New Delhi
Speaking on “de-mystifying the Gandhis”, author Aishwarya Pandit Sharma pointed out the relevance of the Gandhis in the present times, adding that “we need to first contextualise their relevance within the Congress party”.
She said, “It is true in the present era of the grand old party that Congress is Rahul Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi is Congress. Therefore, he is pretty much relevant for the Congress. It is difficult to understand Congress without understanding Rahul Gandhi and vice versa. However, unfortunately, we see his evolution only through the ability to evolve in electoral framework of politics where he has not been able to define himself and has had undersized presence. Beyond that, there is a lot of change in Rahul Gandhi after 2019 general election polls.”
Sharma added, “I think the problem with all the Gandhis is that they do not see the problem before them and for long they remain in denial. They needed transformation out of it. I think the party failed to evolve with times trying to protect their face. When you compare them (Congress) with other state parties, these state parties are strong, have their cadres intact and contest elections at the booth level. Congress’ cadre has ceased to exist.”
Author Sugata Srinivasraju was of the view that Rahul Gandhi evolution started the moment he stepped into the parliament. “There have been several phases of evolution in his political life. As an individual as well he has evolved. That’s what happens I believe, our response system changes with times and our reactions evolve.”
He added, “Rahul Gandhi has started seeing problems in a manner that no one has. After Indira, he is the first one to look into emphasising upon ideology. He may be slow or incorrect, but he is trying. He is working on to build an ideological position. He knows that the BJP has tried to create an ideological front by making the voters go through the process of indoctrination and, therefore, he wants to counter it with his ideology.” Political analyst Mayank Singh said, “Based on data analysis, we need to see how much votes were polled by Congress in 2019 and what was it before that. It went down from 49% in 1984 to 19% in 2019. If he was evolving in the last two elections, it means he had got 10 years to evolve. It again went down from 2014 to 2019. Thus, data is nowhere showing Rahul Gandhi has evolved. Nowhere did I see that two times someone has lost the elections and then the third time the same person has come back and won. If it does happen, it will be historical.”