Sushil Kutty
Ashok Gehlot is a magician. His father was also a magician. Tricks are part of Gehlot growing up. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi believes Gehlot will make a great Congress president if Rahul Gandhi declines. Gehlot himself is playing decoy, insisting rank and file will revolt if Rahul refuses to be Congress president.
That makes it a variant of ‘who will bell the cat’. The elephant in the room for Congress leaders is that none of them wants to be heard saying he/she wants to become Congress president. So, even after Rahul Gandhi has refused the party president post, none of the non-Gandhi Congress leaders wants their name put up for the top party post.
Even G-23 stalwarts do not have the guts to voice the forbidden thought. They would rather be found hanging from the London Bridge. The Gandhis have a stranglehold on the Congress mindset, which in two words is “Gandhi hegemony”. It, therefore, must have taken immense courage for ‘talk’ to tiptoe to “how about a non-Gandhi family Congress president?”, with the rider, of course, “if nobody from the Gandhi family wants to be president.”
Last heard from the horse’s mouth, Rahul Gandhi has declined to be part of more experiments. But his disinterest hasn’t been backed with a straightforward refusal. The most powerful man is the one who can say ‘No’. But, in the Congress, the most powerful will be the man who will say ‘Yes’, and become Congress president, i.e., a man other than from the Gandhi family.
Ashok Gehlot says he will not because there’s nobody fitting other than Rahul Gandhi. Playing second fiddle to Gandhi scions is second nature to Congress tigers. And Gehlot cannot be expected to be the tiger! Veteran Congress leader Anand Sharma also does not have the stripes.
In his heart of heart, Anand Sharma expects Rahul Gandhi to take the plunge once more. But he wouldn’t mind if a non-Gandhi replaced a Gandhi. It’s not as if a non-Gandhi family president will want to become prime minister, Sharma added, an afterthought. That’s what probably worries the Gandhis: Will a non-Gandhi Congress president insist on being named “Prime Minister”?
The Congress is adamant that come 2024 there will be a Congress Prime Minister! The question now, however, is… “Will it be Gandhi or a non-Gandhi Congress president?” A new president has to be installed by mid-September. And, even this late, there is no clarity. One faction wants a Gandhi family member to lead from the front. Another, a not too well-defined faction, would prefer a non-Gandhi. The Gehlot sorts live and breathe Gandhi family, they will be completely lost and never found if the Gandhis step out of contention. Many of them will die of sheer fright.
These are Congress leaders who found security in the overarching shadow of the Gandhi family; people like the Karnataka Congress leader who exhorted his Karnataka colleagues not to be “disloyal” to the Gandhis. The Gandhis, according to this non-Gandhi, “made us rich, such that generations of our families can live off it.”
Without doubt such are the people who stand in the way of the Congress regaining a foothold in the ever-changing political terrain. Mostly, such people are freeloaders; their fortunes are linked to the Gandhi family’s fortunes. But the family doesn’t have the same charisma as before. Leave things as they’re and the party will survive another generation and a half of the Gandhi family. Then, thereafter, it will be too late for the Congress.
There are other compelling reasons why a non-Gandhi should replace a Gandhi, least of which is that Rahul Gandhi has been given enough chances to experiment. And, now, it has come to the stage where there’s no chemistry between Rahul Gandhi and the party. For some inexplicable reason, Rahul fails to convert “love” for “votes”, especially in the north states.
Second, nobody from the Gandhi family after Sonia Gandhi wants to lead the Congress. It is as if this is written in the genes. And that includes Rahul Gandhi, who if he is not a sadist, is clearly reluctant. Rahul was president for two years, 2017-19. Now, he runs away the minute somebody says “President”. Next, Priyanka Gandhi! All fire and brimstone. But her interest flags after a while. Last of the troika, Sonia Gandhi was for the longest time Congress president! She no longer wants to be. Period. Her health betrayed her.
That leaves ‘Plan B’. But, it’s like standing at the brink, staring into the abyss, and asking, “If not a Gandhi, then who?” All that one would see will be depthless nothingness. There’s a complete paucity of Congress leaders who are qualified to replace a Gandhi at the top. Most, if anyone of them gets appointed/elected, will be found running to a Gandhi for advice and instruction every second decision to make.
Among the lot available, Ashok Gehlot has ruled himself out. Anand Sharma says, “Nobody asked that Rahul should step down in 2019, it was his decision”. Then, there’s Shashi Tharoor. Unfortunately, Tharoor is too smooth an operator to strike a consensus. Sachin Pilot is spoken of as a contender! But Gehlot will object.
The moot question, however, is whether a non-Gandhi will be able to hold the party together. Election Sherpa Prashant Kishor came up with a slew of revamp ideas. He asked the Gandhis to play smart and behave statesman-like. The idea didn’t percolate to the cerebral depths of the Gandhi family members. Bottom-line is, if the Gandhis do not make the sacrifice, there will be nothing left of the Congress. (IPA)
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