Skip to content
Search AI Powered
Please enter at least 3 characters.

Latest Stories

Rahul Gandhi's UK report card

by PRATIK DATTANI.

GANDHI’S VISIT OFFERED A STUDY IN CONTRASTS TO MODI IN LONDON.


HE CAME, he saw, and he didn’t quite conquer.

Rahul Gandhi’s visit to London this past week gave an insight into the kind of political leader he is trying to position himself as ahead of 2019, but also the kind of character he most definitely is not.

What surprised me is the lack of comparison in the Indian media with another, similar visit that happened earlier in the year – that of prime minister Narendra Modi. The administration of the Congress president’s visit was in stark contrast to the slick, megastar treatment on show at the prime minister’s two previous visits.

Modi’s Wembley visit in 2015 was a high-water mark for diaspora relations and showed why he stood head and shoulders above India’s political leaders in the 2014 elections. His visit in April [for the Commonwealth summit] this year tried to be more of the same, but ended as a paint-by-numbers show without quite the same resonance.

Neither Modi’s townhall with Prasun Joshi in April, nor Gandhi’s last week offered much in terms of specific policy discussion. But it revealed volumes in terms of their contrasting styles.

Much has been made of the fact that Gandhi poured a glass of water for his host Mukulika Banerjee, before he did so for himself. He also fielded questions without pre-screening.

Where Modi’s event management and performance was controlled and polished, Gandhi’s was laissez faire and more natural. He came across as honest, sincere and a nice guy to go to the pub with – not a pub in rural Britain perhaps, but certainly one with policy wonks in Westminster or St James.

Yet the visit missed some tricks. If you Google variants of “Modi in London April”, two types of images come up – those of huge protests in Westminster, and choreographed, professional images from his various meetings and his townhall with Joshi. Do the same for “Rahul Gandhi London” and there are far fewer Instagramable photos.

On Twitter and social media, there was less buzz. Modi’s character-busting #BharatKiBaatSabkeSaath hashtag was trending, while Gandhi didn’t generate quite the same energy from British social media influencers. The BJP’s YouTube video of Modi’s April

townhall, at the time of writing, has 247,000 hits, while the Congress’s equivalent has just over 4,000.

The visit happened over a bank holiday weekend when Parliament was in recess. Parliament had risen on July 24 and returns next Tuesday (4) – a visit planned even a week later would have got him larger crowds and some more handshakes with other political

leaders. There was an avoidable PR fiasco with the cancellation and subsequent reinstatement of a planned event in Parliament. With more focused messaging, this could have been avoided.

The venues that Gandhi’s team picked were also a fascinating contrast to those Modi chose – the LSE, the Royal Society of Medicine, a hotel in the London borough of Hillingdon with 43 per cent white British and 15.8 per cent Indian residents, and the respected IISS, a world-leading think tank on global security, political risk and military conflict. It showed the Congress president as someone who was willing to embrace a wider group of people, rather than just the business lobby. Still, the lack of corporates and senior, cross-party politicians

in his meetings is something I am sure he will want to address in his next visit.

These demographics notwithstanding, the cross section of people who came to see Gandhi speak was a textbook lesson in diversity. The front rows of Modi’s townhall was filled with East African origin Gujaratis working in finance or related jobs, many of whom had volunteered for the Wembley extravaganza and had risen through the ranks of the National

Hindu Students Forum in England. In Gandhi’s events, the audience included a more diverse set of Indians.

Attacking Modi was one of Gandhi’s two central themes during the visit. He played the hits of demonetisation, Rafale, Doklam, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. The other theme was to repeatedly come back to the idea of listening better, introspecting about why the Congress needs to change and sharing a vision of a more inclusive India. He fared less well when pushed on details, once by Banerjee on secularism, and then on foreign policy at the IISS and Britain’s free public healthcare service at an event at the Royal Society of Medicine.

Many of those who follow Indian politics turned up less because they were enamoured by the Congress, but more because they were curious whether Gandhi really was the cartoonish ‘Pappu’ the BJP portrayed him as. But this visit painted a picture of the Congress chief as a warm, sincere, genuine public figure who was equally comfortable in the

company of students as he was among Punjabi diaspora and policy heads. He didn’t come across as the average Indian political leader – in fact, he specifically said he wasn’t thinking about the prime ministership in 2019.

Gandhi made a number of barbed attacks on Modi and offered an alternative vision of the country. Whether he is thinking about being prime minister or not, this was most certainly a visit that succeeded in burnishing some of his credentials among the Indian diaspora in the UK.

  • Pratik Dattani is managing director of boutique economic consultancy EPG, based in London and Bangalore. He was a former UK director of FICCI.

More For You

UK riots

Last summer’s riots demonstrated how misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric, ignited by a tiny minority of extremists, can lead to violence on our streets

Getty Images

‘Events in 2024 have shown that social cohesion cannot be an afterthought’

THE past year was marked by significant global events, and the death and devastation in Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan – with diplomatic efforts failing to achieve peace – have tested our values.

The involvement of major powers in proxy wars and rising social and economic inequalities have deepened divisions and prolonged suffering, with many losing belief in humanity. The rapid social and political shifts – home and abroad – will continue to challenge our values and resilience in 2025 and beyond.

Keep ReadingShow less
Singh and Carter were empathic
leaders as well as great humanists’

File photograph of former US president Jimmy Carter with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, on October 27, 2006

Singh and Carter were empathic leaders as well as great humanists’

Dinesh Sharma

THE world lost two remarkable leaders last month – the 13th prime minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, (September 26, 1932-December 26, 2024).and the 39th president of the US, Jimmy Carter (October 1, 1924-December 29, 2024).

We are all mourning their loss in our hearts and minds. Certainly, those of us who still see the world through John Lennon’s rose-coloured glasses will know this marks the end of an era in global politics. Imagine all the people; /Livin’ life in peace; /You may say I’m a dreamer; / But I’m not the only one; /I hope someday you’ll join us;/ And the world will be as one (Imagine, John Lennon, 1971) Both Singh and Carter were authentic leaders and great humanists. While Carter was left of Singh in policy, they were both liberals – Singh was a centrist technocrat with policies that uplifted the poor. They were good and decent human beings, because they upheld a view of human nature that is essentially good, civil, and always thinking of others even in the middle of bitter political rivalries, qualities we need in leaders today as our world seems increasingly fractious, self-absorbed and devolving. Experts claim authentic leadership is driven by:

Keep ReadingShow less
Why this was the year of governing anxiously

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer at the state opening of parliament in July after Labour won the general elections by a landslide

Why this was the year of governing anxiously

THIS year was literally one of two halves in the British government.

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer each had six months in Downing Street, give or take a handful of days in July. Yet this was the year of governing anxiously.

Keep ReadingShow less
‘Debate over assisted dying raises risks for medical staff’
Supporters of the ‘Not Dead Yet’ campaign outside parliament last Friday (29) in London

‘Debate over assisted dying raises risks for medical staff’

Dr Raj Persaud

AFTER five hours of debate over assisted dying, a historic private members’ bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons. This is a stunning change in the way we as a nation consider ending our lives.

We know from survey research that the religious tend to be against assisted dying. Given Asians in the UK tend to be more religious, comparatively, it is likely that Asians in general are less supportive of this new proposed legislation, compared to the general public.

Keep ReadingShow less
‘It’s time for UK-India ties to focus on a joint growth story’
Kanishka Narayan (centre) with fellow visiting British MPs, Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma (left) and other officials

‘It’s time for UK-India ties to focus on a joint growth story’

Kanishka Narayan

FOUR months since my election to parliament, I had the opportunity to join my parliamentary colleagues on a delegation to India, visiting Delhi and Jaipur for conversations with our Indian counterparts, business leaders and academics.

I went to make the case for Indian investment in my constituency and across the UK.

Keep ReadingShow less