Enigma of Rahul Gandhi

S Nihal Singh

Rahul Gandhi, anointed vice-president of the Congress party some time ago, remains an enigma. True to form, he has sprung a new surprise on his party and the nation by taking leave of absence just before the Budget session of Parliament began to “reflect” on his disastrous campaigns in a string of assembly and parliamentary elections.
Some political observers have come to the facile conclusion that he is, in effect, protesting against the old guard in the party for preventing a total overhaul of the apparatus by inducting his youth acolytes wholesale, thus threatening to split the party. And “Congress sources” have let it be known that he is not really thinking of quitting politics.
To take these sources head-on, what if Rahul were thinking of throwing in the towel, realising that he is not cut out for politics, despite his lineage? He would, of course, greatly disappoint his mother Sonia, the Congress president. And it would plunge the hoary party of India’s independence struggle and the creator of modern India into a crisis of elemental proportions.
Instead of living in a twilight world, it is perhaps time for Mrs Sonia Gandhi and her colleagues to face a problem staring them in the face. Despite her devotion to the august family she has married into to keep the family tree alive in the leadership stakes, she must realise that her son is not cut out for politics and persisting in her efforts to make him political is inflicting cruelty on him, the party and the country.
It is, however, well to remember that it is not merely a doting mother who is harrying Rahul to fight political battles but large sections of the party. Most of them are firm in their belief that without a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family, the party has no future. They are well aware of the two splits in the party engineered by Indira Gandhi only to emerge as the unquestioned leader in the end.
After all, the sundered version of the Congress proved to be a loser in the end. Morarji Desai led the Congress O (for organisation) to form the Janata coalition which proved fractious and to several other shaky coalitions that were manipulated by the Congress.
The great difference between that historical period from events today is that Indira Gandhi was a determined leader who knew her mind and had honed her political skills as her father Jawaharlal Nehru's official hostess. In turn, Sonia Gandhi had learnt her political lessons from her mother-in-law Indira and brought a battered Congress to victory.
The tragedy for Sonia and the Congress is that the dynasty's political genes seem to have stopped with Rahul. They are present in his sister Priyanka, but she is trapped in a controversial marriage and has thus far resisted entering the political arena, except to show her sisterly support for Rahul.
The problem for the Congress is both simple and confounding: Without the Nehru-Gandhi family, the Congress will splinter; with Rahul as the leader, it would die a slow death. The party vice-president has the distinction of leading the Congress to its lowest count of 44 in the Lok Sabha and a splendid duck in the Delhi assembly elections.
The wisest course for Sonia while her strength lasts would be to give a fighting chance to the Congress to live another day by building up the younger Congress leadership. There are some promising men such as Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan who should be encouraged to take on greater responsibilities.
Inevitably, a lot of deadwood has collected in the Congress over its long dominance in the nation's history. Rahul was supposed to be the vanguard of the generational change. His failure to make the grade was painfully brought home in the Delhi assembly election campaign by Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal attracting the bulk of the youth vote from the more youthful Rahul.
Despite its present plight, the Congress has a wide base in the country that needs to be energised. Only by consistent and grassroots work can the once grand old party be resuscitated. One lesson the party should learn from Rahul’s experience is that the answer is not to recruit computer nerds and geeks as advisers but people with their feet firmly planted on the ground. There is no substitute for field work at the basic level. SUVs can get you there but then they should be discarded.
As Mr Narendra Modi’s earlier Lok Sabha victory and Mr Kejriwal's sweep in Delhi have revealed, India is changing. A predominantly young electorate is impatient and aspirational, with frequent mood changes depending upon the ruling party's performance. Old formulas are less relevant than results.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the infant Aam Aadmi Party have grasped the new scenario faster than the Congress whose vice-president’s experiments can only be classed as weird. It is time for Sonia Gandhi first to accept her son's limitations in the political field, authorise capable young leaders to take charge and begin the long grind to restore the party’s fortunes.
The hurdles for the Congress president are personal and psychological. It is anyone’s guess how long the process will take, even if she were to reconcile herself to the inevitable. Any number of hangers-on would be ready with their ingratiating advice on why Rahul should be crowned king.
Perhaps the greatest contribution Sonia can make to her party and adopted country is to take the family dynasty’s political demise with good grace. This would be against Indian (and Italian) convention. But there are limits to a family’s longevity, and even in generations of family businesses the leading family ultimately accepts closure after several generational changes.
The sterling contribution made by the Nehru-Gandhi family is beyond dispute. Jawaharlal, more than any other individual, is the builder of modern India and laid the groundwork for a functioning democracy. True, Indira derailed democracy for a time to fight her political battles, but reverted to a democratic election in the end, suffering a stinging defeat.
In the 1971 Bangladesh war, Indira showed her leadership qualities. And she ultimately rose phoenix-like from her defeat.