Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
COVER STORY
congress b n uniyal
Rahul’s Political Thriller
Party
leaders feel that what they need most at this juncture is the awe, aura
and authority of the Nehru-Gandhi family rather than experience
RAHUL GANDHI is working at it as if he were acting out a political thriller. Everyone is sure one day he must – and he will – but no one knows when! Congressmen are concerned that it may be too late by the time he does; the oppositionwallahs
are happy that the longer he dithers, the better for them. Others are
wondering whether he is being timid or canny, or whether he will seize
everything in one go or act out his destined role in stages. Old Delhi
hands are calling up parallels from the past to refresh each other’s
memories. How long did Nehru hesitate to take over the Congress and how
long did Indira Gandhi or Rajiv, for that matter? None of them rushed in
to sort out the mess in the Congress, the government or the country
just like that. They all bided their time, waiting in the wings, until
they found the moment opportune or when they were left with no option
but to seize what in their times everybody believed was rightfully
theirs. Each one of them faced a vastly different situation but one
thing was common: they cogitated, almost agonised themselves for long,
before taking the plunge into the larger volcanic political world of
their days.
Journalists on the
political beat say that the Congress leaders who have met and urged
Rahul in recent months to take over command of the party and the
government have often failed to give satisfactory answers to his
searching questions. He has, for instance, asked them as to what they
think he should do in the current situation once he is in command. None
of them have been able to give him a post-takeover gameplan. There is
talk in some Congress circles that he has agreed to be the party working
president in a sort of dyarchy with his mother. Others say that he has
not and that he fears that a mother-son duo in command of the largest
national party may not go down very well with the voters at large. There
are still others who feel that his taking over as working president
alone may not be enough because the real mess is not in the party
organisation but in the government. Such party leaders feel that what
the coalition government needs most at this juncture is the awe, aura
and authority of the Nehru-Gandhi family rather than experience in
running ministries.......READMORE
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