Gandhi virudh Gandhi: Rahul's 'leave of absence' is an open ultimatum to Sonia

For those worried about Rahul Gandhi’s departure, for those celebrating his exit, the good/bad news is this: before his departure, Rahul had a long chat with some of his trusted lieutenants and asked them to get ready for the Bihar elections and organizational changes in the party. Obviously, Rahul has no intentions of extending his visa for wherever he is introspecting about the future of the party. His loyalists are convinced that he has just made a ‘tactical retreat’ before the next session of the All India Congress Committee, where he may be anointed party president. So, why has he left in the middle of the Budget session of the Parliament? The Parliament and Rahul have never been good friends. During his decade-plus career, Rahul has contributed very little to debates, except for his now-forgotten stories about Kalavati. He has generally been a back-bencher, a reluctant participant; more a listener and a follower than a debater and a leader. [caption id=“attachment_2118503” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. AFP.[/caption] Why? A senior Congress leader close to Rahul argues that performance in the Parliament is highly overrated in Indian democracy. “Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and LK Advani were the BJP’s stars in the Parliament during the UPA government. But who became the PM—a person who had never ventured beyond his state. To win an election, you need to prepare on the ground, focus on the organisation.” This argument has many flaws. While it might be one factor that influenced Rahul’s indifference to the Lok Sabha session, the more likely explanation for the break is a rift with his mother, Sonia Gandhi. When it comes to the matter of organisation, the mother and her successor have serious differences that may have now surfaced in the public eye. Rahul seems to be keen on implementing the 1977 model on the Congress and purge the party of all its regional satraps. That year, after Indira Gandhi lost the general election and the party was wiped out of many states—a scenario that resembles today’s Congress—many senior leaders left the party, paving the way for fresh blood and new satraps. During the Assembly polls for Rajasthan in that year, for instance, the Congress was struggling to find a suitable candidate to contest from a constituency in Jodhpur. Its stalwarts like former chief minister Mohan Lal Sukhadia had quit and other established leaders did not have the courage to contest. So the party gave the ticket to a young NSUI leader, who put up a tough fight but lost. In 1980, when Indira returned to power, this NSUI leader—Ashok Gehlot—was rewarded with a ministry at the Centre. And what happened to Sukhadia, who returned to the Congress when he sensed that Indira was going to win? After hinting that he may be home minister in the new government, Indira left Sukhadia entirely out in the cold. Since then, Gehlot has been the most powerful Congress leader in Rajasthan. According to sources in the Congress, Rahul wants to similarly sideline senior leaders and give opportunities to new leaders. He feels that senior leaders, including Gehlot who was booted out by voters in Rajasthan, are equally responsible for the decline in the party’s fortunes and should make way for the next generation. But to his chagrin, the old guard is refusing to walk into the sunset. Rahul would have had it easy if he had Sonia’s approval for his planned overhaul. But the Congress president has her own view of the situation based on her early years in the Congress and experience during the Narasimha Rao-Sitaram Kesari era.