Modi and Shah Have Been Arrested

 

Modi and Shah Have Been Arrested

Hindi Version: https://rakeshinsightfulgaze.blogspot.com/2026/08/blog-post_13.html

Modi and Shah have been arrested within their own ideology, and now they are finding it difficult to free themselves from it. Their staying away from Parliament clearly shows, in my view, that they are living within a prison of their own making. There are people around the world who have strong opinions about Mr. Rahul Gandhi, and many of these opinions reflect the image of him that the BJP has built over the last twelve years. Many people do not take Mr. Rahul Gandhi seriously as a potential leader of the nation. Instead, they see him as someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth who lacks the expertise required to govern a country. But many forget that India is a democracy. The role of a government should be to establish strong policies, maintain accountability, and allow the system and its institutions to function with the utmost honesty and independence.

Governments in the past have often taken a different approach. They have involved themselves in micromanaging the country, creating opportunities for corruption within the system, where both bureaucrats and politicians could take advantage of it. Decisions were not always made by placing the welfare of the people and the nation first. Instead, development increasingly followed a capitalist mindset in which much of the financial burden was ultimately transferred to the public, even though the public had already contributed through taxes toward that development. During the BJP era, in my opinion, this became even more obvious. Infrastructure was developed, but people were increasingly required to pay service charges, tolls, and other fees to use it. The public was asked to celebrate development while also continuing to pay for access to what had been created in its name.

At the same time, Narendra Modi was presented as one of the strongest leaders India had ever seen, almost as though he had accomplished something for the nation that could never have been achieved without him. For years, an image was carefully constructed around him: Modi the strong leader, Modi the fearless leader, Modi the indispensable leader. But an image remains powerful only as long as people continue to believe in it. Today, I believe that image of Modi and his government has been seriously damaged by Mr. Rahul Gandhi through speeches and political challenges that only a confident opposition leader could deliver. Rahul Gandhi has managed to turn the political equation around. The man whom the BJP spent years portraying as weak and incapable is now standing in Parliament challenging the government directly, while Modi and Shah increasingly appear reluctant to confront him there. The failure of their leadership could not appear more obvious.

Rahul Gandhi once said that he had punctured the balloon surrounding Narendra Modi. Politically, that metaphor now appears increasingly appropriate. The balloon was the carefully manufactured image of invincibility surrounding Modi. Once that balloon is punctured, people begin to see the politician rather than the image created around him. There was also a public interaction in which Modi encountered Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge at a gathering. Modi reportedly asked Priyanka Gandhi how she was doing. When Mr. Kharge remarked that Modi appeared to have changed, Modi did not remain there for an extended conversation and moved away. People may interpret such interactions differently, and body language alone cannot tell us what somebody is thinking. But it raises a larger question for me: Why should the Prime Minister of India ever appear uncomfortable facing the Leader of the Opposition and other senior opposition leaders? I have rarely seen the leader of a major democracy appear so reluctant to directly confront the Leader of the Opposition and other opposition figures.

The Prime Minister represents India. When he stands before political opponents, he is not representing his family background, his personal history, or his political party alone. He occupies the office of the Prime Minister of India. His personal background—including the hardships experienced by his family—should neither diminish him nor place him above criticism. A person's economic origins do not determine his strength or weakness as a leader. What matters is how that person conducts himself after being entrusted with the responsibility of representing more than a billion people. A strong Prime Minister should be able to stand confidently before Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, or any other opposition leader and defend his government's record. That is what democracy requires.

For twelve years, the BJP successfully attached the label "Pappu" to Rahul Gandhi. It was intended to convince people that Rahul was weak, immature, and incapable of leading India. But politics eventually tests every manufactured image against reality. Today, Rahul Gandhi is standing before the government and asking questions. He is challenging Modi and Shah directly. Whether one agrees with Rahul Gandhi or not, dismissing him as politically irrelevant has become increasingly difficult. Meanwhile, the two men who built their political identities around strength appear increasingly trapped by that very image. That is why I say Modi and Shah have been arrested by their own ideology. The prison does not have iron bars; its walls are made from the political image they created for themselves. And perhaps the greatest irony is that the man they spent twelve years portraying as weak may be the person who has exposed the weakness of that image.

So after twelve years of calling Rahul Gandhi "Pappu," perhaps Indians should look at today's political reality and ask the question again: Who is the real Pappu? You decide.