Measures Rahul Gandhi should adopt

If Rahul Gandhi were to get Congress 2nd position in UP he would make an impression, possibly earn prime ministership.

After Rahul Gandhi had been visible on the party stage for some time, I wrote that he should read books. I found his speeches amateurish. I was rung up to find out which books he should read. I said, he should first go through those authored by his great grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru. Whether Rahul did exactly that or not, I do find an improvement in his delivery, as well as in what he says. His statement that the system needs to be changed to eliminate corruption and poverty is nothing new, but it shows that he has matured enough to pinpoint the basic fallacy in our polity. That Rahul has taken upon himself the responsibility of Congress’s election campaign in UP shows that he has developed confidence. Most speeches against state chief minister, Mayawati, have been provocative and had evoked angry reactions from her. This is all part of election politics. The important part is not to get ruffled or vent out in anger. But his stopping at night with a poor family or eating with the Adivasis has ceased to be even a photo event. It worked in the beginning when he took to politics.

That he was appointed the party’s secretary-general or that he is the most powerful person in the Congress next to his mother, Sonia Gandhi, is not something he has earned. The Nehru-Gandhi dynastic politics gives him that position. Yet, if he were to get the Congress to the second position in UP, he would make an impression and possibly earn the prime ministership. His performance in UP should be such that people should feel that he deserves the position. My information is that the Congress is far from being in the second position in the state.

True, Rahul has admitted that “eventually dynastic rule will have to give way to something more openly contested and democratic”. Yet, the fact remains that if, and when, he is installed in the prime minister’s seat for the rest of the two-and-a-half years of Congress rule at the centre, it would be construed as if he got the position because of his lineage. He should wait till the next election. If the party doesn’t come to power, he should make a mark as an opposition leader and become the obvious alternative. Rahul’s organisation of the Youth Congress, with 800 elected delegates, is a move in the right direction. Even a semblance of democracy in the Youth Congress indicates an effort which may ultimately lead to regular, honest party elections.

My feedback from UP is that Rahul is making a difference. State Chief Minister Mayawati’s trump card on the reorganisation of UP into four states has played well. Travelling all the way to Lucknow to redress grievances pours cold water on even the most determined. Rahul has to find a counter to her proposal. The setting up of another commission for the reorgansiation of states may be the best way out. But it is not an answer with elections due in the beginning of next year. Rahul has to come out with something else because the idea of splitting UP into four states may become an avalanche and sweep out the opposition to Mayawati, however corrupt and strong-headed she is.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2011.