by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
However, the anxiety in the Congress camp is not about
Rahul's availability— the party is his family firm after all—but about his
ability to deliver. Since he assumed party office in September 2007, as
chairperson of the Youth Congress, his performance has been patchy. He helped
the party win unexpectedly large number of seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2009
elections. But, faced with the challenge of Narendra Modi five years later, he
seemed quite clueless. His campaign speeches were listless and, though in his
mid-Forties, he never looked comfortable on the television screen. Rahul's
shortcomings seem particularly stark in the background of his party's miserable
show in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, winning its lowest ever seats, 44. There
are quite a few experienced leaders of the party who'd keep Rahul out of the
blame game, arguing that the party was collectively responsible for its failure
to connect with the masses, particularly the younger generation. But the
largest responsibility still devolves to Rahul as the highest active office
bearer, vice president, of the party, Sonia's role as president having become nominal
much before the May 2014 election.
The party's other problem with Rahul is that nobody seems
to know his mind with any degree of accuracy. His past actions show he has
strong views on issues but he hasn't stuck to his position so it is possible
that he speaks more for effect than out of conviction. According to a Wikileaks
disclosure, he told the then US
ambassador in India
When the leaks appeared, party leaders were obviously
flummoxed by an absence of convincing denial from the family. If these were his
views, it was better not expressed before others as public sentiment in India Gujarat , it helped mobilize Hindu
votes in favour of Modi, in a state where minority votes are only seven per
cent so they do not count electorally.
Equally amateurish was Rahul's idea of carrying the
movement against land acquisition to Bhatta-Parsaul, a twin village in Greater
Noida, where Gujjar landowners were themselves eager to sell their land, at a
good price, of course. In the ensuing assembly election, Gujjars did something
unusual by voting the BSP candidate in large numbers only to ensure the
Congress candidate's defeat. The incident shows how much more of the discovery
of India Rahul has to make to lead the party back to power. Rahul's decision to
give his first free-wheeling TV interview to a particular news channel despite
professional advice was another disaster.
He also showed a deficit of values when he crashed in the
midst of someone else's press conference to make an insulting remark about the
then prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. When the incident happened, in
September 2013, so angry was the mood of the nation for such miseries as
galloping inflation, and talks of raging corruption, that Dr. Singh became a
soft touch. A year, and an election, later, Rahul's explosion against him looks
more histrionic than real.
If Rahul gets full charge of the party, he'll have enough
time to hone his political skills, provided the BJP under Modi does not falter
anytime soon. And, wisely enough, he (and sister Priyanka), having witnessed
violent deaths of their near and dear ones so early in life, are both devoted
practitioner of Vipassana, a Buddhist system of meditation that promotes
insight into the reality of things. Given Rahul's proneness to utter
politically incorrect words, and draw up political strategies in haste,
Vipassana may help him improve his quality of leadership before the next election
in 2019 or the one after that, in 2024. His recent quiet visit to Myanmar
If Rahul gets full charge,
he'll have enough time to
hone his political skills
Time is on his side. At any rate, the Congress party must
wait for the long haul considering the destruction it suffered in the 2014 poll
and the rise of BJP on the right of the spectrum and parties like AAP on the
left. It may be assumed that politics towards the close of the current decade
will be even more competitive.
That does not mean that political parties will change and
become internally democratic. If it is AAP, it must remain Kejriwal’s party.
And if it is Congress, a Gandhi should lead it. What may somewhat change is the
historic identification of the Congress with leftist ideas, and the kind of
secularism which Mahatma Gandhi imposed on India
When a nation goes right, a leader can turn it leftward
but it will never go more left than before. It is a lesson that escaped Sonia
Gandhi. Her son may learn from her experience.
(The author is
National Editor, Lokmat group)
