The best prime ministerial material
Everyone in the Congress,
including the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, sings only one chorus: Rahul
Gandhi is the best prime ministerial material with great ability and capability
to deliver the best. Dr. Singh is on record having volunteered a resignation if
Mrs. Sonia Gandhi desired him to do so to pave the way for Rahul’s incarnation.
He remains, no doubt, the
“most eligible bachelor”. But nobody is able to enumerate the rare “qualities”
and parameters on which the rank and file of Congressmen discover in him all
the wherewithals that would make him a “good” prime minister.
Rahul’s likely coronation
as PM has been in the air since the country went in for the 2009 Lok Sabha
elections. But nobody says when. Though expected to be projected as the prime
ministerial candidate then, it was not done. The Tehelka weekly even
published an interview with Rahul in which he claimed that if he wanted, he
could have been the Prime Minister at the age of 25. Tehelka made history when it later
denied that it was an interview.
In 2009 Lok Sabha
elections, Congress increased its tally of wins from earlier 9 to 20 in Uttar
Pradesh. The credit for the same was entirely given to Rahul’s campaign.
When UPA returned to
power, there was speculation again. PM Manmohan Singh even offered him a
ministerial berth but the Gandhi scion rejected it saying he wanted to gain
more experience. He was made one of the general secretaries of the party though
he appeared the most important next only to his mother. He was made incharge of
the NSUI and Youth Congress.
Though never assigned any
special assignment, yet Rahul assumed one he liked to make his mark as a matter
of right. He took upon himself the Herculean task of taking to the shore the
drowning boat of Congress in Bihar. As result of his strenuous and aggressive
campaign, Congress score of earlier 8 seats went down to just 4. But nobody
blamed him for the fiasco.
Rahul’s spirits were not
down, not to speak of his being out. This time he shouldered the daunting task
of reviving the lost glory of Congress in Uttar Pradesh from where he is an MP
alongwith his mother. For about two years, he undertook a whirlwind solo
election campaign with other leaders just dancing to his tunes. He became a
champion of Bundelkhand region. On his demand the Prime Minster on May 22, 2011
doled out a special package of `7,266 crores with another `200 crore to solve the drinking problem of Bundelkhand.
He credited Rahul for this bounty. Yet the Congress hope to reap a bumper crop
of votes was dashed to the ground. He was able to get money for Bundelkhand but
not votes from the people.
He employed all the tricks
of the trade to gain public support: gimmicks, histrionics and drama. He
surprised everyone, including the then Mayawati government, by undertaking a
tour of Bhatta Parsaul defying prohibitory orders riding on the pillion of a
motorcycle followed by a gang of supporters. But the gimmick failed to earn the
cash of votes. Congress failed badly here too.
In the end, Congress could
just gain marginally, increasing its success tally to 28, a gain of six seats.
In his own parliamentary constituency of Amethi, he could get only 2 seats out
of 6, while his mother drew a blank in her Rae Bareily constituency. Same is
the story in the local body elections held last month. Everybody else was
responsible for this fiasco, but not the mother and son.
Rahul’s experiment with
youth Congress and student bodies and zeal for injecting young blood in
elections failed miserably in Kerala and Tamilnadu. Most of the ‘Amul babies’,
as Kerala ex-chief minister Achutanandan called them, failed to make it to win.
Similar was the fate in Punjab.
He has in his
parliamentary career made, albeit read, only two speeches in Lok Sabha. The
maiden one, much hyped on education and employment was watched by his doting
mother by shifting from front row to the back one to have a glimpse of his
performance. The second one was on the Lokpal Bill in 2011 at the height of
Anna’s movement against corruption. He claimed it as a “game changer”. At the
most it can only be called a game spoiler because nothing has happened since
then and the stalemate continues as before.
His performance has
rightly been described as cameo by none other than one of the Gandhi family
loyalist, Union Minister Salman Khurshid, like an obscure batsman hitting 40
runs with just 15 balls being hailed as the greatest achiever, only to be seen
being out for a duck in subsequent innings consecutively. He does make ‘cameo’
appearances and performances just to slide into the background soon afterwards.
Whenever the party or
government is in crisis, the great leader is nowhere to be seen or heard.
Recall the recent NCP-Congress standoff at the Centre and in Maharashtra and
the effort of the party to rope in the support of Mamta’s TC and others. He was
visible at the time of farewell to President Pratibha Patil and swearing-in of
new President but not audible with his views on anything.
He is hardly seen open his
mouth on vital issues, problems and crisis tormenting the country – terror,
crime against women and senior citizens, price rise, inflation, corruption, aam
aadmi’s plight and the like. He is yet to be seen or heard on the Assam riots
plaguing the State. In Andhra the Congress is facing an existential crisis. But
his expertise and acumen is not being put to douse the flames there. He has as
yet to give his attention to revive the falling fortunes of Congress in Gujarat
where elections are due in another three months. He himself and his Party, it
appears, doesn’t want to foray into lands that are not safe for him and the
party.
On July 18 Congress
President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi did break her silence when she said, "Rahul
has to take a decision" himself on assuming greater responsibility in the organization
and government. (http://www.deccanherald.com/pages.php?id=265240) But the next day Rahul came out in the typical
Lakhnavi style of pehle aap, pehle aap saying, "I will play a more proactive role
in the party and the government. The decision has been taken, the timing is up
to my two bosses -- the Congress President and the Prime Minister." (http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=769280)
So
the mystery remains: Who will bell the cat and when?
In spite of all that, he
remains the best bet for the Congress. His only qualification and merit at the
moment seems: he is the Gandhi family scion.
