Curious case of the Gandhis'
India is heading for a General Election again in
2014.
While the actual dates are yet to be announced, it
has already entered a feverish pitch with the Ruling Congress and the main
opposition Party, BJP leaving no efforts to chance but slugging it out overtime
all over the country.
Their Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is the
main campaigner who is already setting up record for the huge numbers he is
drawing and for the ferocity of his speech-making. Gone are the mild mannered
ways of an Atal Behari Vajpayee coaxing voters with his eloquence or the
emotional pitch that suited the Rath-Yatrs specialist L.K. Advani. Modi is a no -nonsense, fire and brimstone who has a
gift of gab and is more in dialogue with the masses than a dull somber voice
making speech as if reading a Government of India Gazette.
Pitted against him is Ruling Party’s heir Rahul
Gandhi who looks a slow-starter but can raise the pitch in his own way. Rahul has so far kept a deliberate, studied
low -key profile which suits his personal style.
A study of Rahul’s style shows he shuns power and
responsibility when it was there for the asking. He has attacked the ‘Lal batti’ culture which
includes some of his own colleagues and came hard on his own Prime-Minister’s Ordinance
which almost threatened to tilt the apple-cart. So he can take positions of
extremes when push comes to shove.
He has shown many a time he is not interested in
power and has repeatedly stayed away from it. He is more like Hamlet, a
reluctant prince and may be as indecisive as the Shakespearean hero.
He understands one thing though. Very clearly. It is only the Nehru-Gandhi
family, alone and alone that can win an election for the Congress.
In the
initial years after independence, Congress didn’t have any opposition to speak
of, and ran away with it every 5 years with ease.
From the time Indira Gandhi came on, opposition
started, first from within. When she could take collective might of Kamraj
Nadar, S.K. Patil, Atulya Ghosh, Sanjeeva Reddy etc within her own Party and come out
triumphant to start her own Party, rather wrested the Congress Party as her
own, there was no looking back. She could take on any opposition and come victorious
that included combined opposition and even Nixon-Kissinger combine and outfox
them and created Bangladesh.
When she came back after the fiasco of Emergency she
won back power for Congress all by alone. She took on stalwarts like Jayaprakash
Narayan, George Fernandes, Raj Narain etc and trounced them singlehanded. She
visited the riot-scarred Belchi in Bihar on an elephant in 1978 and won back
power singlehanded. She campaigned like a whirlwind all over the country day
and night, making 6 to 7 speeches sometimes in different districts and
different States.
The style that Indira Gandhi set, called Indira Wave,
has worked for Congress till date. Whereas Opposition Parties had stalwarts
there was only one star that worked for Congress, its hardworking Boss, Mrs.
Gandhi.
Crowds otherwise that would be wafer thin when local
leaders addressed, would turn massive when Indira came to address. You could
never think a Sitaram Keasri winning an Election as Congress President outside
his own State, much less when had to address gatherings in Kerala or Nagaland.
Same formula has worked for Congress all through.
Sonia Gandhi followed the same path after acquiring
Indira Gandhi’s ruthlessness in the process.
In 2004 Last
General elections Sonia and Rahul took on the ‘India Shining’ campaign head-on
which has stalwarts like Vajpayee, Advani, Yeshwant Sinha, Mahajan, Arun Jaitley,
Uma Bharathi etal single handed and landed crushing defeat on the combined
opposition.
They realized they have to win their election on
their name, steam charisma, hard work whatever. Once they won they chose people
to form the Government. That is where Manmohan Singhs Chidambarams, Antonys, Kamal Naths who will bring their
expertise in their chosen field and
along with it ,fierce loyalty. Time tested Loyalty. Those who became
Ministers also knew left for themselves they wouldn’t have even saved their
deposits but for the Gandhi family!
Whether he likes power or not, whether he wants to
be a Prime Minister or not, Rahul Gandhi
realizes that he has to win the Election for his Party more or less alone or
probably with help from his mother who is keeping indifferent health and from
his sister Priyanka.
Whether it is good for democracy or not is a
different matter, but that is how it has worked for the Grand old Party,
Congress Party so far!
….
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