Civil Disobedience 2.0: Rahul Gandhi’s Warfare On EC Echoes Nineteen Thirties Protest, However Will It Work?

Final Up to date:August 08, 2025, 09:48 IST

From attacking the EC to hinting at boycotts, Rahul Gandhi is casting his marketing campaign within the mould of Civil Disobedience Motion, shifting the combat from ballots to the system itself

LoP within the Lok Sabha and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi addresses a press convention at AICC HQ, in New Delhi on August 7. (Picture: PTI/Salman Ali)

Is that this Rahul Gandhi’s ‘civil disobedience’ second, as he intensifies his assault on the Election Fee (EC) and the BJP over the Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) subject? Or are the actual questions of successful polls being pushed apart?

Within the Nineteen Thirties, the Civil Disobedience Motion, marked by the Salt Satyagraha, was launched by the Congress below Mahatma Gandhi to tackle British rule. The concept was easy but radical: break unjust legal guidelines, defy authority, and in the end expel the colonial energy. Each the aim and the means had been crystal clear.

As we speak, below Rahul Gandhi, the Congress seems to be aiming for one thing related — defying norms, questioning each establishment, and refusing to cooperate — primarily, disobeying with the intention to unseat the BJP. The aim is evident, however are the means? And what about crucial technique of all, contesting and successful elections?

Let’s take the Bihar story. It truly traces again to the Maharashtra and Haryana meeting elections. Not simply exit polls however even the Congress’s inside assessments urged the get together was heading in the right direction to win each states. It didn’t. Many inside the get together, together with Ashish Dua, then co-in-charge of the Maharashtra marketing campaign, informed the management {that a} weak Congress marketing campaign and infighting had broken its prospects.

Nonetheless, these near Rahul Gandhi concluded that the actual trigger was not inside failings, however the Election Fee. No stock-taking assembly was held to look at the explanations for the Maharashtra and Haryana defeats, as a result of the highest management stays satisfied that the blame rests with the EC.

It was on this context that the EAGLE — the Empowered Motion Group of Leaders and Specialists — was born. Its said mission: to detect and research weaknesses within the electoral course of. And that’s what Rahul Gandhi’s latest press convention was all about.

However Bihar is ready. There was no formal announcement on seat-sharing but, although get together sources declare all the things has been settled. In 2020, the BJP–JDU alliance polled 37.9 per cent of the vote, in comparison with the Mahagathbandhan’s 37.6 per cent, a wafer-thin margin. This time, the Congress-led alliance hopes to capitalise on anti-incumbency and the perceived weakening of Nitish Kumar’s political clout.

But whereas the BJP has launched its marketing campaign in earnest below Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress has but to catch up. It’s banking on the SIR subject and the RJD’s risk of boycotting the elections to generate momentum.

In Bengal, nonetheless, the SIR subject has introduced the TMC and Congress collectively, but it surely has additionally meant that Congress’s positioning as an unbiased claimant within the state has weakened.

The Civil Disobedience Motion of 1930 sought to disrupt all the things — to confront the British, defy all establishments, query each legislation, and boycott participation in governance. The goal was to strip each establishment of legitimacy, construct a mass motion, and power the colonial energy’s downfall.

Rahul Gandhi’s technique seems related, however the context is fully completely different.

In 1930, there was no democracy, no elections, solely British rule. As we speak, India is a democracy, with the BJP at the moment in energy. Underneath colonial rule, disruption was seen as nationalism and a combat for democracy. In at this time’s context, persistent defiance and disruption threat being labelled as selling mobocracy. Except the Congress also can display that it might win elections, its repeated allegations in opposition to the EC might not resonate with voters.

What subsequent? Some within the get together have urged a extra drastic step —boycott. Boycott polls, boycott Parliament, and in doing so, search to erode the BJP’s legitimacy in successful elections.

The hope is that this ‘disobedience’ will spark a individuals’s motion. However will it? Can it?

Pallavi Ghosh

Pallavi Ghosh has lined politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als…Learn Extra

Pallavi Ghosh has lined politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the Finance Ministry and Niti Aayog in her reportage. She has als… Learn Extra

view feedback

Learn Extra