Sonia Gandhi 2.0: A message to Rahul that he is no longer needed to run Congress?

‘Maiyya rehti hai bimar, Bhaiyya par Congress ka bhaar, Priyanka Phoolpur se bano ummeedwar,’ desperate Congress supporters had pleaded during the Lok Sabha election. Elections got over almost a year ago; Bhaiyya has now become a burden on the Congress and Priyanka is showing no signs of joining politics. So the ailing mother has come out on the streets to save Congress. Those who composed the limerick cum SOS must be wondering if they had written off Sonia Gandhi a bit too early. Sonia has been unusually active over the past few days. First she made a rare speech in the Parliament on the issue of assistance to Andhra Pradesh, proceeded to lead a march to Rashtrapati Bhavan against the land acquisition bill and on Thursday toured the rain-affected areas of Rajasthan. [caption id=“attachment_2162825” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption] Just when everybody was expecting Sonia to hand over the baton to her son and retire from active politics, she is spearheading both her own party and the united opposition. There are two ways of looking at Sonia’s renewed interest in politics. O_n_e, she has given up on Rahul and is taking the party’s reins back in her hands. And two, she has realised that the NDA government is floundering and people may be willing to listen to the anti-Modi voices. A few years ago, when Rahul was anointed the party’s vice president at Jaipur, it was assumed that Sonia would soon pass on her burden and responsibilities to her son. But, Rahul, it seems, is still not ready and appears more keen to abdicate than ascend the throne. Rahul’s long, unexplained periods of absence are well-known. He has made a habit of disappearing every time he is required by the party and becoming silent when he is expected to speak. But his recent sabbatical appears to be the proverbial last straw on Sonia’s back; she may have realised that Rahul will never show any aptitude nor eagerness for politics. To be fair to Rahul, he is not the first Gandhi to show his reluctance to enter politics. The last Gandhi to willingly choose politics as a full-time profession was his uncle Sanjay. Everyone else, including his father Rajiv and mother Sonia, were accidental politicians. For more than a decade, Sonia may have hoped that one day Rahul would also follow in the footsteps of his father. But now she may not be so confident. In addition, Sonia may have realised that the political situation in the country has started changing, that there is growing dissatisfaction with the Narendra Modi government and the Congress needs to become politically active and vocal again. The party can no longer wait for Rahul to lead the charge when the time is opportune to strike at Modi. Inertia and indecision could be suicidal for the party. “Often, as Narendra Modi turns predictable and his economics sounds as if it appears from a common canonical stable and AAP quarrels relentlessly with itself, the citizen, in desperation, sometimes wishes the Congress party would revive and return,” writes Shiv Vishvanathan for rediff.com. Vishvanathan argues that the Congress revival would depend on how it is able to reinvent itself. “Eventually, hope has to focus on the one available candidate – Rahul. One has to create the transition from the dimpled Prince Charming via the idiot hamlet to a sense of assertive leadership,” he writes. But Rahul is showing no signs of making that transition. Is Sonia’s renewed interest in active politics then a message to Rahul that she no longer needs him to run the party? Is this her way of telling Rahul that he can do whatever he wants (go on unexplained leave, throw tantrums) and she doesn’t care? Is Sonia telling Rahul that as long as she is around, the Congress will not be allowed to drift? We will know the answers to these questions soon. For the past few weeks, there have been rumours that Rahul would be made the president of the Congress in April. If the speculated Congress session is deferred and Rahul is not promoted soon, it would be a good indicator that Sonia is reassessing her succession plan.