Over the last couple of years, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi hasn’t allowed a single opportunity slip from his hands where he can put PM Narendra Modi on the mat. May it be demonetisation, Rohit Vermulla death, implementation of Goods and Service Tax, JNU row or the recently released Thalapathy Vijay starrer Mersal, Congress VP has always been the first one to raise his voice. With Gujarat elections fast approaching, Rahul must have seen the ongoing Padmavati controversy as a massive opportunity to put PM Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party on the backfoot. However, the Prime Ministerial aspirant who recently got a new voice-over artist (Twitter team) has curiously remained silent over the issue.

Why is it that the same Rahul Gandhi who had warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi against trying to muzzle dissenting voices, less than a week ago, after the release of Mersal, is not demanding the arrest of Karni Sena activists? Why hasn’t he come out and targetted PM Modi or the Vasundhara Raje-led Rajasthan government for failing to keep the situation under check? Even if we keep aside all the political issues, why hasn’t Rahul Gandhi criticised the threats given to Sanjay Leela Bhansali or Deepika Padukone?

‘Hurt’ by the movie, the fringe groups are creating a ruckus in various parts of the country, indulging in violence, blocking tourists from Chittorgarh Fort and announcing bandhs. It even forced the director of the film to come forward and plead that his film be allowed to release. And, mind you, this director isn’t a newbie. He is the great Sanjay Leela Bhansali who has produced some of the finest Hindi films of last two decades.

When similar voices were raised against Tamil movie Mersal, Rahul Gandhi had tweeted, “Mr Modi, Cinema is a deep expression of Tamil culture and language. Don’t try to demon-etise Tamil pride by interfering in Mersal.”

However, it appears that BJP, Congress and all the other political parties have somewhere understood that Indian politics has reached a point, where you have to be on the ‘right’ side of the action. BJP’s win in Uttar Pradesh is a perfect example of this. And, in several other states including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Jharkhand, right-wing groups have become highly active.

Rahul Gandhi, standing at a point where he is trying to reposition himself ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha election, probably isn’t in a position to offend any of these groups. This is the time when all the political ideologies fail.

While Rahul Gandhi has not spoken about it, even Union Minister Nitin Gadkari blamed filmmakers for not respecting cultural sensitivities and distorting history. He sermonised that freedom of speech is not absolute and pointed out that people have the right to get offended. Even someone like Thakur Abhishek Som from a little-known Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Yuva Mahasabha offered a bounty of Rs 5 crore on the heads of Padukone and Bhansali.

And, how can one expect Rahul to do anything when Rajasthan (the state which saw the first spark) chief minister Vasundhara Raje has refused to speak up on the matter.

Rahul, being the face of the Opposition has certainly failed to meet the expectations in this entire drama but when you look at the larger picture, he is only a small piece of this puzzle. It is the Indian politics that is letting us down.