There is an old saying that when a dog barks, it does not pause to check whether the person walking past is a king or a commoner. It simply barks.
Our dear Rahul baba appears to have perfected that political habit. Day after day, the targets change – Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Gautam Adani, Mukesh Ambani, the RSS, Hindus, Sanatan Dharma and now, in Indore, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
At his ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme on September 19, Rahul Gandhi declared that six people sit at the top and ‘run the system’: Modi, Shah, Doval, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Adani and Ambani.
He described Shah as the system’s ‘enforcer’ and alleged that Doval controls telephones, WhatsApp and Facebook, gets phones tapped and passes information to Modi and Shah. These are serious allegations – but allegations they remain. The reports I checked do not establish them as facts.
That distinction matters, particularly when the person being accused happens to be the country’s National Security Adviser.
Ajit Doval is no ordinary political functionary. A 1968-batch IPS officer, he spent decades in intelligence and served as Director of the Intelligence Bureau before becoming NSA in 2014. He is a recipient of the Kirti Chakra and remains the longest-serving NSA. The Prime Minister’s Office currently lists him as National Security Adviser.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with questioning or criticising someone who occupies a powerful constitutional or governmental position. In a democracy, nobody is beyond scrutiny.
But scrutiny is one thing; making sweeping allegations about surveillance and control of citizens’ communications is quite another.
Indeed, the phone-tapping issue has a history. In 2019, a petition alleging illegal interception of Doval’s phone reached the Delhi High Court.
The CBI subsequently told the court that Doval’s calls had not been intercepted and denied illegally placing telephone numbers under surveillance.
So when Rahul Gandhi revisits the subject in 2026, the minimum requirement should be evidence. Not rhetoric and insinuation.
And then there is the timing. Rahul Gandhi was addressing students, ostensibly about education, employment, recruitment and their problems. Those are legitimate subjects.
But much of the political messaging inevitably returned to his familiar cast of characters: Modi, Shah, Adani, Ambani and the ‘system’.
Perhaps the more revealing development came almost simultaneously from Delhi University. The 2026 DUSU elections saw ABVP win three of the four central posts, while the Congress-affiliated NSUI won none.
One should not pretend that a single university election represents an entire generation. It doesn’t. Nor does it establish why individual students voted as they did.
But it does provide an interesting counterpoint to the assumption that young Indians will automatically accept any political narrative handed to them. Young people can listen, question, disagree – and vote accordingly. Not all Gen Z are ‘cockroaches’.
Rahul baba is perfectly entitled to challenge the government, the prime minister, the home minister or the NSA. That is the Opposition’s job. But with power comes an equally important responsibility: when extraordinary claims are made about national security, surveillance and institutions, extraordinary claims require evidence.
Ajit Doval has spent a lifetime working in the security establishment. The Central Government continues to entrust him with one of the country’s most sensitive offices, and in 2026 he received both the Lokmanya Tilak National Award and an honorary doctorate recognising his national-security service.
You may disagree with his policies. You may question the government he serves. You may demand accountability. But surely even political combat should retain some sense of proportion.
Otherwise, the bark becomes louder than the argument. And when everything is described as a conspiracy, a ‘system’ or an attack on democracy, the danger is that the genuinely serious questions get buried under the noise.
