To defeat a tall leader, you need someone taller

By Japan K Pathak, Ahmedabad, 12 November 2012

The past few weeks have seen ‘national’ leaders of the Congress visiting Gujarat and addressing election rallies. Generally a typical Congress election rally gathers a maximum of a couple of thousand people. Well, generally a typical rally gathers a maximum of a few thousand people. But news reporting of the rally published in the newspapers the next day reaches lakhs and crores of people.

So what is the message conveyed by the media?

Well, the message that has been conveyed till now is that Congress leaders have lost control over themselves while criticising Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi in shockingly foul language.

Manishankar Aiyar compared Modi with Dawood and Ravan while describing him as “Asatya ka saudagar” even as another Congress leader in Kutch compared Modi to a rat. Gujarat Congress President Arjun Modhwadia compared Modi with Ravan, Union Minister Bharatsinh Solanki compared Modi with Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse, and Renuka Chaudhary went so far as attacking Modi’s personal life.

But what do such attacks end up achieving?

The answer is obvious — Modi is an immensely popular leader in Gujarat and support for him grows with each such uncivilised attack.

Be it the recent Presidential election in America, or the ongoing State Assembly elections in India, it is important to understand one thing. Any Opposition party can hope to topple the incumbent Government only when it has more to offer. More importantly, it must have a leader with a bigger stature than the ruling leader, one who enjoys more trust than the ruling leader, and who capable of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of millions.

If Obama’s position in the hearts and minds of his people is strong, then one can’t defeat him by simply criticising or pointing out mistakes made by his Administration. Promising people a better administration is not enough. People need to be offered a leader of greater stature, someone who might succeed in making the current leader look small by comparison.

Continuing to attack a leader of great stature in the absence of a suitable candidate to field against him doesn’t serve any purpose.

To the contrary, such behavior only achieves the exact opposite result — people begin criticising you.

Does the Congress have a more experienced leader than Narendra Modi? Does the Congress have a more popular orator than Modi? Even assuming that the Congress is right in saying that Modi’s image as a good administrator is mere perception and not reality, does the Congress possess any leader who can boast of such an image? Does the Congress have a leader people can trust to be an able administrator if elected to power?

I don’t mean to say that the Congress has no good leaders at all. It may very well have some. But so far none of their leaders have been successful in making a mark on the hearts of the people of Gujarat. None of them have come even close.

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that there are some shortcomings in Modi, but his strengths and good qualities surely outweigh those shortcomings. Does the Congress possess any leader whose qualities are greater than those of Modi and who have fewer limitations than him?

Instead of attacking Modi, the Congress needs to offer an alternative to people in the form of a person who can compare to Modi. No such personalities are visible at the moment. Right now, it looks like someone is criticising Goa as honeymoon destination while offering Kanpur, Patna and Aligarh as possible alternatives.

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