He needs to change the Congress team in Parliament, specially the Lok Sabha.
New Delhi: A few years back when the Congress was still grappling with its leadership issue and Rahul Gandhi was in between one of his reinventions, a senior Congress leader spoke to me off the record. He pointed out that if we look at our epics, there are two leadership models. One is the Ramayana where Lord Ram is the de facto leader, but he preferred to be the figurehead at the top, leaving the heavy lifting to his brother Lakshman and his chief aide-de-camp, Hanuman. The other leadership model comes from the Mahabharat where Yudhishir leads from the front, with all the Pandavas being present on the battlefield together. The Congress leader concluded saying that, clearly our model is the Ramayan (with due apologies to the BJP).
So if Rahul Gandhi is the leader who leads but doesn’t provide an on-ground presence, then he definitely needs to have the right team in place. If you look at all the leaders who form the Old Guard in the Congress, they have all been recruited by his father and uncle, Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi. From Ahmed Patel, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Capt Amarinder to Ghulam Nabi Azad, Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath.
Each has his USP, some at the state level and some at statecraft. That is because while both Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi had their coterie (which leader doesn’t?), they also promoted a second rung of leadership. Now let’s take a look at Team Rahul with a special emphasis on the Class of 2004 that debuted with him. Apart from Sachin Pilot and Scindia, there is Milind Deora, Sandeep Dikshit, Jitin Prasad, Ajay Maken, Madhu Yaskhi Goud and Navin Jindal to name a few. Where are they all now? Apart from Rahul Gandhi himself, none has made it to the Lok Sabha.
Interestingly, Sachin Pilot’s achievements have been used to damn him—that he became an MP at 26 years, Union minister at 32, PCC chief at 36 and Deputy CM at 40 years. Contrast this with any of the other “good looking and good English speaking” dynast within the Congress and they will all fall short, as will Rahul Gandhi—and it won’t be because of a lack of opportunity.
We are also told that Sachin Pilot’s fault is that he was ambitious and impatient. It is only in a party where the chosen heir apparent is reluctant to assume any responsibility can such qualities be a negative. The problem really lies in the route Sachin Pilot chose to achieve said ambitions. If in his impatience, he consorted with the enemy as is being alleged by Camp Gehlot, then that is unforgiveable and Sachin Pilot has then effectively burnt his bridges with the Congress. At least for the time being, for in politics nothing is permanent.
But let’s take a look at the road ahead for the Congress. On 10 August, Sonia Gandhi will complete one year as the interim chief. We are told that Rahul Gandhi has still not indicated that he is ready to step back into his old office. So then will the Congress continue with Sonia Gandhi? If it does then the party runs the risk of staying at status quo. If, however, Rahul Gandhi does step up (and somehow I don’t see any other leader being given the top job); then this would be a good time for him to move out of his echo chamber at Tughlaq Road and put a team in place. With the appointment of Hardik Patel and Ajay Lallu as state unit chiefs in Gujarat and UP, there seems to be an attempt to promote young grassroots leaders. Rahul Gandhi also needs to change the Congress team in Parliament, specially the Lok Sabha, where the haltingly-Hindi speaking Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is not quite cutting it. Instead, why not get the articulate Shashi Tharoor, or the equally articulate, but also bilingual and definitely more youthful Manish Tewari, as the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, if not Rahul Gandhi himself?
One just has to look at the optics of the team that was sent to Rajasthan to adjudicate between Gehlot and Pilot. It comprised of Randeep Surjewala (the articulate media cell head), K.C. Venugopal (Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation), Ajay Maken and Avinash Pandey, Rajasthan Congress in-charge. Barring Surjewala, who was sent probably also to manage the Congress narrative in the local media (which I think he did to the best of his ability, considering the circumstances), the others are all light-weight leaders despite their fancy nomenclatures. Could K.C. Venugopal (who owes his Rajya Sabha seat to Gehlot) have the temerity or the political guile to over-rule the veteran Congress Chief Minister?
So far, the Old Guard has a reason to look smug. Whether it has been Bhupinder Hooda vs Ashok Tanwar, the late Sheila Dikshit vs Ajay Maken, Capt Amarinder Singh vs Navjyot Singh Siddhu or Virbhadra Singh vs whomsoever Rahul Gandhi had wanted to replace him with, the Gen Next has been found severely wanting. Now with the old guard firmly ensconced, let them hold the fort for the next few years, while Rahul Gandhi identifies and grooms the next rung to take over from them. Once this exercise is underway, it will also send the right reassuring message to all future Sachins and Scindias, that there is a plan in place to accommodate the aspirations of a Gen Next.
Interestingly, Uttar Pradesh is the one state seeing some green shoots and that is solely because of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra aided and abetted by her PCC chief as well as a fellow dynast Jitin Prasada. With an eye on wooing the disgruntled Brahmin vote away from the BJP (which has acquired a predominantly pro Thakur slant under Yogi Adityanath), Prasada has floated the Brahmin Chetna Samvad and begun touring the state. During lockdown, it was Priyanka Vadra who took on the UP CM with her buses for migrants; and before that, she was touring the state visiting those hurt in the anti-CAA riots.
Another encouraging sign would be if Rahul Gandhi—who initially tried to bring back democracy within the Congress by holding elections within the Youth Congress—pushes for elections to the Congress Working Committee. This is something some Congress leaders such as Shashi Tharoor have been publicly asking for. Earlier, we were told that the one reason the Gandhis were apprehensive of holding CWC elections was because they were scared these might throw up a contender to the throne, as is what happened when Narasimha Rao held elections to the CWC in April 1992 at the Tirupati session. At that time, both Sharad Pawar and Arjun Singh emerged as strong contenders. But currently, even if a handful of regional leaders manage a strong showing, not one of them would agree to support the other for the Number One post. However, what the Gandhis would gain, is the emergence of a strong second rung of leadership that can be both nurtured and when it suits them, played against the other.
For long, the Congress has been known to operate under the hyphen of Dynasty-Democracy, with the former getting more heft. Maybe it’s now time to tilt this seesaw in the other direction, without ejecting either participant.