Like father, unlike son: why Rahul is the un-Rajiv

As Rahul Gandhi wound down his padayatra in Uttar Pradesh, everything from his style of politics to his body language was subjected to clinical analysis. Inevitably, for someone who hails from India’s foremost political dynasty, some of this analysis has veered around to a consideration of whether, in the way that Rahul walks, talks and holds himself and in the way he practises his politics, he is a 2011 model of his father Rajiv Gandhi. [caption id=“attachment_39452” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Former Indian prime minister and Congress party leader Rajiv Gandhi addresses an election campaign meeting at Kishan Gunj, in Bihar on 5 May 1991. K.M. Kishan/Reuters”] ![](https://images.firstpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/rajiv380.jpg "rajiv380") [/caption] The made-for-television images of Rahul, as he makes his pedestrian Discovery of the ‘Other India’, did show a son who bears a striking resemblance to his father. Tall and fair of skin, clad in khadi white vestments, Rahul may stand out among the poverty-shrunken, sun-browned bodies of the farmers and farm labourers of Uttar Pradesh; but anyone who lived through the 1980s, when Rajiv Gandhi undertook similar political expeditions into India-that-is-Bharat can instantly recognise these as polychromatic photocopies of images from the family album. But apart from such genetically transmitted physical resemblances to his father, right down to his dimpled cheeks, and a shared ability to stage carefully choreographed excursions calculated to convey a “common touch”, Rahul Gandhi is, in fact, everything that Rajiv was not. He is, in many ways, the ‘un-Rajiv’. Let me count the ways. The Vision Thing With all of Rajiv Gandhi’s faults—and God knows he had many—he at least had a vision for India that he was able to articulate forcefully and implement, even if only haltingly. Although he took over as Prime Minister in 1984 in tragic circumstances, following the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi, Rajiv quickly changed the national mood and infused hopes of a break from the politics of the past by outlining his vision for India as a modern, forward-looking country where technology would be harnessed for common good. In contrast to the regressive politics that his mother practised, Rajiv spoke of preparing India for the “21st century” – and, more importantly, ensured that it wasn’t just a slogan. Early in his tenure as Prime Minister, he invited keen scientific minds and technocrats into his government, and laid the foundation for India’s telecom and technology revolution. In contrast, Rahul, who has been in engaged in grassroots-level politics for some years now, has given no indication that he has any larger vision for India. Even his bland statements about harnessing youth power in politics appear intended as hyperbolic claptrap: he has failed to back up his avowed conviction with demonstrable action, and in fact has ended up antagonising Youth Congress leaders with his style of functioning. Rahul’s political instincts also tend to be backward-looking insofar as they revolve around the politics of caste and class. He has failed to inspire or infuse hope in anyone beyond the diehard worshippers of Congress dynastic politics. [fpgallery id=72] Truth to Power-Brokers For at least the first two years as Prime Minister, when Rajiv Gandhi had enormous political goodwill (and knew that he had it), he used his bully pulpit within the party to take on “power brokers” in the Congress. (It’s another matter that mid-way through his tenure, after the Bofors scandal erupted, he lost his nerve and turned to the old-faithful power brokers to bail him out.) But at least at the first level, his instincts led him to speak truth to power – and to power-brokers. Rahul, by contrast, has shown not the faintest inclination to take on entrenched vested interests within the Congress; in fact, on the few occasions that he’s ventured out from behind his mother’s pallu, his reflexes have tended to rely rather more on career politicians and fixers. Ideological bent Unlike Indira Gandhi, who was trapped in the politics of mindless, unthinking socialism, which only served to make Indian industries uncompetitive, Rajiv opened the door to the first round of economic reforms and broke up monopolies—and forced bloated Indian corporates to shape up. Even if his reform initiatives were ham-handed and borderline reckless—and eventually pushed India to the brink of bankruptcy—he made his ideological inclinations clear, and took the first tentative step towards opening up India’s economy. Rahul Gandhi, on the other hand, hasn’t let us in on where he stands on this ideological debate. On the few fleeting instances where he has given a peep into his leanings, he has tended to favour knee-jerk populism that would have done his socialist grandmother proud. Indicatively, addressing farmers in U.P. yesterday, he said, with wholesale lack of nuance and utter recklessness, that the government “does not lack money” and could “give you plenty of money if it wishes to”. The company they keep Rajiv Gandhi was no intellectual giant—far from it—but he at least had the good sense to bring experts on board his governance team and profit from their wisdom. Rahul, by contrast, has, even before he has taken on any administrative responsibility, begun to rubbish technocrats in the administration that his own party heads. He told the same group of farmers yesterday, in what must count as the most unvarnished political pandering ever, that the farmers were “more knowledgeable than people in the Planning Commission” and that the government should hold discussions with them before making laws. Political instinct and charm Rajiv Gandhi was fast-tracked into politics under unusual circumstances: he took up a party post after the death of his brother in a plane crash, and became Prime Minister following his mother’s assassination. Yet, for all his unfamiliarity with politics, he conveyed an ease of manner and charmed international leaders and audiences with his youthful vigour and wit. Rahul, by contrast, has been mucking around for seven years, and far from imprinting his mark on his party, conveys only a gawky, lost-in-Blunderland image of himself. And if he has an iota of charm to his personality, he has thus far endeavoured valiantly to hide it from the public gaze. But, in the end, the son may share one defining characteristic with his father. By first pandering to Muslim fundamentalists in the Shah Bano case and then caving in to pressure to open the gates of the disputed site at Ayodhya, Rajiv Gandhi uncorked ancient communal genies that set India back by more than a decade. Rahul Gandhi, whose own political naivete has caused much embarrassment even within his party, could in the end prove just as much of a political disaster.

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Like father, unlike son: why Rahul is the un-Rajiv

Rahul Gandhi bears a striking resemblance to his father Rajiv. But their politics are poles apart, and the only point of commonality may prove embarrassing to both.

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