"Priyanka Gandhi maybe charismatic, but is not an answer to Modi"

While the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Congress wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi to let Priyanka Gandhi contest in the next Lok Sabha elections, a panel on CNN-IBN today unanimously agreed that the media is creating a mountain out of a mole hill regarding the issue. “The Congress will not play up Priyanka Gandhi as their trump card. That is not an option. I do not even understand why the media is playing with the idea,” said N Ram, former editor-in-chief of The Hindu said. [caption id=“attachment_1173729” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of Priyanka Gandhi. AFP[/caption] Supporting Ram’s argument Vinod Mehta of The Outlook said, “The Allahabad unit is being given a lot of bhao. They thought that saying something like this would make Sonia Gandhi happy.” The unit has not only sent a letter to Sonia, but has also passed a resolution seeking Priyanka as a candidate in the 2014 polls. AAP member and senior fellow of CSDS, Yogendra Yadav also said that the media may have been trying to invent news by portraying Priyanka Gandhi as the Congress trump card. “This is routine Congress sycophancy,” Yadav said dismissing the issue. Meanwhile, both Ram and Mehta agreed that Priyanka Gandhi is not the answer to Congress’s current problems. “Priyanka entering the fray at this point will create huge problems for the Congress. It will confuse the minds of the people as to who is who in the party. It will be a death wish,” Mehta said. However, senior journalist Sharad Pradhan was of a different opinion. Though he agreed to Mehta and Ram’s arguments, he said “Considering that the Congress has been hinging all along on the Gandhi family name, sycophancy is bound to be there. In UP the moment rumours appeared of Modi contesting from Lucknow, they said Priyanka can only give competition.” “In UP Priyanka is definitely regarded as charismatic, she has mass appeal and is often compared to Indira Gandhi,” he added. On the Congress trying to use the Gandhi dynasty to counter Modi’s charisma and renaming the Food bill after Indira Gandhi, Ram said, “It is true that Indira Gandhi was a fearless leader. But there is no point running after her charisma now because the Congress stock is down. They are not looking for some magic. I don’t think they are looking to retrieve the situation from here on. So the last minute naming of the scheme is not going to be of no avail.” Yadav agreeing that charisma does make a difference said, “We must look at the content of the charisma. What made Indira Gandhi famous was because she looked like someone who stood away from the syndicate, she stood for garibi hatao.” “The answer to Modi is not a charismatic face. The challenge for the Congress is how it deals with the problems that Modi poses for them,” Yadav added. Yadav also said that bringing in Priyanka as a candidate also throws light on the leadership issues the Congress faces. Providing a completely different angle to the CNN-IBN debate Pradhan said that this might be a ploy by Congress to test what the voter feels, “Maybe the Congress is testing the waters with the whole Priyanka Gandhi issue. May be she will take a plunge if they feel the time is right,” Pradhan said.