Prime Minister Narendra Modi must send a heartfelt ‘thank you’ note to Rahul Gandhi. If he has not done it already, that is.
The winter session of parliament was a washout because of the demonetisation protests and much blame had to be placed on the government’s doorstep. 
The opposition had started the ruckus but the Treasury benches – perhaps for the time in Indian parliament’s history – also contributed by shouting, sloganeering and waving placards and posters prompting Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari to remark: “Regular and continuous disruptions signify this session... The rules about displaying placards and shouting slogans were ignored by all sections of the house…My hope stands belied.”
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had adopted the disruption technique way back in 2011 while in the opposition and then leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha and current Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proudly declared: “If parliamentary accountability is subverted and a debate is intended to be used merely to put a lid on parliamentary accountability, it is then a legitimate tactic for the opposition to expose the government through parliamentary instruments (meaning disruption by slogan shouting) available at its command.”
The BJP also justified its tactic saying the Congress Party had done it during Atal Behari Vajpayee regime when the coffin scam, which later turned out to be no scam, and the expose by investigative website Tehelka of then BJP president Bangaru Laxman accepting cash in the name of party, surfaced. 
The wheel has come full circle and now it’s the Congress once again disrupting. It’s illogical for the Congress and the opposition to disrupt when they could have highlighted the people’s plight in the wake of the withdrawal of high value currency. But after Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of the opposition, and former prime minister Manmohan Singh spoke in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress refused to listen to the government’s version.
But the BJP has now set a new example by being the first ruling party to disrupt parliament, their ruse: the Gandhi family’s alleged role in the purchase of AugustaWestland helicopters from Italy, a case in which former Indian Air Force chief Sashindra Pal Tyagi has been arrested. 
Members from both sides stood up and shouted at each other leaving the presiding officers helpless. “What can I do,’ was a constant refrain from the chair in both houses. They could have done a lot, but didn’t. Unless something drastic is thought of by the presiding officers, this history will soon repeat itself if and when the Congress Party, or for that matter any other party, comes to power. 
Television anchors and editorial writers had been very vocal in their criticism of the MPs’ unruly behaviour. The people at large, already suffering immensely from the impact of demonetisation, were indeed looking for a meaningful debate by their elected representatives but that was not to be.
Some say the reason for this state of affairs was there was no “floor co-ordination” between the government and the opposition. In reality, the government and the opposition, especially the Congress Party, seemed to conduct their shouting matches in a well-coordinated manner. The Lok Sabha lost 92 hours’ business and the Rajya Sabha 86. Only two bills were passed while more than a dozen, including the most important legislation relating to provisions of the goods and services tax (GST), got side-lined.
The post-session focus of the media, therefore, ought to have been on the colossal wastage of time and money by the elected representatives. Life was not exactly easy for the prime minister; on the one hand the sight of millions of people queuing up for meagre withdrawals from banks and ATMs and on the other a parliament in permanent dysfunctional mode. The BJP’s attempts to point the finger at the opposition did not get much support.
The post-session talk, therefore, was going to be centred on the BJP’s, more importantly Modi’s, inability to take the opposition along at a crucial juncture in the history of the nation. That would have been insult adding to the injury for Modi.
It was then that Rahul Gandhi stepped up with his “earth-shaking” proclamation. “The prime minister, read my lips, the prime minister is personally terrified with the information that I have. I have information on the personal corruption of (the) prime minister,” Gandhi said at a press conference in the parliament building. “I want to reveal in Lok Sabha… The government is not allowing me to speak. PM is afraid that if he lets me speak then his balloon will burst.”
For good measure Gandhi had got leaders from the entire opposition except the left to sit alongside him while he talked to the press. This was the top leader of the most important opposition party making a serious charge against the prime minister. Surely he must know what he is talking. 
“What is it,” reporters asked Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress Party’s leader in the Lok Sabha. The man from Karnataka had nothing to say. “He has not shared it with me,” was all Kharge would commit. Then it was the turn of Ghulam Nabi Azad to plead ignorance. His deputy Anand Sharma, always a vocal critic of the BJP, also had no inkling what secret Gandhi had up his sleeve. Leaders from the Trinamool Congress’ Sudhip Bandopadhyay and the Janata Dal’s (United) Sharad Yadav, who sat on either side of Gandhi, were equally at a loss.
The BJP laughed it off. “It’s the biggest joke of the year,” was how Kiran Rijiju, junior minister for home, described Gandhi’s threat. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar saw Gandhi’s allegations as being “made out of desperation and he (Rahul) should apologise to the nation.”
Apology was what The Economic Times newspaper also wanted from Gandhi if his threats were mere boasts. “Have premia on earthquake insurance gone up in Delhi since Rahul Gandhi promised to make the earth tremble with the revelations…,” asked the pink daily in its editorial comment. “Whatever his motive, this cannot continue forever. Gandhi must come out with whatever charge he has, regardless of whether he speaks in parliament or outside,” the daily said.
“Will he (Gandhi) now tell the party and the people to wait until the budget session (of parliament),” asked Indian Express in its editorial. “Whatever his political strategy behind this, each day of his silence dents his credibility,” the daily added.
The focus suddenly shifted from people’s demonetisation travails to what Rahul Gandhi had or didn’t have to “nail” Modi. There was much speculation as to why Gandhi insisted on speaking in parliament and not outside it. Was he seeking parliamentary immunity for perhaps what he himself believed were wild allegations? Speaking outside would have exposed him to possible defamation suits and he already has his hands full with one case or another in the court.
But Gandhi was not done yet. The day after he told reporters to read his lips, he went and met Prime Minister Modi with the usual Congress hangers-on in tow to request him to waive farmer loans. Curiously, on the same day the entire opposition was scheduled to meet President Pranab Mukherjee to apprise him of the demonetisation “disaster”. 
The Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the communists, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam decided not to take kindly to Gandhi’s unilateral decision to meet Modi and refused to join the delegation to meet Mukherjee.
In a matter of 24 hours Rahul Gandhi not only managed to change the narrative from demonetisation to his personal threat to Modi’s integrity but also to nip in the bud a nascent unity among the opposition. Why should Modi need friends if he has enemies like Rahul Gandhi? The prime minister must certainly write that ‘thank you’ note to the Congress vice-president.