It’s official. Rahul Gandhi has ducked the challenge posed by Narendra Modi, and will not be named as the Congress’s official candidate for the post of Prime Minister in the 2014 general election. At the opening session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) at Talkatora Stadium this morning, Congress president Sonia Gandhi confirmed the decision taken at the Working Committee yesterday that Rahul Gandhi would lead the party’s election campaign, but would not be named as its nominee for the top post.
This comes in the wake of Rahul Gandhi’s inexplicably cancelling his proposed rally and public engagements in Amethi on January 10, on the improbable excuse that the Ramlila Ground was waterlogged. This proved false when Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas conducted a fairly impressive rally at the same venue two days later.
Though a huge disappointment to the party rank and file which clamoured for Rahul Gandhi as official prime ministerial candidate from the stadium floor today, the decision is not unexpected and conforms to the growing perception that the Amethi MP is not mentally prepared for a larger responsibility at national level. During the two terms of the UPA, he dodged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s invitation to join the government and learn the nitty-gritty of statecraft. His micro-management of the Assembly elections in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi was simply disastrous. Now, he is going to lead the Congress in its most challenging election ever, while tacitly admitting that he does not expect to win.
The Congress’ explanation that the party does not traditionally name a Prime Ministerial candidate is at best puerile. At the time of independence, Jawaharlal Nehru was already the Prime Minister of the interim Government, and became the first Prime Minister. He was never challenged within his lifetime; Lal Bahadur Shastri died early; and Indira Gandhi had problems within the party but no challenge to her position as leader. The minor opposition to Rajiv Gandhi’s elevation left the party of its own volition, and it was only when Sonia Gandhi faced difficulty in being sworn-in as Prime Minister that the Congress faced the situation of a separate Prime Minister working in tandem with the supreme leader.
This dyarchy was expected to end with the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as leader of the campaign and the Prime Ministerial nominee. Rahul Gandhi is India-born and his decision not to directly face Narendra Modi is astonishing, especially after Dr Manmohan Singh took pains to pave the way for him by harshly condemning the Gujarat Chief Minister at his January 3 press conference, and extolling the “outstanding credentials” of the Amethi MP. In fact, the Congress vice president himself gave mixed signals in the run up to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, telling Dainik Bhaskar that “it is necessary that Congress forms the government at the Centre; and in this direction whatever responsibilities the organisation has given me, I will discharge them with utmost sincerity and honesty.” He has offered to explain his position to the disappointed party workers in the afternoon session today.
Political analysts feel that the decision not to pitch Rahul Gandhi directly against Narendra Modi reflects the doubts nurtured by many senior party leaders about the former’s style of functioning, including taking decisions with a close coterie and being highly inaccessible to national and State level leaders. There is also an apprehension that many alliance partners may not accept working under Rahul Gandhi, particularly in view of his whimsical style of publicly trashing cabinet decisions and calling for a review, as in the case of the Ordinance to save convicted Ministers from losing their Parliamentary seats. Since this view has prevailed, and Rahul Gandhi has failed to demonstrate a vote-catching ability, the Congress may well be experiencing the emergence of a ‘Syndicate’ of heavyweights who can call the shots behind the scenes. This is a development that bears watching.
What is undeniable for now, however, is that despite Rahul Gandhi’s formal elevation as the election in-charge, the key campaigner will be Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who has begun her charge against the “serious challenge” to the nation “from communal divisive forces” which have taken the social fabric to “breaking point”. Accusing the BJP of “spreading hatred, violence,” she said, “”We have always fought against communal forces. Secularism is our identity and an election compulsion”. The 2014 election, according to Sonia Gandhi, will be a battle of beliefs and philosophies; it will be “a battle for India, a battle for preserving secular tradition”.
Besides fighting opposing ideologies, the Congress president said that the party was determined to root out corruption and fight the price rise which has placed unbearable burdens on the common man. No Government had done as much for development as the UPA, “despite an irresponsible opposition and hurdles”, she claimed, and lauded Manmohan Singh for leading the government with prestige and pride for ten years.
The Congress, she said, brought the historic RTI Act to usher in transparency as a way of fighting corruption, and was committed to a strong Lokayukta and Lokpal Bill. She added that a fully operational Aadhaar (which is being implemented despite the absence of a parliamentary mandate) will end corruption in the delivery of subsidies, pensions, wages and government benefits, and claimed that rural wages have increased under MNREGA.
The 2014 general election alone will tell how the people perceive the absence of a challenge to the BJP’s Narendra Modi. With Rahul Gandhi dodging this responsibility on the part of the nation’s oldest political party, and the third and fourth fronts yet to take concrete shape let alone decide their primus inter pares amongst a host of regional contenders, the contest has begun to resemble Milkha Singh versus the rest.
Niticentral.com, 17 January 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/01/17/rahul-gandhi-ducks-modi-challenge-180289.html