Rahul Gandhi: Mirror image of Modi’s leadership?
Examining the leadership overlaps between India’s prime minister and his chief opponent
Rahul Gandhi, former Congress president and currently the Leader of the Opposition in the Indian Parliament, doesn’t tire of detailing the leadership deficit of Narendra Modi, India’s third-term PM.
Gandhi’s adoring party calls him the shadow PM to Modi (based on the Westminster system of Parliamentary India adopted from the British), and he has positioned his brand as the antithesis to Modi — the anti-Modi, the very opposite of one of the most charismatic Indian politicians of the past several decades.
But, public posturing aside, Gandhi shares astounding similarities with Modi, and if he truly believes that India has to break with Modi-style leadership to progress, develop, and deepen its democracy, he should guard against the ‘Modi within’.
Incredulous? Don’t be. Politics is not only about superficial positioning, but, in most cases, the opposite of what one is publicly showcasing.
Consider the following.
Both Gandhi and Modi share a love for total authority over their colleagues and parties. Gandhi may have finally stepped aside as Congress President after losing two general elections on the trot, but did not remotely cede effective control over India’s oldest political party.
Rather, he remained as the total power behind the throne while his mother, Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving Congress President, reigned, and he ruled without being accountable for his actions.
Those who did not agree with his vision for the Congress, or baulked at the lacklustre leadership he had provided, were effectively shown the exit door. The list is long and illustrative of the fact that anyone who could have provided a leadership challenge to the Gandhis’ iron grip over the party was forced out.
Amarinder Singh, former Punjab Chief Minister, was almost marshalled out of the party by the Gandhi sibling duo, who took disastrous call after disastrous call in Punjab to help mercurial BJP defector Navjot Singh Sidhu. An untested Charanjit Singh Channi was made CM, and the Congress lost the election to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The roll call of second-generation heirloom politicians who fell out with erstwhile mentor Gandhi is long. From Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, R.P.N. Singh, Himanta Biswa Sarma, the list is long, as the BJP has benefited from the talent bleed of young leaders. Only Sachin Pilot is left from the original “RG’s guys” in the Congress.
Gandhi imprimatur
The Gandhi family clearly battled for Mallikarjun Kharge, current Congress President, in his contest against Shashi Tharoor, who by most accounts is an extremely talented leader whose abilities the party seems unable to utilise. Kharge is now the Congress President but is clearly running a diarchy with Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, with all decisions having the Gandhi imprimatur.
Congress leaders and workers are not remotely confused about who the real boss of the party is, and his initials are not MK.
The BJP has gone from being a cadre-based, fiercely democratic party to a party run according to the wishes of Modi, and to some degree Amit Shah, Union Home Minister, with JP Nadda, the nominal President, carrying out Modi’s wishes, whether it’s changing chief ministers in BJP-ruled states or appointing office bearers.
But, it is exactly the same democratic deficit in the Congress party which is repeatedly glossed over.
Building consensus?
Gandhi has been prescient on the impact of issues like the Covid pandemic, where he kept issuing public warnings, but like Modi, he has a tendency to believe that his policy prescriptions are completely correct and doesn’t like to hear another point of view. Demonetisation was a terrible policy disaster which tanked the economy, but India needs to guard against leaders who don’t believe in building consensus.
Gandhi must guard against his unilateral beliefs, whether it is leftist prescriptions attacking business or even the overwhelming current obsession with the caste census. Cronyism is terrible for the country, but in his zeal to attack two Modi billionaire cronies, Gandhi sometimes gets carried away labelling all entrepreneurs.
India needs huge employment generation, and that is not going to be feasible via big government. Gandhi needs to showcase that the Congress, which has run India for the longest time, is the party of governance.
Modi has done much to reduce the ‘Mai baap’ (mother-father) nature of big government in the lives of ordinary citizens. Gandhi has to be prescriptive on how this will change.
All leaders learn and grow. Gandhi needs to stop listening to his courtiers and focus on leaders through the ages who have put democracy front and centre and served it. India desperately needs its democracy to deepen.