Sorcerer’s
Apprentice
If politics is a form of sorcery, involving the swaying of
the masses and the conviction of the classes, it cannot be within everyone’s
skill-set or temperamental cup of chai.
Some are born to selling chai but
become consummate politicians; others are born to politics, but have no
aptitude for it.
It does not take a
genius to realise that the ‘united’ Congress Party, split once before by a very
competent and courageous Indira Gandhi, has no future under the leadership of her grandson Rahul Gandhi. Reduced to less than a rump by the verdict of
the people already, the Congress is about to involuntarily (through no doing of
the High Command that is), splinter into several bits and pieces going forward.
Rahul has displayed little intellectual ability, people
skills, stomach, or political acumen, for any work he has done for the Party,
despite his interminable Sorcerer’s Apprenticeship. What he possesses in ample
measure is a line in hubris and bad manners which he likes putting on public
display, as in his treatment of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, when the
poor man was out- of- station on a official visit to America.
Rahul Gandhi is a known liability, but a designated
political heir and illustrious dynast nevertheless, absolutely to the manor
born. It is anathema to denounce him in the Congress Party, no matter how repeatedly
incompetent he proves himself to be.
The attempt of his minders, like one-time Congress Madhya
Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, current General Secretary, trusted blue-blooded
courtier, to explain away Rahul’s shortcomings; constitute acts of great skill
in themselves. Singh’s frequent advocacy
that Rahul should take over from his mother as President of the Congress Party,
smacks of the aspirations of a would-be regent.
Of course, if it does
come about, it will be an excellent strategic development that will work in
favour of the ruling BJP. But, it is anybody’s guess which faction of today’s
Congress will even accept Rahul Gandhi as its chief.
As Sonia Gandhi, Congress President for the last 15 years,
ran out of ideas learned from a circa 1980s Indira Gandhi, there was nothing to
carry the Party over into present times. Except, perhaps the magnitude of the
corruption it engendered. Sharad Pawar walked out of a Congress led by her a
decade ago, to find his independent identity, and retain his dignity. He has
made a good job of surviving it, because of his home base of Maharashtra, and
Baramati within it. He has worked with Congress since, at the Centre and in
Maharashtra, but without being tied to the High Command’s apron strings. He
even played a stellar role in enabling the BJP to form the State Government in
Maharashtra very recently. There is a template for others to follow in this,
and the experienced hands know it.
Rahul Gandhi, on his part, has even fewer ideas of his own,
at least very few that make sense to others. So, even the threat of his
imminent elevation to the top job in the Congress party, both in letter and
spirit, is splitting the Congress at the seams.
One erstwhile Congress
Minister, a woman and a Dalit to boot, has already crossed over, and now
the P Chidabaram camp has raised the flag of open revolt. It is becoming
increasingly clear, because senior Chidambaram opted out to return to his
flourishing law practice, even before the 2014 general elections. Next, Karti
went hammer and tongs, first, followed by Jayanthi Natarajan.
It makes sense for
Chidambaram and friends to walk away from the Congress if his faction is to
have any future relevance in Tamil Nadu, heading for its own Assembly elections,
soon. Others, if they want a political future, more in harmony with the times,
will be making tracks too.
The ‘humiliation’, that Natarajan of the infamous ‘Jayanti Tax’ fame, referred to in her press
conference at some length, is nothing new to senior Congressmen. Who took the
money? Who held up things in reality? Who will investigate?
But, suffice is to say, all Congress-wallahs are all terrified of their High Command culture, that tames all native ambition by
having one satrap watch another at all times.
But now, it has become abundantly clear that the Gandhis have lost their
magic with the people, and cannot win elections anymore. Also, their Party
purse, sustained by the Centre and the States they once ruled, is fast emptying;
and along with it their power of patronage.
The old guard, many of whom are nearing, or are in their
seventies or more, recognise that they may not get another crack at power. And
the likelihood of theBJP retaining power for 10 years at the Centre, and in most
of the big states too, is quite intense. They know that their children and
followers need new alliances to remain relevant to their political legacies.
The BJP must know
this too, but as they have been at pains to point out, have no agent provocateur role to play in the
ongoing disintegration of a grand old party in decline.
(846 words)
January 30th, 2015
Gautam Mukheree
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