Rahul Gandhi was ‘formally’ elevated today when he was made the Vice-President
of the Indian National Congress (INC).
‘No body but the Gandhi family calls the shots in the grand old party
of India’ is an established fact and Rahul have been deciding virtually on all
the policy matters of the party in the recent past, especially in the second
innings of the United Progressive Alliance government. In that sense, he was
elevated much earlier. Only the official coronation came today.
There have come many moments when the ‘groups’ of the INC raised highly
hysterical demands to elevate Rahul Gandhi as the prime minister of this
half-baked democracy (yes half-baked, because the dynasty politics is the antithesis
of the spirit of a true democracy), that we proclaim as the Republic of India;
that goes in record books as the world’s largest democracy.
Anyway, Rahul Gandhi and the INC are not the only to share the blame.
In fact, it has become a chronic malaise of the Indian politics and curse of
the Indian democracy.
But here it is about Rahul Gandhi, so let’s be with him. What his
formal elevation means:
It is his official coronation as the PM-in-waiting. The Congress party
is going to fight the next general elections under his ‘control’.
It is the official recognition of yet another setback to the true
spirit of democracy, something which the Mahatma Gandhi fought for.
It tells us formidably that the Congress party is not going to see the
crop of self-made national level political leaders in the near future (if the
Congress party survives long enough).
If we go by the track record of Rahul Gandhi on the scale of political
winnability, he has performed poorly. If that has any potent indicators, then
it might well be the beginning of the permanent decline of the grand old party
of India .
(The only exception to it has to come from Rahul only – a changed,
unorthodox, sensitive avatar – the politician with a difference – something he
had given hopes about when he began – the hopes that later came out crashing –
can he? – the Trillion Dollar question of the Indian political league)
Any good out of all this despair!
An Opposition already paralyzed by the similar democratically regressive
traits as is the case with the Congress party only worsens the current
political concoction. That may give Rahul Gandhi some leverage in the immediate
run, but the political history of India since Rajiv Gandhi happened,
tells us that is not going to last long.
And there lies the opportunity.
The country may slip into a phase of political chaos but the churning
is necessary to generate raw ingredients for newer and better political
atmosphere. Thinking so is valid and logical in the changing India where the
mature elements of democracy are headed to take the centrestage with a huge
youth population exploiting and thriving on enhanced modes of communication and
connectivity.
There cannot be a set timeframe, but it is bound to happen. Political formations
and reformations are evolutionary in nature and take time to take shape.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
