|
CONGRESS SUCCESSION
Rahul ban gaya gentlemanMalladi Rama Rao
Indira Gandhi
Whether you like
him or not and
whether he
succeeds or not,
you cannot
deny, the
reluctant crown prince, has won the
perception war to herald the Rahul
era in the Congress as 2017 was
drawing to a close. This is no mean
achievement for one who relished the
image of an angry outsider while the
world outside 10 Janpath and 24
Akbar Road saw him as the Pappu.
Sonia Gandhi
Who is that someone else?
One needle of suspicion pointed at a
member of the First Family of the
Congress itself; because he is known
as Gandhi family relative in political
circles; his brother, Tehseen, also a
Congress leader, is married to Robert
Vadhera's cousin, Monika. Both
Tehseen and Monika have quickly
disowned Shehzad to the great relief
of some, and to the utter disbelief of
some others. Who is Shehzad Poonawalla?He is a nine-year-old Congressman; he started his innings with the research team of AICC media cell and graduated to the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee after a stint as a vicepresident of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) wing in Pune. His brother Tehseen is married to Monika, a cousin of Robert Vadhera. His grouse: cold shoulder from the party high command, Rahul including though he had "spent time, energy and money working voluntarily for the party" at all levels for eight years to raise to "the position of a secretary in a state unit in 2016". So, his question to Rahul Gandhi: "But how and why (other than your surname) did you, in the same time span, start off with an MP seat in 2004 itself, get general secretaryship in 2007, and then graduate to vice presidentship of the national unit while your mother was the president?" Going the rule book, Shehzad Poonawalla stands "disqualified" to be a challenger. To contest for the party president's post, a Congress leader must be a PCC delegate, which is also an elected post. He is not a PCC delegate. . He challenged Rahul Gandhi to a TV debate and demanded a level playing field in the Congress presidential election. Both demands went unheeded.
Tehseen Poonawalla
Poonawalla show is the BJP. Look at
the way the party's mascot had
jumped on the Poonawalla
bandwagon with glee. The
saffaronites gave up on him once he
himself gave up his headline quest. Monica Poonawalla So, in a sense, Rahul Gandhi, the reluctant crown prince of yesterday, has become a General without an army. Loyalists, whom Shehzad Poonawalla has attacked as "handpicked, "may help to transport crowds for rallies but cannot help in converting the crowd into votes. Anyhow, barring a few honourable exceptions, the loyalists are not vote getters. It is tempting to compare Rahul army to his great grandfather's Army that faced the Chinese in the Northeast. This comparison is patently unfair; indeed, may be uncalled for but it helps to drive home the enormity of the task that awaits the Cambridge and Harvard educated Nehru-Gandhi scion.
Natwar Singh
Shehzad Poonawalla likes to term
the process of elevation of Rahul
Gandhi as "coronation" because that
fits into his narrative on dynastic
politics. Congressmen and women
see it differently. For them, Rahul
represents the time-tested dynasty
and therefore a sure ticket to return
to the theatre of power politics. No Longer Reluctant Prince13 years are, indeed, a long wait in politics but that is how Rahul Gandhi went around keeping loyalists and acolytes in a state of animated suspense. The uncertainty was put to rest when he filed the nomination for the prized top post, and was declared elected unopposed on Dec 11. His task is to reverse the Congress-mukt Bharat campaign unleashed by Moditva since the 132-yearold party is in power in just eight of the 29 states, retaining a mere 766 seats in the 4,120 assembly constituencies across the country.On Dec 16, (the day set for Congress Presidential election) he became the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to take charge of a party which is a rainbow coalition of sorts at best of times. Inclusive agenda to counter the BJP's divisive one, an appeal beyond Dalits, farmers, tribals and minorities, and an economic plank not soaked in Nehruvian socialism will be the medicine to lift the morale of the Congress cadres. And for good electoral health!
N. D. Tiwari
In Andhra
Pradesh, the Congress that matters today is the YSR Congress floated by
the son of late satrap, YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
Arjun Singh
"Every election, you (Congress) lied
to Muslims and promised them
reservation. My Muslim brothers here
should tell me, didn't they 'maaro
gappa' about reservations," he told an
appreciative audience near Surat
during his Gujarat poll campaign.
India is a country that will never
wish away religion and yet Indian
ethos will continue to give respect and
place for all religions. Gandhiism is a
living example of this Indian spirit.
Both in his public speeches and
writing, Gandhiji always used religious
symbols, and harped on Ram Rajya,
the land of happiness and bliss for all. The number of temples Rahul had visited was an election-time record for a member of Nehru-Gandhi family
Mani Shankar Aiyar
India needs to reinvent the
Gandhian wheel of religious tolerance
and Nehruvian model of secularism in
these days of love jihad, cow
vigilantism, and blatant
communalism - all tailor-made to
power politics.
YS Rajasekhara
Admittedly, Rahul has come a long
way over the past four-four years.
When in January 2013, he was named
Congress vice-president in Jaipur, he
stood before a receptive audience
and said his mother told him that
"power is like poison". Now he is
taking over the reins of the century old party asthe President - the sixth
from the Gandhi-Nehru 'dynasty' to
do so, continuing a chain beginning
with Motilal Nehru. Whether he likes
or not, politics is in his blood. |