Sushil Kutty
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi faces a dilemma and he is not used to dilemmas. The Nehru-Gandhis always and always took decisions and there was no brooking them. Decisions concerning the Congress and those which had to do with Congress governments. So, it's a departure of sorts that Rahul Gandhi has had to leave it to Congress workers to sort out the dilemma facing the Punjab unit of the Congress—who will be the party's “CM face” in the upcoming Punjab assembly elections?
That being said, these are not normal times for the Congress. The party is a pale shadow of its best self. The decline runs parallel to falling stature of the Gandhis within the party, and without. Congress President Sonia Gandhi is kind of semi-retired, leaving it to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra Gandhi to take the decisions, lead the party in the elections.
But things are not shaping up as they should. Second- and third-rung leaders have learned to talk back to the “high command”. Some are quite vocal in their dismissal of the diktats of the Gandhi family. This wasn't how it used to be till recently. Congress leaders, even the state satraps, kept voices low, and eyes lower still when it came to G-force.
Not any longer. The rare confrontation-like situation witnessed these days isn't helping. Who is winning, the Gandhi Family or the wannabe dissenters? The leaders of the ill-concealed rebellion-in-disguise lack in them the courage to go for the jugular. They are in perpetual dilemma: Should or shouldn't they?
The signs are unmistakable. The ‘G' for grumbling and growling ‘23' lack the liver to strike hard. For far too long they have played second fiddle. There is no leadership in them. Kapil Sibal? Nope. Ghulam Nabi Azad? Nope. Anand Sharma? Never. Shashi Tharoor? A Malayali who cannot stand up to a ‘KC Venugopal'! None of the G-23 have the guts or the gumption to stand up to leadership, the high command.
But even this isn't working to the advantage of the Gandhi family. Minor mutinies are finding expression. In the Punjab, five Congress leaders including Manish Tewari “boycotted” the visit of Rahul Gandhi and refused to “accept his leadership”, which should not have mattered because Rahul Gandhi holds no party post, he is just another Congress MP, like Manish Tewari.
Looking back, it's all Sonia Gandhi's fault. She should not have made Manmohan Singh Prime Minister the second time running. The mantle should have gone to Rahul Gandhi. For the longest time, a Nehru-Gandhi was the default Prime minister whenever the Congress topped the number of Lok Sabha seats and chose to rule. Sonia broke from tradition and the two terms of Manmohan Singh upset the “natural order.”
There followed Narendra Modi, now in his second term, and the future looks bleak. The Congress has to at least retain Punjab to be in a position to recoup. And Rahul Gandhi has to take charge, dump the dilemma and decide ruthlessly. But, given his weakened position, he cannot. That the party does not stand a chance in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand doesn't help either.
The problem is, Rahul Gandhi is between a boulder and a bigger boulder. Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and PPCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. If one is a roaring headache, the other is a maddening migraine. Both want to be Chief Minister if the Congress retains Punjab. The two are the dilemmas Rahul Gandhi faces.
For the time being, Rahul has pacified their ambitions, telling both to hold their horses till “Congress workers take a decision.” Never in the post-Independence history of the Congress has a Gandhi family member been left so helpless, and hapless. The times have changed.
That said, Rahul Gandhi has succeeded in patching up things for the time being. The party will go into the Punjab elections with a “CM face”. Channi and Sidhu have given him their word that they will accept the decision of the “Congress workers”, and that no matter who is chosen CM between them, the other will support. Before announcing this decision Rahul offered prayers at the Golden Temple followed with a langar-lunch.
Sidhu and Channi convinced Rahul the biggest issue was who will be CM? “Media people call it the chief ministerial candidate… Normally, we do not do this, but… we will take this decision after consulting our workers… Both Sidhu and Channi gave me an assurance that two people cannot lead and only one can lead. Both told me whoever leads, the other will put all his energy behind him.”
This is probably for the first time in the living memory of millions of Indians that a Nehru-Gandhi family member has deigned to listen to junior Congress leaders. But then, the senior Congress leaders don't count. If one is happy he got a Padmabhushan, another is cracking jokes on the dilemma faced by “Ghulam” and “Azad.” The bottom-line is Sonia Gandhi shouldn't have upset the set succession plan. Then, there wouldn't have been a dilemma in Punjab or anywhere else. (IPA Service)
