Rahul’s Megalomania Damaging His Party, Not Modi’s Image: Jaitley

Coming down heavily on Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that the “dynast’s megalomania” was damaging his own party and not Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image.

 “Dynasts have self-illusory opinion about themselves. They tend to become megalomaniacs. Rahul Gandhi is no exception…His attitude is at complete variation with the traditional Congress way of doing things. His revenge against Prime Minister Modi may not succeed. It may well turn out to be a revenge against the Congress,” Jaitley wrote in a blog. 

 He said that a “dynast with little acceptability” in the public had hardly any recourse other than trying to tarnish the image of a “strong and a popular leader” who was being “admired for his work”.

 The blog came a day after Rahul Gandhi was quoted by media as saying that he had “dismantled” Prime Minister Modi’s image (of being a strong, honest leader).

 “Rahul Gandhi’s statement to a media organization yesterday that he had ‘dismantled Modi’s image’ was a giveaway.  The only way a dynast with a little acceptability in the country can react to the commoner who defeated him is that ‘I will damage his image’,” Jaitley wrote. 

 He said that the Nehru-Gandhi family had the same sense of entitlement that dynasts around the world do – that they were born to rule.

 “The 2014 election was an utter shock to them. Losing to a person of modest origins and being reduced to the lowest ever strength in history, became unacceptable to the dynasty. The unacceptability of a commoner challenging the dynast and defeating him led to both envy and revenge,” the senior BJP leader added. 

 “But how do you damage the reputation of a person who is known to be incredibly honest? Can the image be destroyed by a person who belongs to a family which has been tainted through generations with charges of corruption? How do you claim to have succeeded in damaging the image of Prime Minister Modi when his acceptability ratings are close to 70 per cent while his opponent (Rahul Gandhi) is finding it difficult to even breach the 20 per cent mark?” he said.

 Jaitley also ridiculed the Congress President’s oratorical skills while terming his ideas on national security, economy and social issues as “outrageous”.

 “The irony of every dynast is that he buys his own propaganda even if there are not too many others willing to accept it.”