Rarely has Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spared an opportunity to target the Bharatiya Janata Party government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on any and every decision. But he has maintained complete silence on the issue of the proposed takeover of the Delhi Gymkhana Club premises by the government. Neither Rahul, nor Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi have spoken a word against the proposed takeover of the 113-year-old British-era elite club.
Some sporadic comments have come from junior-level spokespersons of the Congress, but there has not been any authoritative reaction from any of the prominent spokespersons of the party on the issue. Everyone is maintaining silence, even when the elite and the entitled members of the club are crying hoarse against the takeover by the Central government. More so, most of the outspoken members against the takeover are often seen on the side of the Congress in terms of ideological stand and inclination.
There is a reason behind Congress leaders like Rahul’s silence. The BJP has actually 'checkmated' him ideologically in this matter, where he is left with no choice but to keep quiet. It is not because he himself happens to be the member of the club. One of the Congress spokespersons had claimed that the BJP government was resorting to vendetta by closing the club as Rahul was the member.
There is a strong ideological reason behind Rahul and other leaders’ silence. For last several years, Rahul has been building up his politics on the issue of “90 per cent Indians” having been denied their rightful due, while accusing the remaining “10 per cent elite and upper castes” of pocketing everything.
Rahul often says that 50 per cent Backward Classes, 15 per cent Scheduled Caste, 8 per cent Scheduled Tribe and 15 per cent minorities, and some economically backwards from the upper castes, which roughly comes to around 90 per cent of the country’s population, have been denied their rightful due, including representation in power, bureaucracy, judiciary, media, corporate world and even fashion and films.
He has been repeatedly underlining the claim that it is only about “10 per cent” people who have “grabbed” everything and the remaining “90 per cent” have been denied and deprived of everything. He has built his argument in support of the caste census on this premise, saying everyone should get his share according to the population.
Also read: Symbols of apartheid, Gymkhanas must be shut down
Obviously, 5,500 members of the Delhi Gymkhana Club come exclusively from the “10 per cent” population, whom Rahul always refers to and accuses of having grabbed everything from wealth to institutions to power. As the government’s proposal to take over the club has largely been supported by people, even those who are otherwise not known to be the supporters of the government, the Congress preferred to remain ambiguous.
Rahul, at least, could not be in a position to oppose the move, particularly after the nationwide narrative that the Gymkhana Club is an elite privilege being provided to a select few people at the cost of the state exchequer. The BJP government that way has been doing something that Rahul has been promising to do all these years.
While Rahul’s theory of denial of economic, social justice and other privileges to “90 per cent” people is completely flawed as there has been proactive action all these years since independence to extend opportunities in all walks of life to the less privileged and marginalised, his theory at least holds true about the state-sponsored and state-subsidised luxurious facilities like the Delhi Gymkhana Club. For sure, there will be hardly any, or negligible number of people belonging to the “deprived” classes who may be having the “privileged membership” of the Delhi Gymkhana Club.
Ideally Rahul, given his social justice positioning, should be supporting such moves as the abolition of the privileges of the elite. But given the type of people who are the members of this elite club and majority of whom have been supporters of the Congress, he has preferred to maintain a silence.
There is always a scope of improving and extending the privileges that Rahul claims have been denied to “90 per cent” population of the country, but there is absolutely no scope to extend the Gymkhana Club membership to anyone “outside the privileged club”. No caste census, no constitutional amendment, no removal of the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation can provide Gymkhana access to the deprived and the marginalised.
The strong resistance put up by those occupying the privileged membership positions of the club is only indicative of how difficult it is to withdraw such privileges or bring out change or reforms. A few select vested interests can hold an entire system to ransom, like in the Delhi Gymkhana Club case.
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