulous and smart. Give him any task and he would do it to perfection. He was aggressive and had leadership qualities. He was always thinking, coming up with ideas and taking initiatives. That was what set him apart from others. I used to give his example to my students later."

The "very well-behaved and no-nonsense" boy as detailed by his teacher was also an excellent sportsman. A champion swimmer, Purohit has twice traversed the sea from Dharamtar, near Alibaug, to Mumbai. Says his NCC trainer Maj. Leela-Mali Joshi, who remembers Purohit as a cute boy who never indulged in groupism or politics, "What made Purohit excel in everything that he did was his dedication and unidirectional devotion to his goals. He did everything with a sort of passion. His excellence in sports and other extra-curricular activities were also driven by his larger goal of joining the army one day. He was also mad about fitness and would work out every day for considerable time.

"It was this devotion, dedication and commitment that Purohit exercised in all spheres of his life and carried it forward in his stint with the army and beyond, perhaps. Says his wife of 10 years, Aparna, "We knew each other for four years before we got married. What attracted me towards him was his straightforwardness and dedication and devotion to whatever he was involved in. He has remained so after marriage and been a very responsible husband and a doting father to my two sons. He is a very sensitive and emotional man even though he does not let it show on his face."
Purohit indeed carried this characteristic sincerity to his workplace. He joined the army in 1994 and served for three years in Nagaland. After a further three-year stint in hometown Pune came the greatest challenge and thrill in the form of a posting in Kashmir.

CATCH-AND-KILL MAN

Entrusted with the task of raising 41 Rashtriya Rifles and fighting terrorists in Kashmir's Kupwara district, Purohit achieved more than expected. In his two years on a field posting Purohit conducted scores of successful operations and destroyed several terror modules. Kashmir also began to reveal the first signs of transformation in the man: from a soft-spoken, sober and well-behaved boy that his friends and teachers had known Purohit was morphing into quite someone else.

As Purohit's colleagues from this posting remember, he was ruthless with terrorists, especially those that came from outside the country; he spared none that he caught hold of. "He was known as the 'catch-and-kill officer' in our circles," says a colleague who worked with him in the fractured Valley. Purohit's work, however, was much appreciated by his seniors and he was soon recommended for a posting in military intelligence, a coveted department in the armed forces reserved for the finest in the force, the crème de la crème of warriors.

In 2002, Purohit was posted as head of military intelligence in Avantipora district where he again did exemplary work for the next two years. "He conducted about 150 successful operations against terrorists and used to come up with such precise information. He had even learnt Arabic to be more effective in interrogating terror suspects and deciphering intercepted calls. He was undoubtedly one of the finest officer MI had seen. Very effective and meticulous," says one of his seniors from the intelligence wing who had seen him at work. Word of mouth of his pluck had now travelled far, to the extent that the Maharashtra ATS, which has accused Purohit of terrorism, invited him in early 2005 to train its officers.

KASHMIR SCARRED THE MAN DEEPLY

But as Purohit dismantled one terror network after another, his peers began to note a distinct change in his personality. The extrovert and amiable officer of Kupwara was gradually turning silent and solemn, and disturbingly reclusive. "In Kupwara he used to freely mix with people, talk, laugh, exchange views on all sorts of things. But in Avantipora we saw him slowly transforming into a very different man. He would speak very little, keep to himself, work and go back to his room," says the colleague. This was also the time when Purohit started hob-nobbing with Hindu right wing leaders, one among them being an accused in the Malegaon blast, Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey.

Purohit's wife Aparna too remembers how the stint had had an impact on him. "Whenever he got any information about some plan of terrorists he used to look disturbed. In such moments he would often say: 'This country will be destroyed one day if things go on like this.' One could sense this concern for the country in him at that time," says Aparna.

Was it this heightened concern for the country in Purohit that eventually brewed into the toxic plan that led to the Malegaon blasts? One cannot risk saying that until the case is decided in the court, but the ATS is convinced of its case. Says a senior officer with the ATS, "It was during his stint in Kashmir that he pilfered RDX that was later used in the blast. He was forging documents and licences in his tenure there. What patriotism are we talking about? It shows a criminal mind. He had been planning it since then. He is no revolutionary. Had he been one, he would have been stoic about what he had done. But he acts extremely clever during interrogations and misleads us with wrong information. His eyes keep moving as if he is constantly thinking while he is being interrogated."

One does not know whether the ATS has enough evidence to back its talk, but a colleague, in hindsight, thinks he saw it coming. A long-standing colleague of Purohit remembers him telling them in a solemn conversation: "The Indian state is unable to defend Hindus, and it is incumbent on all of us to do something about it."

Knight Rider

Every day an insurance advisor from Goregaon boards the train to Bandra at 11.30 am for his work. However, unlike most of us, who travel indifferently to our destinations, he keeps looking around for elderly who haven’t got a place to sit. As soon as he spots one he approaches the nearest man sitting and shows him a newspaper cutting. Glances are exchanged, few words spoken and, most often, the man sitting vacates his seat for the elderly. The newspaper cutting when observed carefully is a letter written to the editor of a newspaper by an elderly reader about the problems they face while travelling in Mumbai’s local trains.
Forty-five-year-old Nishit Broker has been following this routine for the past eight months while going to his work. He is neither from an NGO nor an activist. In his words, he is doing it for personal satisfaction and with a sense of responsibility that this small step may gradually transform our collective attitude towards our fellow commuters.
And Nishit’s crusade is not restricted to senior citizens alone but extends to persuading youngsters from travelling on footboard. For this too he follows the same method. He carries cuttings of news reports of people who have fallen off trains while travelling on footboard and shows it to youngsters leaning out of the train. He politely argues with them that a six inch shift in their position could save their life.
He says this idea formed in him gradually after he returned from a travel abroad. “In foreign countries the travel is so comfortable. Everyone gets a place to sit. The same is not true here. We have scarce resources and limited infrastructure. We are forced to travel like cattle and in all the pushing and jostling we naturally lose temper. I too used to get angry earlier and pushed people, fought with them. But I later realised there was no point, as it was not going to change anything. We have to learn to manage in what we have got. While it is natural to become selfish in conditions that we travel, a bit of sensitivity towards the elderly won’t hurt much. Also, all of us are going to be senior citizens one day,” says Nishit.
According to Nishit, it was in 2006, when he started doing mediation, that his own attitude started changing. He first started with requesting people to give their seat to the elderly or not travel on footboard. But response was poor and at times hostile. Nishit says, “It hurt their ego that someone, who looked as ordinary as me, was telling them what was the proper thing to do. They would react with a disdainful look that said, ‘Don’t teach me. I am smart enough to know better.’ I realised it was not working very well.”
It was then that Nishit started looking for other ways. “One day a boy was leaning out of the train and I tapped on his shoulder and attracted his attention towards a railways poster that said, ‘Travelling on footboard is dangerous to life.’ I smiled, he reciprocated, and came inside. I realised that an indirect message from a third source appealed to them as it did not challenge their intelligence or sensitivity vis-a-vis me. Since then I started carrying these newspaper cuttings,” says Nishit.
The move worked. Nishit started getting more response from people. “While earlier only two out of ten people would respond, now I see about four to five people responding positively. That’s encouraging,” says Nishit who makes sure that he salutes the person who vacates his seat for an elderly.
He says, “He deserves it for his sensitivity. Also he should feel good and acknowledged for his deed. Only then will he pass it on. The idea is to make him do it even when there is no one around to remind him. Many senior citizens thank me after they get a seat. I tell them to thank the person who has vacated the seat.”
While Nishit’s work looks quite noble, it is equally difficult. There are people in the train who think he is crazy. There are others who give him angry looks. “I just remain patient. I smile and try to talk to them. If they don’t listen I move on. Maybe when I am not around they will think about it,” Says Nishit.
There are others, who have become his ardent fans like 18-year-old Jairaj Rao. A year ago Rao was persuaded similarly from travelling on footboard. Rao says, “Since then I have never leaned out of the train. He has had a tremendous influence on me. I have become a fan of his since then.” And why not, after all Nishit is also a man of showbiz. When he is not advising people on tax benefits of insurance and perils of leaning out of the train, he acts in ad films. Nishit was last seen surprising cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni as his mamaji with a weirdly-gelled hairdo in a Brylcream ad.

Mediocrity against class

India’s dismal performance in the current ODI series against Australia is as mcuh a reflection of the difference between one day internationals and 20-20 as it is an assertion of the class of the world champions. The unprecedented euphoria surrounding India’s victory in the T20 final seems to have fizzled out earlier than expected and the recnent ‘world champions’ have met the real one.
Reams of newsprint has been wasted regaling and reviling team India time and again. A win means superlatives for our talented stars and rising young guns, while loss brings venom spewing out of the same pens. However, what no one writes — I wouldn’t say fail to recognise, as several sports writers have confided in private the same — is that the Indian team is primarily mediocre.
Except for bursts of occaisional brilliance and sporadic feats, Indian team has offered little to its over-expecting fans ever since its last World Cup win in 1983. Indian team basically is a bunch of extra-ordinary cricketers, some of them endowed with Godly talent, who have seldom played as a cohesive unit that takes collective responsibility. It is unfair to expect mediocrity to show brilliance all the time.

The Pawn Prodigy

Marathon kid Budhiya is a wonderball that anyone even remotely associated with him or his sport wants to play with. His latest accusations of torture against his coach and godfather Biranchi Das notwithstanding, the five-year-old child has probably witnessed more politics in his early life than many seasoned politicians in this country.
Today, while his parents and child welfare activists are up in arms against the coach who allegedly tortured him, Budhia had no one to look up to and seek help from when he was still running short distances. None of these people came to help this unprecedented Indian talent when the shackles of poverty had chained his abilities. It was Das who recognised the sporting prodigy in this child and honed his skill. However, he too probably, after Budhia’s success, used him as ladder for his own economic prosperity. And now, joining this force of economic parasites are, probably, his parents. Das has alleged that his parents are accusing him of torture because he refused to make them a house.
No one knows whether the statements that Budhia gave to the police were given of his own free will or under duress — a medical examination of the boy has revealed that his injury marks are six-nine months old and not acquired due to torture. However, in this entire saga the one thing that comes out starkly clear is that a childhood has been lost somewhere in the personal ambitions of grown ups.

Bond's Fetish

For some strange reason, which even Ian Fleming may not be aware of, the Indian scribes seem to think that James Bond has a fetish for women who hit headlines internationally. Months after International tabloids screamed “Shilpa Shetty wins Big Brother”, Indian dailies have started carrying fliers on Shetty’s prospects as the next Bond girl. Only last year, papers carried similar stories on Aishwarya who had acquired international fame through insipid british films and some smart PR work (Canne’s Film Festival included). The reports were denied by Aishwarya later.
The Big Brother organisers had wanted to rope in Hrithik Roshan before settling for Shilpa Shetty. I wonder if hrithik would landed in Bond’s lap, had he won the show. Brokeback Mountein - II?