FirstpostEbook_RahulGandhieBook_20130125073946

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Born to lead:The challenges ahead of

Rahul Gandhi


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Table of contents

The speech

How Rahul Gandhis VP speech made Congress weepy 04

Rahul: Democrat on weekdays, privileged prince on weekends 06

Does Rahul owe Priyanka, Pitroda for his badlav speech? 09

Highlights from Rahul Gandhis emotionally charged speech 10

Rahul vs Modi?

Rahul vs Modi: They both face the same challenges 12

Looking beyond Chintan Shivir: Is it now Rahul vs Modi in 2014? 14

Rahul vs Modi: Who has the edge in Mahabharat 2014? 15

Great expectations

Cong projects Rahul as PM candidate, says only he can lead young India 19

Why its a tough road ahead for Rahul Gandhi 21

Can Rahul Gandhi really ensure the Congress victory in 2014? 23

Not just a Number Two: Rahul Gandhi can transform Congress 24

Son rise in Congress: Its too soon to write off Rahul Gandhi 26

Reactions

Rajiv Gandhi did not deliver on promises, so will Rahul? 29

Rajivs speeches were inspiring, Rahul spoke like an Oppn leader: BJP 32Rahuls elevation in Cong comes as no surprise: BJP 33
http://www.firstpost.com/


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The speech


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The elevation of Rahul Gandhi to the vice president of

the party was an emotional one, with many Congress

leaders left wiping their eyes after his speech at the

partys Chintan Shivir.

FP Politics, Jan 21, 2013

How Rahul Gandhis VP speechmade Congress weepy

It is rare to see a politician in India showany emotion. But with a speech that tuggedon emotional chords, with references to

his mother, father and grandmother, and didntaver from criticising the partys functioning,Rahul Gandhi reportedly left many battle hard-ened Congressmen and women dewy eyed.

In a speech that drew on his experiences withhis grandmother, mother and father over the

years and his learning within the party, RahulGandhi managed to hit all the right notes, at

least with the partys senior leaders and thosepresent at the Chintan Shivir.

According to a report in the Indian Express,Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was the rstto greet him after he spoke at the CongressChintan Shivir in Jaipur and was reduced to

tears, needing Rahul Gandhis handkerchief towipe them off.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot report-edly wiped tears and the normally unemotional


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party general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi,called Rahul Prakash kunj and Eklavya ina speech, before breaking down and invitingSonia Gandhi to make her remarks, the reportstated.

Even the Telegraph in an article notes thecharged atmosphere after Gandhis speech withmany eyes welled up and even the Prime Min-ister reaching out to the Congress leader in abear hug with a wide smile on his face, a showof emotion not something too many can claimto have seen.

The article also describes the emotional reactionby many present at the venue with women activ-ists breaking down and some charging towardsthe stage with shawls, owers and whatever else

they had in their hands.

The hysteria over his elevation was evidently

visible outside the venue of the Congress Chin-tan Shivir as well with party workers reportedlyclamouring to meet with him and express theirsupport for his elevation. Celebrations were alsoheld across Delhi with party workers going overeach other to celebrate his elevation within theparty.

In a party where the Gandhi family has heldsway for decades, the emotional display by lead-ers is bound to be viewed with a fair amountof skepticism and maybe rightly so. Congress,and other party activists in India, are given to

wild shows of emotion for their leaders in a bidto prove their devotion or loyalty. But for manyinsiders within the party this speech by RahulGandhi, coming after months of will-he-wont-he despite their earnest pleadings over the

years, might just be worth shedding a few tearsof joy, if not relief, over.


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Rahul: Democrat on weekdays,privileged prince on weekends

Rahul Gandhi is trying to have the best of both

worlds. Hes a democrat during the week buta prince on weekends.

Sagarika Ghose, Jan 22, 2013

When a 42-year old pillar of the es-tablishment sounds like a youthfulanti-establishment hero, its either

a delusion, a cynical ploy to capture the youth,or genuine idealism. Obama was an outsider

in the Washington elite, whose cry for changeechoed among all those excluded from tradi-tional power structures. Rahul Gandhi is a thirdgeneration political aristocrat, born into VIP-hood who grew up with Indian democracy as hisplayground. When Indira Gandhis grandsonannounces the need for badlav or change in the

way power is exercised or in the way systemsfunction, can he escape his own responsibilityin upholding those very systems for the 9 long

years hes been at the pinnacle of power?

The Congress chintan shivir at Jaipur whichanointed Rahul Gandhi as Congress Vice-Pres-ident was a shivir awash in emotion, fulsometributes and streaming tears from family loyal-ists. After Rahuls speech, particularly after the

emotional recollections of his grandmothersassassination and fathers courage, Congress-men were in spasms of euphoric delight, com-paring Rahul to a Rajiv Gandhi- Barack ObamaTwo-in-One. The chintan shivir was a carnival

of competitive loyalty, a fawning esta of gushgush praise. A party accustomed to being driven

by a monarch listened bemused as the heir ap-parent held forth on the need to transform thenature of power, of ending closed door remote

leadership, of ending the era oflal battis.

But Rahul, the prince-turned rebel, the ruler-turned attacker of status quo, might nd thathes a mist in an absolute monarchy. SoniaGandhis greatest success over the last 10 yearshas been to rule the party like a regent, exercis-ing queenly supreme power and placing dynastyat the centre of the Congress existence. Soniasleadership is imperious but tough, it keeps theCongress rmly in check, rmly bound to the

family, rmly uniting potential traitors anddiscontents into an army loyal to the Nehru-Gandhi ame. Rahul may nd that ruling theCongress like a wannabe-democrat confuses thecourtiers, scatters the coteries, and disappointsthe power seekers and troops. Since 2004 theCongress has stayed together as a team only

because Sonia has ruled it like Indira II.

Yet his speech as Congress Vice President was

his best so far. Some of the ideas were undoubt-edly interesting: Why do ministries do the workof panchayats, why do politicians appoint vice-chancellors, why is power centralised and op-erating behind closed doors, why do we respectposition and not knowledge, our freedom move-ment gave a voice to millions, in the same way

we must give a voice to the people in govern-ance, and power is a poison that must be usedto empower the weak and not pursued for its

own sake. For the rst time we heard the sem-blance of a political vision, and however much itsounded like a newspaper editorial, it was sur-prising to hear that a child of supreme power socomprehensively understands the predicament


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of the system.

But this lecture on power and how to wield it,this moral science class from someone who hasso far failed to notch up any political successes,could easily be cast as the woolly headed pipedream of a university undergraduate writing anoriginal term paper, rather than the words ofa seasoned politician who has the stamina forhard 24*7 politics. Rahul campaigned hard inthe 2010 Bihar assembly elections, but Nitishswept to power, Congress got just four seats.Rahul was the face of the UP assembly pollslast year, but Congress slumped to fourth placein UP even falling behind the BJP, with just 28seats.

Rahuls well publicised UP padyatra yielded

some good photo ops, but a gaffe on skeletonsunder mounds of ash in Bhatta Parsaul (a state-ment later revealed as totally false) struck a bitof a blow for Rahuls credentials as a leader ofdispossessed farmers. In 2009, his boys nightout at a Dalit hut with visiting British Foreignsecretary David Miliband was seen as urbanpoverty tourism, a rural Scheduled Caste hut

became the site of a brief overnight stay of themessiah and his foreign friend, like an adven-

turous night spent in a museum. Kalavati, theVidharbha widow, in whose name Rahul made aspeech during the trust motion in 2008, re-mains a now forgotten statistic in Rahuls dis-covery of India, her hut a pit stop in his whirl-

wind visitations, her plight designed to spice upa point in a rare speech.

On two important occasions, the youth iconshowed that, in sharp contrast to his grand-

mothers elephant-riding Belchi moment, hefailed to gauge and seize a political opportu-nity. During youth protests against corruptionRahul remained absent, not seen at any of therallies or saying anything in solidarity with theimpassioned crowds. During the Delhi gangrape protests with thousands of young peoplepouring onto the streets chanting saare yuvayahaan hai Rahul Gandhi kahaan hai?, (allthe young are here, where is Rahul Gandhi) heremained closeted away in silence, refusing to

venture among those braving tear gas and watercannons. In his speech he analysed those pro-tests as clinically as an editorial page writer, buthe didnt seem to feel any emotion for the an-

guished young people in whose name he leadshis party.

To remain, day in and day out among thecadres, take up a single cause year after year,leave his room doors open to party cadres at allhours, to slog, persistently and with unaggingstamina, slog year after year a la Mamata Ban-erjee, toil on the streets a la Mayawati, build a

vast network of samajwadis whose names youknow by heart a la Mulayam, this is the stuff of

vocational politics, that is the life of those whosepersonal lives and private spaces have longceased to exist in the pursuit of a political mis-sion.

After his speech on Sunday, Rahul has onceagain lapsed into customary silence; silence isin fact his default mode. He never speaks on thegrave issues of the day. So far its no commenton 2G, no comment on FDI in retail, nocomment on Anna Hazare, no comment on

womens safety, no comment on Pakistan, nocomment on price rise or economic reforms.

Obama and Cameron constantly communicate,constantly talk to the press and constantly giveinterviews. Rahul has so far not given a sin-gle full length interview. In fact, his close as-sociate Meenakshi Natarajan, a rst time MPfrom Mandsaur was keen to bring in a bill thatmuzzles the media. Natarajan known to be aRahul favourite with a determinedly grassrootsdeglamourized style - was all set to bring inthe Print and Electronic Media Standards andRegulation Bill, which contained shockingly

draconian measures to gag the press. Lets notforget that Rahuls father tried to bring in the

Anti-Defamation Bill to curb the media andhis grandmother imposed the Emergency. Is


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Rahuls championing of democratisation andgiving people a voice in the power structure, agenuine article of faith or was that well- craftedspeech simply a clever camouage for someone

who still exercises power without accountabil-ity?

In a landscape dominated by powerful regionalsatraps, in a shrinking political space, in a Con-gress party riven by factionalism, Rahul may

well be the genuine idealist trying to transformthe way the Congress perceives itself. But bad-lav (change) will not come from speeches madefrom the pulpit of inherited leadership. Truebadlav can only come from a thorough-goingself- transformation, a complete break from hisown lifestyle in Delhi and either moving to Luc-know or away from the VIP enclaves and centre

of power in Lutyensland. This means physicallydisplacing himself from here and going there tolive and work among the cadres 24*7. By trying

to be a democrat from the position of a king, bylecturing on systems change while jetting offon reportedly exotic holidays, Rahul is trying tohave the best of both worlds. Hes a democratduring the week but a prince on weekends. Heip ops between dynast and democrat, now aprince, now a change agent, sometimes disgrun-tled with the system, sometimes revelling in itsprivileges, a man of the masses Monday-Friday,a man of the classes on Saturday and Sunday.

This dual persona is risky. The dual personaruns the risk of neither being able to performthe highly efcient monarchical-style hold-ing operation of his mother, nor being able topull off the populist-style image makeover as apeoples- leader- of- a- peoples party, of hisgrandmother.

Sagarika Ghose is Deputy Editor CNN-IBN


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Sam Pitroda and sister Priyanka Gandhi allegedly

helped him put together the speech that moved

many a battle hardened Congress leader.

FP Staff, Jan 22, 2013

Veteran Congress party leaders were emo-tional and dewy eyed as they listenedto Rahul Gandhis acceptance speech

after he took charge as the vice-president of theparty, with some leaders calling it his Obamamoment and others pointing to it as the comingof age of the so-far reluctant party leader.

But if a report by the Indian Express is to bebelieved the credit for the Congress leadersspirited speech goes not only to him, but SamPitroda and sister Priyanka Gandhi as well formaking it the tearjerker that it was .

While Rahul is said to have written the speech,Pitroda reportedly made substantial contribu-tions to the speech and it was vetted by sisterPriyanka Gandhi before it was nalised, the

report said quoting unnamed sources.

Understandably, he reportedly had a few butter-

ies in his stomach, even though the speech wasbeing made before his own party members andhe reportedly walked out during his mothersspeech and returned only while the Prime Min-ister was getting done with his speech.

The success of the speech can perhaps be at-tested to the fact that many senior Congressleaders, including Chief Ministers Sheila Dikshitand Ashok Gehlot, were left wiping tears fromtheir eyes. Whether it was after hearing thespeech or out of relief cant be said.

Read the full text of Rahul Gandhis speech hereor watch him give his speech here.

Does Rahul owe Priyanka,Pitroda for his badlav speech?
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/we-owe-it-to-the-people-full-text-of-rahul-gandhis-speech-70663.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLRKuBJgLgohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLRKuBJgLgohttp://www.firstpost.com/politics/we-owe-it-to-the-people-full-text-of-rahul-gandhis-speech-70663.htmlhttp://www.firstpost.com/


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Highlights from Rahul Gandhisemotionally charged speech

Highlights from Rahul Gandhisemotionally

charged speech.

IANS, Jan 21, 2013

Jaipur: Newly-appointed Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi gave an emotion-ally-charged speech Sunday at the Birla

auditorium here while addressing the All IndiaCongress Committee session on the last day ofthe Chintan Shivir.

Some of the highlights:- The Food Bill will ensure that no mother seesher child go hungry at night. Right to Informa-tion allows every Indian to take on the battleagainst corruption.

- There are people in high positions with nounderstanding of issues this happens because

we respect position not knowledge.

- The youth is angry as it is alienated. Until westart to empower people, we cant change any-thing in this country.

- The corrupt talk of eradicating corruption andthose who disrespect women talk of womensrights.

- India is more connected today. It is no longerpossible to limit an idea whose time has come

(referring to Aadhar and direct cash transfer).

- The Congress needs leadership development.Five years from now, we need to create 40-50leaders who have the potential to run the coun-try.

- As a boy I loved to play badminton because itgave me balance in a complicated world. I wastaught by two policemen who protected mygrandmother and were my friends. They killedmy grandmother and took way the balance.

- In the evening I saw my father address the na-tion. He was terried of what lay ahead of him.But I saw a glimmer of hope. That hope has

brought India where it is today.

- Last night my mother came to my room andshe sat and cried. Because she understands that

the power that so many seek is poison. She cansee it because she is not attached to it (power).

- The Congress party is my life. The people ofIndia are now my life. And I will ght for thepeople of India and for this party.


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Rahul vs Modi?


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Rahul vs Modi: They both

face the same challengesFor a news editor, it is a catchy headline and the con-trast between the Congresss dimpled Prince and the

BJPs macho Pracharak is too striking to be ignored.

Rajdeep Sardesai, Jan 24, 2013

T

here is nothing journalists and the view-er love more than a big ght. A Roger

Federer is a great tennis player, but thelegend is enhanced because of his battles witha Nadal; a Tendulkars true genius was testedin his contests with a Mcgrath. What is trueof sports is certainly true of politics. Which isperhaps why political pundits have rushed topredict a Rahul Gandhi versus Narendra Modi

battle in 2014 even before the bugle has beensounded for the general elections.

For a news editor, it is a catchy headline andthe contrast between the Congresss dimpledPrince and the BJPs macho Pracharak is toostriking to be ignored. One a child of privilege,

blessed with the most enduring brand name in

Indian politics; the other a child of hardshipwhose father was not even a sarpanch. One who

claims to be the legatee of the idea of a Nehruvi-an India; the other who represents an alternate

worldview of Hindutva nationalism. The BJPlikes to present the contrast as dynasty versusmeritocracy; the Congress would like to projectit as a secular versus communal divide.

Modi is the great communicator; Rahul appearsuncomfortable in large public gatherings. Onecan be a rabble-rouser; the other a polite gent.Modi wears the badge of CEO-style governanceas his calling card with panache; the other talksof reforming systems but has no ministerialexperience. One is celebrated as an icon for aneo-middle class; the other claims to represent


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the aspirations of a young India beyond thebright lights. Clearly, in a presidential style race,Modi versus Rahul is a delicious prospect, andone which is guaranteed to attract eyeballs.

And yet, the irony is that Modi and Rahul facesimilar challenges. Both in the rst instance are

being asked to live down their past. For the lastnine years, Rahul has been a bit of a political

buttery, almost itting in and out of the heatand dust of politics. He is now being asked toprove that he is indeed ready for a long haul,ready to be a 24 x 7 neta and not a distant, inac-cessible gure. Modi too, is being challenged toacknowledge his failure to control the Gujarat

violence of 2002. He has tried to recast his im-age as a growth oriented chief minister, but the

baggage of not having done enough to stop the

killings of Muslims in the riots remains a blackspot that cannot be erased only through wellpackaged sadbhavana yatras.

Both Rahul and Modi are also also changeagents within their own party, challengingthe existing status quo. In a party notoriouslyresistant to change, Rahul is attempting todemocratise the Congress by opening it up to anew, more youthful leadership. Unfortunately,

the poison of power, as he described it, has sodeeply coursed through the veins of the Grandold party, that Rahul has found it difcult totranslate his good intentions into any radicaloverhaul of the party structures yet.

Modi wants reform from within too. In a partywedded to the notion of collective leadershipand which is still controlled by an extra-con-stitutional RSS, Modis individualistic, near-

dictatorial style of functioning is looked on withsuspicion and even fear by his detractors withinthe sangh parivar. In Gujarat, Modi has suc-ceeded in virtually wiping out the traditionalsangh leadership in the state, but to effect asimilar transformation in the balance of power

between Nagpur and the parliamentary wing ofthe BJP may prove a shade more difcult.

There are other parallels too. Both Modi andRahul are leaders in the age of coalition politics,

and are now confronted with the prospect ofthe increasingly shrinking social and geographi-cal bases of the so-called national parties. AsRahul found out last year, Uttar Pradesh has

moved well beyond any emotional attachmentto the Nehru-Gandhi family; the newly assertivecaste groups want a large slice of the power cakeand are not dependent on old style patron-clientrelations. Modi too has to live with the realitythat in states like Bihar with a large Muslimpopulation, regional satraps like a Nitish Kumarare unwilling to publicly share a platform withhim. Modi atleast has proved himself as thesupreme leader of his home state; Rahuls votecatching abilities remain largely untested.

Modi too has to live with the reality that instates like Bihar with a large Muslim popula-tion, regional satraps like a Nitish Kumar areunwilling to publicly share a platform with him.

APWhich is also perhaps why the pundits who are

pitching the next elections as Rahul versus Modihave got both their maths and chemistry wrong.In a highly competitive and diverse politicalspace, the arithmetic will tell you that the nextelection will be won by whoever is able to aggre-gate the maximum number of potential king-makers Mayawati, Mulayam, Mamata, Jay-alalithaa, Pawar, Naveen Patnaik, Nitish, evena Jagan under one large tent. The chemistry

will convince you that that most of these region-

al players have no xed loyalties and a numberof them will be ready to mix with any combinethat gives them a shot at power sharing.

What Rahuls ascent and Modis likely emer-gence can do though is enthuse the rank and leof their respective parties. The Congress partyorganisation has only one glue that holds ittogether: The First Family. What to an outsideris evidence of chamchagiri is seen by the party

worker as the very basis of his existence in theCongress fold. The BJP too, desperately needsa charismatic face to boost the morale of itscadres. A Rajnath Singh as party president canonly be the result of a desperate compromiseformula; only a Modi-like gure can give theBJP a sense of self-belief that it sorely lacks atthe moment.

Rahul versus Modi will, therefore, be a sell-outbattle for the Congress and the BJP loyalists.

For the rest of India, be prepared for a surprisepolitical grand slam contender.

The writer is editor-in-chief of CNN-IBN.


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Looking beyond Chintan Shivir:Is it now Rahul vs Modi in 2014?

It is certain that Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi are

going to play key roles in the next Assembly elections.

But will they be the only ones to rule the roost when it

comes to a verdict at the Centre?


Now that Rahul Gandhis been elevatedto the post of vice president within theCongress, does it now set him up as the

prime contender for the post of Prime Ministeragainst Narendra Modi, who is most likely tolead the BJP in the next Assembly elections?

According to senior journalist and columnistSwapan Dasgupta, it is now clear that the nextelection will be a Rahul vs Modi ght. Speakingto Sagarika Ghose on a late night discussion onCNN-IBN, he said, It seems to be reasonablyclear the next election is to be a frontal confron-tation between Rahul Gandhi and NarendraModi.

He pointed out that the Congress has beendeliberately putting out secularist statements in

the media to provoke the BJP, thus ratchetingup a secularism-communalism divide.

The Congress is going to ght this election onthe issue of secularism-communalism divide.Therefore avoiding the more important issue ofgovernance in the past ten years, he added.

However, N Ram, former editor ofThe Hindudid not agree with the notion that the next elec-tion is going to be just about Gandhi and Modi.

Before this speech of Rahul Gandhi everyonewas talking about the rise of the regional partiesin the next election. So the possible outcomes ofthe election will be a combination of the region-

al parties and one of the major national parties,the Congress or the BJP, Ram said.
http://av.firstpost.com/2013/01/102132_rahulvsmodi-discussion-1.mp4http://www.firstpost.com/


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Rahul vs Modi: Who has theedge in Mahabharat 2014?

Rahul will try to distance himself from his govern-

ments recent record. Modi will try to get theelectorates mind off 2002. The winner will be whoever

succeeds in making voters forget their past.

R Jagannathan, Jan 22, 2013

Pollsters and psephologists must besmacking their lips in anticipation. Withthe coronation of Rahul Gandhi at the

recent Congress Chintan Shivir, it is becom-ing increasingly apparent that the title bout in

2014 will be between Narendra Modi and RahulGandhi, though both sides will be eager to playdown this angle for their own reasons.

Nobody can, of course, predict how the nextgeneral election will pan out there is simply

too much time between now and 2014 or evenlate 2013. But it is not unreasonable to presumethat Modi and Rahul will be their parties re-spective standard bearers, even if they are notofcially declared their prime ministerial candi-dates.

It is thus worth speculating on how such a battlewill be fought, and what strategies the two sideswill adopt.

A preliminary Swot analysis is in order: RahulGandhi starts with an initial advantage, for inhis party there is no challenger. The Congresssrefusal to allow any alternative power centre to

emerge whether in the youth wing or in thecentral leadership or in the states will ensurethat he has a free run. Rahul will get whateverhe asks for.

Modi has strong grassroots party support, andis certainly rst among equals in the party, butunlike the Congress, the BJP is not a single-power-centre party. Every BJP Chief Ministeris a power centre, and the party is Indias mostfederated organisation. Plus, there is parentalinterference from the RSS. Modi will havemore challenges before the anointment thanRahul.

So score 1-0 for Rahul on his initial chal-lenges.

But Rahul is no match for Modi as a communi-cator. Modi will probably make mincemeat ofRahul when he is in form.

Score 1-1.

Modi and Rahul also have similarities of a sort.

Neither Congress nor BJP is likely to announcetheir candidatures in advance for the formerbecause it does not want to saddle Rahul withany defeat, and the latter to avoid deterringpotential allies. It is more than probable, there-fore, that both Rahul and Modi will be their par-ties chief campaign managers with a major sayin who gets to run and who does not in the nextelections. They will also crucially determinecampaign strategies.

Scores still level. But next come the crucialdifferentiators.

There is no doubt at all that the Congress will


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make communalism its major plank to over-come anti-incumbency. After making a messof the economy and facing serious corruptioncharges, the Congress is hardly in great shape todefend its record in governance. Its best chanceis to shift the focus of the debate to communal-ism, where it believes it has a natural advan-tage. The entry of Modi will allow this to happennaturally.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shindes remarkson BJP-RSS terror camps were not an innocentslip of the tongue. The decision to include theBJP (and not just the Sangh) in his linkage withterror is deliberate. What he is trying to do is toforce the BJP on the defensive on terror, evenif it means giving Pakistan a free ride on thispropaganda self-goal. It will also allow him to

defer a decision on the hanging of Afzal Guru something Shinde does not appear keen to do.

The Congress strategy on communalism willthus be two-fold: while Rahul will take the highground and talk about meeting the aspirationsof youth, development, etc, partys political at-tack dogs the likes of Digvijaya Singh, Shinde,etc will go hammer and tongs at the BJP-RSSconnection and try to force Modi and his sup-

porters to hit back in ways where there can onlybe further complications.

The Congress will harp on this theme outsideGujarat, and especially in UP and Bihar, inorder to polarise the Muslim vote. The centralidea will be to put the BJP permanently onthe defensive on communalism, and force it tomake dangerous statements to polarise votesfurther. For the BJP, communalism is a no-win

game, for the harder it tries to defend itself, themore it will get caught in the same perceptionthat it is communal.

Modi may himself be tempted to play a sub-tle communal card in the hope that there is areverse Hindu polarisation in states like UP,Bihar, Telangana and Assam to the BJPs ad-

vantage, but the task is more complicated sincethere are serious regional players in the game.

The score now tilts 2-1 in favour of Congress,unless Modi is able to force a focus on differentissues. Modis best hope must be to keep abso-lutely quiet on communalism and focus only on

development and governance in the hope thatthe Congress will lose credibility by attackingthe BJP too much.

Next, its worth looking at the youth factor. Intheory, a 42-year-old Rahul should be streetsahead of a 62-year-old Modi in garnering the

youth vote, which will be very signicant in2014.

But in practice, Modi demonstrated in Gujaratthat youth is about an attitude of mind, not age.Rahul is far behind in understanding the aspi-rations of the middle class and the youth asthe BJPs sweeping victories in Gujarats urbancentres showed.

Rahul looks youthful, but has an old feudal

mindset. His party is even more feudal, and be-lieves in old-style freebies and sops to win votes.Modi entices youth with his energy and under-standing of what they want. But in his recentChintan Shivir speech, Rahul did acknowledgethe importance of looking at the causes of urbananger and disenchantment. One assumes he willaddress their concerns.

On balance, both Modi and Rahul will perhaps

draw level on this count. A lot would dependon how the two parties try to woo the urban,

youth and middle class vote and both partieswill probably have strong manifesto promisesfor youth and urban India. Modi probably has asmall edge on the youth vote.

Scores: 3:3 at this stage.

Now, lets look at the strategy that could come

from the Modi camp. If there are real strate-gists here, their best bet would be to focus onthe Congress governance record and economicfailures of UPA-2 where Modi stands out as aperformer in his home state.

Modis could focus on economic governancewhere he scores over the Congress record at thecentre. However, success in Gujarat is not easilygoing to rub off in other states. In fact, too muchtalk of the Gujarat model will only irritate vot-

ers outside Gujarat as they would want to knowwhat is in it for them and their state.

Given the strong undercurrent of regionalism,


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Modi should articulate his Gujarat model anddevelopment policies in regional terms ratherthan a repeated invocation of his own statesapproach.

As against this, the Congress will continue tohold the high card of rural empowerment, free-

bies and cash transfers which may continue togive Congress an edge in rural areas while Modigets an edge in urban areas.

Scores 4-4.

The most important element in the Rahul-Modiclash will not about ideas or policies, but theirability to tailor state-level strategies that will

work for them. A Lok Sabha general election isoften a bunch of state elections aggregated as a

national vote.

Here, Rahul has the advantage of not raisinghackles among any sort of ally from NitishKumar to Navin Patnaik, the Congress would bean acceptable option at the centre.

For Modi, the search for allies has to be morestrategic. The general assumption that he willnd it tougher to get allies is not founded on

any realistic assessment of post-poll politicalrealities, even if pre-poll rhetoric needs allies tokeep their distance from him.

If he is hoping for a reverse Hindu consolida-tion, Modi has to seek it through proxy forexample, in Assam, he could talk of the Bangla-deshi inux. In UP, he can talk of Hindu-Mus-lim unity to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

But one point is important: at 150-plus seats,the Congress can still form a government likeUPA-1, with outside Left support. At 150-plusseats, the BJP will have to provide a leaderother than Modi to run a government. At lessthan 140 seats each, we are more likely to see aFederal or United Front of regional parties inpower with outside Congress support.

This arithmetic implies that Modi has a higherhurdle to cross than Rahul. Without 180 seats,

Modi is a not a realistic contender for PM.

This tilts the nal score at 5-4 in favourof Rahul.

However, a purely neutral analysis is unlikelyto be anywhere close to a realistic assessment of

what will happen in 2014. Too many things canchange, and too many new imponderables mayemerge out of the blue.

As things stand now, the following conclusionsseem likely.

One, secular versus communal will be a majorcampaign element in this battle. One cannotrule out a bitter and dirty ght over this issue.

Two, rich versus poor will be a major issuewhile discussing development. The Congresswill try to paint Modi as pro-rich, while the BJPwill try to tie Rahul to the Congress actual eco-nomic track record.

Three, Modis personality will be both a plusand a minus, but Rahuls will be neutral.

Four, governance will be a bigger issue thancorruption, now that both Congress and BJPseem tainted by it.

Five, the key to 7 Race Course Road will runthrough state capitals Modi will have to have

a viable state-level strategy, both to get the BJPmore seats in hitherto weak states (UP, etc), andto create future allies. Rahul has the luxury ofmaking his plans after the elections and choos-ing allies with the right numbers. He also hasthe option of anointing a PM like his motherdid with Manmohan Singh.

Even if Rahul has a theoretical edge, all bets areoff when it comes to the nal battle where guts,

grit and gumption count for as much as elevat-ing rhetoric.

In the ultimate analysis, both Modi and Rahulwill try and convince the electorate that they aremore than their past or their parties past.

Rahul will try to distance himself from his gov-ernments recent record. Modi will try to get theelectorates mind off 2002. The winner will be

whoever succeeds more in making voters forget

their past.


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Great expectations


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Cong projects Rahul as PM candidate,says only he can lead young India

Rahul Gandhis elevation as the Congress Vice

President and his address at the AICC meeting has led

to jubiliant partymen projecting him as the

Prime Ministerial candidate who can lead the

party to power again.

PTI, Jan 21, 2013

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhis elevation asthe Congress Vice President and hisaddress at the AICC meeting has led to

jubiliant partymen projecting him as the PrimeMinisterial candidate who can lead the party topower again.

Gandhis elevation has been a morale boosterfor the younger generation of the country and Ifeel he is the 2014 Prime Ministerial candidateof the party and I have no doubt people of the

country will denately back his leadership,Kerala Congress Committee Chief RameshChennithala said today.

India is young and you are young and onlyRahul can lead Congress to power again was

how some party leaders hailed the elevation,describing it as historic push forward for Con-gress.

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President


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Niranjan Patnaik said that the state Congressplans to encourage more youths by giving themkey functions within the party.

India is young and you are young. We see inyou the future of the nation and the party. Leadus, guide us and take us on path of regenerationand national renewal. The process of change(parivartan) has begun and we are sure thatthe youth will take active part as critical changeagents. Odisha needs people who understandthe state and are committed, Patnaik said in apress release.

Party leader Anil Shastri in his comments onthe microblogging site Twitter said, Its onlyRahul Gandhi who can lead the Congress topower again.

.All eyes are on Rahul Gandhi now to lead theparty to 2014 elections. UPA III doesnt seemfar and theres lot to be still done for the com-mon man, Shastri said. Describing the JaipurChintan Shivir of the party as great success, hesaid, Rahul Gandhi is the Vice President of theparty. This is the best thing that could have hap-pened to the Congress in the New Year.

Noting that Rahul Gandhi is committed totransforming India, Shastri said, All like mind-ed parties should support him in this cause.

System must change for the better. Present sys-tem is feudal and archaic. Is not responsive topeoples aspirations. Let all come together andsupport Rahul to change the system.

Rahuls speech yesterday reected the anger,anguish and dreams of the youth. Chennithalasaid that his leadership would take the partyin the right direction. Patnaik lauded CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi for giving the partyan opportunity to work more closely with the42-year-old leader.

Chennithala, Patnaik and Shastri had attendedthe Chintan Shivir where a decision to elevateRahul was taken. Patnaik also asked the youthin Odisha to take part in the process of build-ing a better and stronger nation by supporting

Rahuls leadership.

Get ready to script a new chapter in the politicsof the nation as the old make way for the young,as there is hope and dynamism. Give up cyni-cism and channelise your new ideas in takingOdisha forward. Odisha needs new ideas, peo-ple need you, he said.

Patnaik targeted the BJD government in the

state, saying Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Pat-naik has no vision for the future.


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Why its a tough road ahead

for Rahul GandhiWhile any success in the elections will bring himcredit, he would also have to accept the blame

in case of a failure.

IANS, Jan 22, 2013

Jaipur: A special Congress session over the

weekend formally launched Rahul Gan-dhi as the ofcial number two after party

chief Sonia Gandhi, making him the presump-

tive prime ministerial candidate of the party forthe 2014 general elections, but the battle is half

won and testing times lie ahead for the 42-year-old fth generation leader of the Nehru-Gandhifamily.

The Jaipur Declaration, that emerged from the

three-day 18-20 January introspection cumstrategy session Chintan Shivir appeared tohave lost signicance once Rahul was made the

vice president, converting his de facto statusinto de jure one.

But the road ahead is paved with umpteenobstacles and uneasy will lie the head that islikely to wear the crown of thorns, that Gandhialluded to when he talked about the poison

that came with such heavy political responsibil-ity and the personal risks that come with it. Andhis mother, who came to his room and cried onSaturday night, understood it better than any-one else.

Nine assembly polls ve big ones in Delhi,Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh andChhatisgarh, where the Congress will havedirect contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party,

and four in the northeast will test his leader-ship skills.

The return of the third edition of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in 2014 will alsodepend on how the Amethi lawmaker is able torestructure and re-energise the party for the bigpolitical ght. He heads the partys coordinationpanel for the 2014 polls.

Rahul Gandhi is also expected to restructure theorganisation and give key roles to younger lead-ers so the party is able to reach out to the voters,70 percent of whom are below the age of 35.Reaching out to the youth of the country, whoare angry over corruption in the system andother social issues, crave for better systems ofgovernnance and want accountability from thepoliticians and the government, will be a majortask for the new Congress vice president.

The Nehru-Gandhi family scion would also beexpected to spell out his position on various na-tional issues clearly as he now holds an ofcialpost in the Congress.

While any success in the elections will bring himcredit, he would also have to accept the blame incase of a failure.

Rahul Gandhi faces enormous challenges

during the coming polls as his leadership skillswould be tested, Zoya Hasan, who teachespolitical science at the Jawaharlal Nehru Uni-

versity, told IANS.


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His speech after being made vice presidentpointed out many wrongs in the party. Now hehas to set things right, she said.

The move to make him vice president, whichmarks a generational shift in the 127-year-oldparty, is signicant and has mentally preparedthe senior leaders to accept Rahul as theirleader.

Party insiders said the decision was gettingpostponed for a while due to reservationsamong some senior leaders on giving him theofcial number two position in the grand oldparty.

But the members of the Youth Congress andNational Students Union of India and the

younger leaders in the party who compriseda third of the 350-odd delegates at the session made strong demands for his elevation, keep-ing in mind that 70 percent of the voters in thecountry are under 35 years of age.

Over 50 senior leaders who shared the dais withSonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan

Singh at the session, not only heard Rahul withrapt attention, but stood up as soon as he n-ished his speech and were seen competing withone another in congratulating him.

Rahul had arrived.

In an impassioned speech, Rahul made it clearthat he does not hanker for power and stressedthe need to transform the partys systems anddevelop new leaders at all levels while sayingthe youths must be involved in decision making.

Rahul struck an emotional chord when he re-lated how his mother and Congress presidentSonia Gandhi cried when she met him after he

was made the vice president and moved manyleaders to tears.

The question now is whether he will be able tobring the middle class, especially the restlessand impatient young, to the Congress campfrom which they stood quite alienated over per-ceptions of corruption, misgovernance, inationand insensitivity to issues that concern them.


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Can Rahul Gandhi really ensurethe Congress victory in 2014?

Rahul might have impressed the rank and le of

Congress leaders by his impassioned speech and selfcritical tone. But does that make him a game changer

for the Congress in 2014 elections?


Does Rahul Gandhis elevation to thepost of party vice-president, impas-sioned speech and all, make him a

game changer for the party in the run up to the

2014 elections?

No, said former editor of The Hindu N Ram.

Speaking to Sagarika Ghose during a late nightdiscussion on CNN-IBN, he said, Rahuls pro-gramme lacks details. He does not make it clear

to what end he desires change.

According to Ram, one is also not clear aboutRahuls political positioning and thus he risksthe chance of being misinterpreted.

We dont have a clear idea of his ideologicalmake-up. Like, we do that Sonia Gandhi is a so-cial democrat and she supports welfare schemesfor the underprivileged extensively, he said.

However, unlike Sonia, Rahul has only support-ed these measures sporadically.

All we know of him is that he is an obsessive

organisation man, Ram said.

Senior journalist Swapan Dasgupta was alsoskeptical of Rahuls speech and said it seemed

to be from the same stable of dynastic politicsthat the Congress and the Gandhi family have

been accused of perpetrating.

He is going to rule the minions. There wassome kind of divine right underlining hisspeech, he said.

According to him, young leaders were im-pressed by his speech and do want him to step

into a leadership role. However, he will be preyto the very ills that he had vouched to ght forin the speech, the columnist said.

He is talking about decentralisation and afterall MNREGA is a horribly centralised scheme. Ithas no provision for modication by the imple-menting states, Dasgupta said.

Watch Video
http://av.firstpost.com/2013/01/113857_rahul-chintan-shivir.mp4http://www.firstpost.com/


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Not just a Number Two:Rahul Gandhi can transform Congress

For the Congress workers his speech clicked, as mid

way into his speech he got a standing ovation from theaudience and those at the dais. Will he shape the

destiny of the Grand Old Party of Indian politics

Sanjay Singh, Jan 21, 2013

Rahul Gandhis coronation speech asCongress vice-president gave clearhints that while he may have been of-

cially or emotionally designated as Number

Two, he would be the de-facto Number One. Hismother, Congress President, Sonia Gandhi will

be the patron, who would love to see him exer-cise all powers that lakhs of Congress workershad bestowed upon her for so long. He was notgoing to be just the face but also the nal courtof appeal: I will be the judge not the lawyer,he said earlier today.

If he claimed innocence of an eight-year oldbeginner in politics, he also sought to impresshis party and the voting public that he was nota novice; he had learnt the tricks of the tradefaster and in times to come he would unfold hisplan transform the system. He was not con-tent to just look at ways to better the system be-cause there was no system in place. Decisions

were taken behind close doors by few empow-ered people who did not represent the will ofthe massesmediocrity dominated all round good compassionate words that were music

to a majority of over 1500 delegates gathered atthe AICC conclave in Jaipur.

Like his father Rajiv Gandhi, he claimed the

innocence of a youthful outsider, elevated to theposition of command but felt frustrated by theprevailing system of client-patron and it wasthus his duty to correct it. He was out to sell adream to his own party men in particular. Hesprinkled his maiden speech as vice-president

with many personal anecdotes of tragic familyevents. How his mother, Sonia who had gonethrough the emotional grind wept in relativeisolation of his hotel room because she per-

ceived power as poison.

She wept. Why? Because she knows that poweris poison and she has seen it in its worst. So, allI want to say is, that with power, we shouldntforget the responsibility that come with it. Ihave known it my life. He also spoke of how he

woke at 4 am and went onto the balcony, in thedark and cold, when he decided to speak whathe felt, also of hope, not what they wanted tohear.

For the Congress workers his speech clicked, asmid way into his speech he got a standing ova-tion from the audience and those at the dais.His mothers grim face and moist eyes added

whatever was left to bind them to him, as theman who would shape their destiny and of thatof the Grand Old Party of Indian politics.

He is a self proclaimed seeker of knowledge,

understanding and compassion. Yes I am op-timistic, I am not a pessimist. He thanked hismother, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh andthe Congress party for the building blocks that


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helped him transform the system.

Rahul Gandhis problem is not his speech orintent but his delivery and track record in sup-posed transformations that he has so far carriedout. His democratisation of youth Congress, se-lection of youth who became MPs and MPs who

became ministers of state and further elevatedto Independent charge or Cabinet rank mostlyhave a rich dynastic lineage. This perpetuatesfurther, instead of reinforcing his vision ofequality and democracy.

The prevalent ills that he talked about in ticketdistribution, where an outsider would paratroopat the time of elections and then y out afterlosing it had all been there in last years UttarPradesh elections where he was directly at the

helm. The Samajwadi and Bahujan Samaj Partyrebels and turn coats were welcomed with openarms and most regular workers, whoever wereleft in the state, were not considered worthwhilein ticket distribution and kept at arms lengtheven during the heat of campaigning in UttarPradesh.

It did boost morale of the party men when he

said workers should be respected and leadersat all levels, in the government and organiza-tion should open up beyond their chosen few tolisten to them. Learn to praise your colleague,respect knowledge and understanding was hismantra to them. Even those who were corruptspoke of eradicating corruption, he said draw-ing a similar parallel to criminal politicians.

Today he spoke like a management consultantsuggesting remedies to transform the systemin a party, we have to build 40-50 leaders who

will run the country, 5-10 in every state anyoneof whom can rule that state.

The promises that he made were good to gener-ate hope among those gathered who believed inhim as their leader and religiously kept chanting

for him throughout the day inside or outside buthis test lies in delivery, not just for the Congressparty but much beyond that to the people atlarge if UPA3 has to come into existence after2014 polls.

Pitted against him would be the BJP strongmanNarendra Modi. The prospects are of huge elec-toral excitement.


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Son rise in Congress:Its too soon to write off Rahul Gandhi

When youre a Rahul Gandhi, there will always be

countless fall guys within the party to accept moralresponsibility for electoral losses. Any victory, on

the other hand, will be attributed to his

Chanakyan politics.

Venky Vembu, Jan 20, 2013

T

here is a certain air of inevitability to Ra-hul Gandhis ascension to the No 2 post

in the Congress party. For months now,diehard Dynasty worshippers within the partyhad practically been chanting the Rahul Gandhichalisa and asking for the yuvraj to be coro-nated not just as party leader, but as PrimeMinister.

Were it not for the fact that Rahul Gandhis ownlack of self-assuredness in politics, which mani-fests itself everytime he steps out of his comfortzone of carefully corralled crowds, inhibited himfrom taking on a larger role despite the manyintimations of his imminent arrival, he wouldhave been borne aloft the hot air of chamchagiriand inicted upon the country.

In rare moments of earnestness, Rahul Gandhi

has in the past confessed to a keenness to workhis way out of a job, so to speak. The Congressparty, which is something of a Nehru-Gandhifamily heirloom, privileges people like himself,

who belong to the First Family of Indian poli-

tics, but he himself was working to rejuvenateit through inner-party democracy, he claimed.

And when that mission is accomplished, he sug-gested, the party will no longer be tied to dynas-tic apronstrings.

Its hard to say with certainty whether RahulGandhi was ever serious about weaning theparty away from its dynastic instincts. Certainlyhe went about trying to hold elections to the

Youth Congress and infuse some fresh blood.But when the old order within the party struck

back, he surrendered too tamely and fell back

upon a group of trusted courtiers, the only dis-tinguishing feature of whom was that virtuallyall of them were themselves the fruits of sub-dynastic politics within the Congress.

The passage of time, however, appears to havedimmed Rahul Gandhis ardour to render theDynasty irrelevant. One reason for this could bethat there is far too much at stake for the FirstFamily to forego all the trappings of power. As

the National Herald land scam case showed,the Congress is today a business empire morethan a political party. Even notionally apoliti-cal sons-in-law get to ride the gravy train andprot unduly from being a part of the Dynasty.

And as Sonia Gandhi has demonstrated over thepast eight-plus years, untrammelled power can

be wielded without responsibility and account-ability.

But its perhaps just as true that Rahul Gandhihas valiantly overcome his own sense of self-doubt and increasingly sees himself in mes-sianic terms. After his formal anointment asparty vice-president on Saturday, he claimed he


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was looking to transform India. I have greatexperience, he said. In the last eight years thatI have worked with the party I have seen it is agreat organisation and together we will trans-form the country.

Critics of the Congress have been mockingRahul Gandhis elevation, and leaders of theBJP have airily dismissed him as a politicallightweight who wont change the game for theCongress in any signicant way. They perhapstake heart from Rahul Gandhis patchy recordof recent months and years in Bihar, UttarPradesh and Gujarat where Rahul Gandhisexertions failed miserably. Perhaps they rejoicetoo soon. When youre a Rahul Gandhi, there

will always be countless fall guys within theparty to accept moral responsibility for electoral

losses. Any victory, on the other hand, will beattributed to the Chanakyan politics of RahulGandhi, as happened after the 2009 generalelections.

Another such opportunity presents itself inKarnataka, where Assembly elections later this

year will likely see the BJP lose its foothold inthe South. Watch how the Congress spin doc-

tors project it as a Rahul Gandhi-engineeredvictory and set him up for 2014

Media commentators are already salivating atthe prospect of seeing a galactic battle in 2014

between a Rahul Gandhi-led Congress and aNarendra Modi-led BJP. If it does come about,it will be the sharpest clash of political ideas andpersonalities that we will have seen in a genera-tion. But there is no certainty of such a contest,given that the Congress appears to have residualinhibitions about making it a Presidential-styleelection which will amplify Rahul Gandhis limi-tations.

Rather than rejoice over Rahul Gandhis anoint-ment, the BJP would be better off addressing itsown organisational limitations that keep it from

leveraging on the UPA governments many fol-lies of the past four years. Even today, the BJP isunder RSS pressure to reappoint Nitin Gadkarias its president for a second term. If it yields,it will have appointed as its president about theonly leader who can match Rahul Gandhi for hisinability to inspire. It will also validate the beliefthat the BJP is innitely capable of snatchingdefeat from the jaws of victory.


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Reactions


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Rahul Gandhi spoke the language of the outsiderlooking to change the system, but he is a consummate

insider to the system that he says is awed. And,

worse, he is a direct beneciary of the aws in the

system that he riles against.

Venky Vembu, Jan 21, 2013

Rajiv Gandhi did not deliveron promises, so will Rahul?

Those of us who have been around a fair

bit in this world will need no reminderof this, but Rahul Gandhi, who made an

emotion-laced coming-out speech at the Con-gress chintan shivir retreat in Jaipur on Sun-day isnt the rst person with photogenic facialdimples to charm diehard Congress supporters and more than a few members of the media

brigade. A generation ago, Rahul Gandhis fa-ther Rajiv Gandhi, the original Mr Dimples whohad been living a charmed life, became Prime

Minister in tragic circumstances following theassassination of his mother Indira Gandhi, andattempted to channel the power of Indias youthand usher in a generational change in Indianpolitics.

In 1985, the year the Congress party turned 100,Rajiv Gandhi delivered one of the most searingindictments of the political and administrativesystem as it existed then. Speaking as an out-sider to the system (which he truly was), RajivGandhi was particularly harsh on the Congressparty, which, he said, had shrunk from a partythat had once red the imagination of the mass-es to a party that had lost touch with people and

was being controlled by power brokers and

self-perpetuating cliques. We are a party ofsocial transformation, but in our preoccupationwith governance we are drifting away from thepeople. Thereby, we have weakened ourselvesand fallen prey to the ills that the loss of invig-


30/34

orating mass contact brings.

It was pretty strong stuff (you can read theentire speech here), and there was an earnest-ness about Rajiv Gandhi as he set about tryingto cleanse the corrupt and rotten system, muchof which was the product of nearly four decadesof (virtually uninterrupted) Congress rule at theCentre.

But within four years, the hope that Rajiv Gan-dhi inspired was dashed by the harsh realityof Congress organisational politics and RajivGandhis own fall from grace.

Entangled in the Bofors kickback scandal, inwhich Italian businessman Ottavio Quattroc-chchi was implicated, Rajiv Gandhi did his

damnedest to sabotage an independent inves-tigation into the scandal and fell back on theusual coterie of Congress power brokers toshield him.

By 1989, the decent dimpled bloke who hadcharmed a nation some years earlier had beenreduced to mouthing crude turns of phrasesdirected at Opposition leaders.

Never very comfortable in Hindi, he gave riseto much merriment with his Nani yaad diladengethreats. As it turned out, all these yearslater, the only person in whom Rajiv Gandhihas bestirred nani memories is his son Ra-hul Gandhi, who is now positioning himselfas a consummate outsider who is looking totransform the system.

In his speech at the Congress retreat on Sunday,

Rahul Gandhi spoke movingly about his grand-mother Indira Gandhis assassination (and howit left his father Rajiv Gandhi broken). But inthe main, he was railing against the system that, he said, had effectively disenfranchisedmost of the people and rendered them voiceless.

Media anchors given to gushing have called thisRahul Gandhis (and the UPAs) Obama mo-ment whatever that means. (Other than thefact that like Obama, Rahul Gandhi appears

to have found a halfways-decent speechwriter,and invoked the promise of change, there wasnothing Obama-esque about the speech.) Butthe striking thing was that Rahul Gandhi ap-

propriated the language of the street protestorsled by, say, Arvind Kejriwal in seeking systemicchange.

But unlike with Rajiv Gandhi, who was truly anoutsider to the system when he made his 1985critique of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi is , as Inoted here, a consummate insider to the systemthat he says is awed. And, worse, he is a direct

beneciary of the aws in the system that heriles against.

Any honest critique of Indias systemic awsmust begin with the corrupting inuence of his

naniand his father (of whom he spoke endear-ingly) and, it needs to be said, his mother SoniaGandhi.

For sure, other leaders, many of whom are inother parties, too share a part of the blame, butthe Congress has been in power at the Centrefor all but a handful of years since Independ-ence, and much of the blame for Indias social,economic and political decay rests at its door.

And there was nothing in Rahul Gandhisspeech to signal that he would bring about sys-tem change at the core of the Congress being.

If anything, some of the things that RahulGandhi said showed him up as perhaps lackingin a sense of irony. In India, he said, we dontrespect knowledge, only position, and virtuallyeveryday he meets people holding high posi-tions who have a tremendous voice, but who

have no understanding of the issues at hand.Well, it may have come as a revelation to RahulGandhi, but the only reason why his vacuouspronouncements and ill-informed articulations


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thus far have gained amplitude is because he iswho he is: a privileged member of Indias fore-most political dynasty.

The central theme of Rahul Gandhis speechwas about giving voice to the voiceless. In chan-nelling that sentiment, even if it was borrowedfrom the street protestors in recent years, RahulGandhi appeared to have found his own voice.

This was in many ways his most disciplinedpublic speech in recent years, and there weresome signs to suggest that he was ready to give

up his now-you-see-him-now-you-dont dilet-tantism and submit himself to the harsh grindof a political life in greater measure.

Yet, Rahul Gandhi will be eventually judgednot by what he says in prepared speeches, but

whether he delivers on those promises. Hisfather tried rather more earnestly, but failed.

Weve been fooled by those facial dimples be-fore. It will take much more to reinforce faithin well-meant, but dishonest, promises ofchange.


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Rajivs speeches were inspiring,Rahul spoke like an Oppn leader: BJP

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi received praise

from the BJP with the party describing his speech in

the 80s as passionate and inspiring, while

dismissing Rahul Gandhis Jaipur speech as that

of an opposition leader.

PTI, Jan 21, 2013

New Delhi: Former Prime Minister RajivGandhi received praise from the BJP

with the party describing his speech in

the 80s as passionate and inspiring, whiledismissing Rahul Gandhis Jaipur speech asthat of an opposition leader.

He (Rahul) certainly spoke like a leader of theOpposition rather than a person belonging tothe ruling party, BJP spokesperson Nirmala

Sitharaman said here.

Recalling Rajivs speech, she said, I am ableto recall when Rajiv Gandhi had taken over hisrole, a greater role in his party, he had spoken

very passionately about how the party should

get out of the hold of power brokers. It was avery, very inspiring speech, no doubt.

Referring to Rahuls address at the CongressChintan Shivir, she said, Today Rahul Gandhihas spoken with a great lot of idealism. I hopehe is able to implement most of the things thathe said within his own party rst and prove it tothe country that he is able to achieve it withinhis own party before he probably would ever

become the PM, if at all, so good luck.

On Home Minister Sushilkumar Shindes Hinduterror statement, she said, They rst start say-ing saffron terror, they engage with terroristsand later on they say Hindu terror. They also

would like to call BJP and related organisationsand sometimes name a patriotic, nationalisticorganisation such as the RSS as a terror outt.

Taking on Shinde, the BJP leader said, TheHome Minister should better know that he can-not escape from the responsibility of bringinganswers to the table rather colour of terror.

Condemning this periodic misleading of thepeople in the name of terror politics, she de-manded apology from the Minister. We de-mand that the Home Minister retracts and alsoapologise for the statement, she said.


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Rahuls elevation in Congcomes as no surprise: BJP

BJP today said the elevation of Rahul Gandhi to

the number two position in Congress poses no

challenges to it.

PTI, Jan 19, 2013

New Delhi: BJP today said the elevationof Rahul Gandhi to the number two po-sition in Congress poses no challenges

to it.

This announcement of Rahul Gandhi becom-ing number two of Congress has not come as asurprise. He was already number two after So-nia Gandhi. He was not number three who has

been elevated to number two. Only a member ofNehru-Gandhi family can be number two, BJP

spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told PTI.

Congress announced today that the CongressWorking Committee has unanimously support-ed a resolution moved by A K Antony to makeRahul Gandhi Vice President of the party.

This decision will not bring any gains to Con-

gress. He does not pose a challenge to BJP evenif he becomes President of Congress. Congresshas no future, Hussain claimed. Another partyspokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said thoughthis decision is entirely of Congress and is an in-ternal matter of that party, it will not have muchpolitical impact.

If Congress thinks the elevation of RahulGandhi will give a boost to the partys futureprospects, then it is highly mistaken. People will

judge Congress as well as Rahul Gandhi by theirperformance in the last nine years that the partyhas been in power, Prasad said.

He maintained people will look at Rahul Gan-dhis track record as an MP and a campaigner ofCongress before taking any decision.

Another BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekarsaid the whole country knows Congress is aone-family party and has always had dynasticleadership since independence.This develop-ment may excite Congress but does not excitethe people of this country, he said.

Asked if Gandhis elevation poses a challenge toBJP, he said absolutely not. Changing a no-menclature does not change the situation on theground. Another spokesperson Rajiv PratapRudy said the people still do not know whatRahul Gandhis views are on the Delhi gangrapeand other crucial issues.


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FirstpostEbook_RahulGandhieBook_20130125073946

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