5 august 2019 http://www.openthemagazine.com 27
uous, erratic, imperious, with an oversized sense of entitlement;
they know he has walked away from the president’s job in a huff
because he is peeved that the senior leaders were not in sync with
his sophomoric “chowkidar chor hai” virulence during the 2019 Lok
Sabha campaign; and now, these veterans suspect that Rahul Gan-
dhi has unleashed a war against the Congress, the very political
party that is the only raison d’être for his place in India’s public life.
These life-long durbaris discern that the Family—Rahul,
priyanka and Sonia—is on the same page in this display of
tantrums. many of those who know the family intimately suggest
that it will not allow the Congress to settle down to a different
tune and to a different bandmaster.
There is a sober view that Rahul Gandhi and the Family have
an obligation to help the party make the transition; yet, even the
most ‘loyal’ seniors remain befuddled about the Family’s inten-
tion. many are wondering whether some kind of a ‘strategic
cunning’ is at work, letting things drift, smoking out potential
challengers.
“power structure will not change,” believes a very senior loyal-
ist. Another one argues that there may be a de jure change but de
facto power will remain with the Family. no substantive leader—
not that there are that many—would knowingly confine herself/
himself to the front office while the Gandhis managed the store
from the backroom.
The Family must have also noted that there has not been any
massive outcry for the Gandhis to stay put. on the other hand,
there is considerable resentment among many senior Congress
leaders who want the Family to just go away.
The Family has been given a taste of ineffectiveness, as
priyanka Gandhi discovered the other day when she tried to
intercede on behalf of navjot Singh Sidhu. She is a general
secretary in charge of Uttar pradesh, but cannot resist the
temptation to play the ‘high command’. She is reported to have
sent her secretary, Kanishk Singh, to punjab Chief minister
Amarinder Singh with a message to find an honourable way of
accommodating the very difficult Sidhu. The Captain simply
refused to grant an audience to priyanka Gandhi’s emissary.
Amarinder Singh no longer felt the need to humour a cabinet col-
league who refused to acknowledge the chief minister’s authority.
of course, Sidhu continued to overestimate the efficacy of the
high command, even after the may 2019 defeat, and continued
to act pricey. Sidhu did not take charge of his new ministerial
department; but the chief minister was not in a mood to put up
with a colleague who thought he had some kind of immunity
because he enjoyed the high command’s protection and pa-
tronage. many equations and many calculations stand revised.
navjot Sidhu saw the writing on the wall and walked out of the
cabinet into political irrelevance.
A kind of rearguard action has already been mounted. The
Family is trying to make itself felt. priyanka Gandhi travelled to
Sonbhadra in Uttar pradesh, grabbed the headlines when an in-
ept Yogi government ‘arrested’ her—and the Congress mps duti-
fully protested at the Gandhi statue in parliament House. Rahul
Gandhi continues to make crucial appointments, and Sonia Gandhi
remains the head of the Congress parliamentary party.
Here is the Congress conundrum: the Gandhis will not—and
cannot be expected to—fade away into political oblivion. That
much Rahul Gandhi has forewarned. In his letter of resignation,
he has announced that “I will, of course, continue to fight for the
ideals of the Congress party with all my strength.” Given their
famous surname, the Gandhis could easily grab headlines, and
occasionally land themselves in controversies, which, in turn,
would force the ‘new Congress’ to come to their defence.
Even if there is a genuine regime change, the Gandhis will
continue to queer the pitch. It is no secret that there is a series of
legal cases involving the Gandhis, and each court appearance can
become an occasion to remind everyone about the centrality of
the Gandhis to the organisation.
A new narrative has been instigated that the BJp/RSS would be
only too eager to see the back of the Gandhis, as they remain the
only obstacle in the saffron crowd’s all-India domination. This,
of course, does not take into account the comprehensive rout
that the Congress has suffered on the Gandhis’ watch in 2014 and- These Family partisans prefer to attribute a machiavellian
cleverness to the Amit Shah-modi duo, without realising that
the Gandhis’ presence at the top of the Congress party suits the
nagpur commissars.
A cold war between the Congress and the Gandhis is round
the corner. “He [Rahul] will burn the house down rather than
have someone else occupy it,” says an astute friend of the
Family. Even if the Congress manages to find a ‘replacement’ for
Rahul Gandhi, ingrained habits of compliance and submission
would assert themselves; it will be easy for the Family to see to
it that no new leadership arrangement sustains itself. A year
of disarray and dispiriting electoral defeats in
maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand would see
a clamour for the return of the Gandhis. n
Harish Khare is a senior journalist
and commentator based in Delhicover
Storysomehow Rahul gandhi’s quest foR poweR Could gaRneR
neitheR the Requisite politiCal aCCeptability noR the
minimum moRal RespeC tabilit y. twiCe, in 2014 and 2019,
the idea of Rahul stood CompRehensively Rebuffed