How the Congress party plans to counter smear campaign against Rahul Gandhi

The party now plans to launch a page on FAQs, or frequently asked questions, section to "bust myths" and rumours surrounding their party chief.

Was Rahul Gandhi detained in Boston with drugs? Did he actually speak about a machine that would turn potatoes into gold or a potato-manufacturing factory?

Why did he claim that connecting MRI machines would improve healthcare in India? Why did his “woke up this morning, last night” go viral? The biggest question of them all: What is the truth about the Sukanya rape case?

For far too long, not only his political rivals, but some within the Congress as well, have lampooned Congress president Rahul Gandhi as a ‘pappu’, or someone who does not have his wits about.

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Gandhi has also faced a subversive campaign that authorities in Boston had detained him with psychotropic substances and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government bailed him out, or about him having allegedly raped a woman. The smear campaign has had little factual basis, but the Congress party has never launched a concerted campaign to counter this sustained rumour mongering.

However, much is changing within the Congress. The party now plans to launch a page on FAQs, or frequently asked questions, section to "bust myths" and rumours surrounding their party chief. The page, ‘Myth Buster’, is part of an already existing website dedicated to their party chief – rahulgandhi.in.

The page has been in the works for some months now, but there were those in the party who wanted to be cautious before putting it in the public domain. It has had its soft launch in the past, but was withdrawn. The Congress’s improved electoral performances in the recent past has enthused the party, and the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls have made it feel the need to burnish Gandhi’s credentials.

As recent Assembly polls showed, public perception about Gandhi has changed significantly in the past 18-months, at least since the Gujarat Assembly polls.

People in small towns and villages have come to believe he is committed about flagging their issues, whether on lack of jobs or agrarian distress.

However, the Congress party has realised its challenge is to dispel the misgivings that educated youth, particularly those below 30-years-old, harbour against the Congress chief, particularly in the Hindi heartland, because of years of ridicule and subterranean campaign by his political rivals, and helped in some measure by people within his own party.

Business Standard