Rahul cannot beat a retreat now

It is the last gamble for India’s ruling Congress party.

Naming general secretary Rahul Gandhi as the party vice-president and the second-in-command, after party chief Sonia Gandhi, indeed mirrors a certain desperation on the part of India’s oldest political outfit to overhaul a staid, moribund entity and to infuse an air of excitement within the rank and file to get its bearings right in time for the next general elections scheduled for 2014. With the possibility of the principal opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), fielding the firebrand Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, anointing Rahul as the next prime minister was not so much a question of “whether” but “when”. To that extent, one must say that by catapulting the Nehru-Gandhi scion to prominence, Congress has thrown the gauntlet at the BJP with 400-odd days to go for what will certainly be an exciting battle at the hustings in the world’s largest democracy.

While Congress is yet to mention Rahul as its next prime ministerial candidate in as many words, it is a foregone conclusion that the son of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and current United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia is going to be the face of the party’s election campaign for 2014. When Manmohan Singh was named Prime Minister for the first time in 2004, even the most die-hard optimist within Congress circles probably did not give India’s foremost economist more than one term at 7, Race Course Road (Indian prime minister’s official residence in New Delhi). Yet, Singh has managed to survive almost two full terms — the only prime minister to do so since Jawaharlal Nehru.

However, the irony is that nearly ten years at the helm notwithstanding, Singh has never been able to grow beyond the shadow of the Nehru-Gandhi family peering over his shoulders. As a result, in spite of all his academic acumen, Singh has never really been anything more than a figure-head leader. Such is the urgency and hankering within the Congress to keep the Nehru-Gandhi gravy train chugging along, that many or rather most of Singh’s policy decisions have been held hostage by the power centre within the party that invariably hinges on Sonia. In that sense, the hot seat has been kept warm for Rahul for far too long. With growing disenchantment among the populace and the party having suffered electoral debacles in key state elections in the recent past, the clamour within the Congress for India’s longest serving ‘prime minister-in-waiting’ to finally enter the ring was growing louder by the day.

Demand for deliverance

As for 42-year-old Rahul, this indeed is going to be the biggest challenge of his nine-year-old career in active politics. After heading the ruling coalition at the Centre for two consecutive terms, the anti-incumbency factor will be weighing heavily against the Congress and its UPA allies in the next polls. The benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail are yet to be felt by the man on the street. Added to that are other dampeners such as inflation, a sluggish economic growth rate and unemployment. To make matters worse for the Congress, socio-political activism has taken on a whole new meaning, with civil society raising the pitch on corruption like never before in independent India’s history. The nation-wide protests over the Delhi gang-rape have also shown that this is a young India that the political system needs to actively, sincerely engage with. Days of winning over hearts with political rhetoric and empty electoral promises are history. This is a ‘new’ India whose urge for a ‘dial-a-pizza’ is as honest and instant as its demand for deliverance from the establishment.

It is here that Rahul will have to step up to the plate. His efforts at boosting the electoral fortunes of his party in the Hindi heartland have come a cropper. He has seldom been publicly vocal on key issues — be it Anna Hazare’s campaign, the Delhi gang-rape or FDI in retail. He has to make his opinion known in no uncertain terms. He must never forget that it is a century-old party, a behemoth called the Congress that is making a last-ditch attempt at clutching on to relevance in a fast-changing socio-political landscape by riding piggy back on the ‘Gandhi’ brand that he stands for. It is quite possible that the party’s prejudices and compulsions may run him down, but he will still have to chart his own course and offer a clear road map to a fledgling political unit — a road map that will look way beyond the immediacy of political gains and the shackles of coalition squabbles. When his father Rajiv became the prime minister in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, he too was a rookie in politics. Yet, Rajiv had shown an honest intent to modernise India’s telecom and IT sectors, to protect the environment with the Ganga Action Plan and cleanse politics of horse-trading with the Anti-Defection Bill to name a few.

In spite of all his honest intentions, Rajiv failed to steer clear of sycophants and paid the price. For Rahul too it is not going to be an easy course, but having come this far, he cannot afford to beat a retreat without a decent-enough fight — more so, with the prospect of a Narendra Modi as the principal political opponent looming large.

Skipper Rahul’s time starts now!