Where
is the confusion?
First
it was about Rahul Gandhi’s ‘I am for prime minister’s chair’, then it was for
‘Rahul Gandhi’s statement on becoming prime minister was misinterpreted’, and
now it is about ‘Priyanka Gandhi might contest the next Lok Sabha elections
from Rae Bareli’.
Whatever
be the analyses, speculations and guessing games (including the wild ones), but
these three developments (reported) summarise how and why of the politics of
the Indian National Congress in the coming days.
Let’s
see what is being said about the Congress party politics, its leadership and
its next prime ministerial candidate in the recent past, especially after the
2009 general elections when Rahul Gandhi was given the major credit for the
good show.
But
2009 to 2013 has been a rough patch and a shaky ride for the Congress party,
for Manmohan Singh and for Rahul Gandhi.
Corruption,
slowing economy, unpopular decisions and electoral debacles, the continued run
of negative developments has dented the gains of the first government of the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) giving rise to the body of the speculative
analysis over the Congress party leadership and its next prime-ministerial
candidate.
What
the developments say?
Dear
Manmohan is ruled out. He is beginning to prepare for a farewell for a retired
life. There was a war cry in the Congress party to declare the next face. Its
echoes were very clear because there was no one else in the race but Rahul
Gandhi, in democratic India’s
most undemocratic party, where the majority of the top leadership and almost all
other party members don’t see any hope beyond the Gandhi family to remain in the
political mainstream.
With
poor governance resulting from utter failures on policy issues and a widespread
corruption, everyone (many even in the Congress party) had started to write off
any chances for the Congress party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It is
beyond doubt that what Manmohan Singh had earned in his first tenure as the
prime minister is totally eroded now and the loss is beyond redemption.
The
Congress party members had just only one hope left in this situation of gloom –
the charisma associated with the Gandhi family. After Sonia Gandhi was
effectively out of race due to her health concerns, they had their hopes pinned
on Priyanka and Rahul.
The
efforts culminated in the coronation of Rahul Gandhi as the vice president of
the Indian National Congress in January 2013 taking effective control of the
grand old party of India.
After
Rahul Gandhi took over, he spoke of revamping the party among other things.
During the course of one such conversation he said he didn’t want to be the
prime minister. He said (1), “Asking me whether you want to be Prime Minister
is a wrong question.” He also said (2), “The Prime Minister's post is not my
priority. I believe in long-term politics.”
It
opened a line a line of discussion on who could be the next prime-ministerial
candidate from the Congress party then. And it naturally followed the corollary
– who’ll be Rahul Gandhi’s Manmohan Singh.
To
continue..
(2) PM's post is not my priority,
the party is: Rahul Gandhi, March 5, 2013