“Lost: The Unstoppable Decline of Congress”, Open the magazine, December 05, 2025
“FOR THE BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY’S (BJP) ELECTION STRATEGISTS, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi long ago ceased to be a rival capable of offering real competition. What still puzzles them, however, is what they describe as an erosion of reason around him. “Defeat can jolt a person into confronting harsh realities. A string of setbacks can leave an opponent crestfallen, but it can also compel him to craft coherent strategies by learning from past mistakes,” one strategist says, adding that such qualities are conspicuously absent in Rahul Gandhi. Surrounded, in their view, by lightweight leaders, pedagogic academics and obliging yes-men, he repeatedly fails to acknowledge the truth.
The recent drubbing in Bihar was no exception, they argue. The Nehru family scion was not only reportedly surprised by the outcome but insisted the election had been unfair from the outset. To them, this refusal to accept a resounding electoral setback is not an exercise in unlearning or a step towards relearning. It signals something else entirely: a political denial bordering on schizophrenia—or worse, a declaration of war on common sense.
Gad Saad is a Beirut-born Canadian marketing professor who uses evolutionary psychology to understand behaviour and people’s habits. Drawing on a study on rodents infected with toxoplasmosis which reduces their aversion to cat urine and fear of the predator, he deduced that such harmful ideas— which he calls “idea pathogens”—kill rational thinking and discretion. In the case of rats, this infection makes them easy prey for cats because it simply makes them develop an affinity towards embracing danger. Saad’s theories, it seems, can explain away Gandhi Jr’s predisposition towards fighting a losing battle even as his party gets decimated to the extent of near-death by a formidable opponent. The sad plight of his party in the three states it is in power also seems lost on him, reinforcing the belief that the so-called contender is far from being one……”
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