A victory by any other name tastes as sweet as the jalebi. In the aftermath of the celebrations, heartbreaks and general drama that followed the declaration of the state election results, the BJP did something very cheeky. Jubilant after its back-from-the-dead victory in Haryana, the state BJP unit ordered a kilo of jalebi from Bikanervala halwai in Connaught Place and sent it to 24, Akbar Road, the Congress headquarters in Delhi. The sweets were ostensibly meant for Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, and the sting in the tale was in the order details. It was a payment-on-delivery parcel. Touche, one could say!
There’s no update on whether the fried, sugary delicacy reached Rahul or anyone else at the Congress HQ, but what is certain is that the jalebis – if they were eaten – would have been a bitter pill for the Congress. Stunned by its election defeat in Haryana and smarting under the humiliation and jibes that rained down on social media, Congress already faces tough questions on the road ahead. Many INDIA bloc alliance partners like the Shiv Sena (UBT), TMC, AAP and others blamed Congress’s style of functioning for the poll debacle. The biggest charge was that the Grand Old Party did not take the views of alliance partners into consideration before planning its election strategy.
All of these accusations will provide Rahul with fodder for thought, and the jalebis will be some more to chew on, speaking metaphorically. But then, the jalebi debate was entirely Rahul’s own creation. It all started when Rahul, while addressing a campaign meeting in Gohana, Haryana, displayed a box of jalebis from Matu Ram halwai’s shop and said that those were the best jalebis he had had in his entire life. He added that the delicacy was so tasty that it should be exported to different corners of the world. He then branched out into a speech on employment opportunities, and said that the export of the item would create work avenues for the halwai and how demonetisation and GST had had a negative impact on small-time businessmen like Matu Ram. In essence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to blame for the halwai’s economic constraints, said Rahul.
This was enough for trolls to latch on, who quickly pointed out that jalebis are meant to be consumed fresh and Rahul’s assertion that the sweet should be exported across the world was only an indication of his dim understanding of Indian realities. The Haryana Congress unit, probably certain of a victory in the state, responded by saying that it would pack a box of Matu Ram’s jalebis and send it to Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on October 8, the counting day. So, when the results were declared, and the Congress was forced to eat humble pie, the BJP made the most of it. Posting on X about the jalebi parcel being sent to Akbar Road, the Haryana BJP handle wrote: “On behalf of all the workers of Bhartiya Janta Party (in) Haryana, jalebis have been sent to Rahul Gandhi's home”. The jalebi also started trending on social media, and across the country, BJP workers and Chief Ministers started celebrating the victory by relishing jalebis. Rajasthan CM Bhajanlal Sharma went a step further: he tried his hand at making jalebis, the video of him doing this real time quickly went viral on social media.
What the jalebi metaphor has done, again, is reinforce the image of Rahul as a scion of Congress’s political dynasty, an image that the leader has been trying to erase for years. His Bharat Jodo Yatra seemed to have achieved that to a great extent, and Congress turnaround results in the Lok Sabha polls had put a further stamp of acceptance on that. But now, alas, all has been undone by the twisty, treacherous jalebi that Matu Ram’s shop produces at a reported price of Rs 320 per kilo. Definitely not a fair price for such a colossal takedown of Rahul’s political instinct and poll acumen.
Maharashtra is up next on the election calendar. It is a bigger state, with 288 members in the Assembly, compared to the 90 seats in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. The politics of the state, stretching from the coastal Konkan belt to the central Indian Vidarbha region, are also far more complex. The alliance dynamics of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which has the Congress as a partner, are also more demanding. Rahul will have a lot on his plate, so to speak. He would do well to stay away from the vada pao.