Son-Shine Days

Rahul Gandhi goes digital to take the war right into the BJP camp, but will his new charisma translate into big gains for the Congress in the 2019 polls?

- Kaushik Deka

On August 9, Bjp President Amit Shah tweeted: “Rahul ji, when you are free from winking and disrupting Parliament, give some time to facts as well. The NDA government, through a Cabinet decision and in Parliament, has ensured the strongest amendment to the [SC/ ST] Act. Why are you protesting that?”

Shah was reacting to Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s protest earlier in the day at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against the Narendra Modi government’s alleged attempts to make the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act ‘toothless’. “The prime minister has no space for Dalits in his heart,” Rahul declared even as Parliament passed a bill to overturn an April order by the Supreme Court, which had diluted certain safe-guards in the SC/ST Act.

For the next two days, Rahul and his team looked for ‘facts’ and stumbled upon an India today report on crimes against Scheduled Castes across the country. On August 11, Rahul not only tweeted the report, but also said his “fact check” will wake up Messrs Modi and Shah from their slumber. His team was satisfied that an appropriate response had been given to the BJP president.