Politics: Will the Real Rahul Baba Please Stand Up?

Imagine that you work for an old family-run firm. The firm has been owned and managed for generations by the same dynasty. Imagine also, that the firm is currently run by a matriarch. The matriarch is a very savvy, egotistical woman who projects the firm as being democratic, modern and progressive, whereas in reality, it is the opposite - traditional, autocratic and conservative. The firm has many faithful retainers like you. To keep herself in power, the matriarch brooks no opposition and often plays the faithful retainers off against each other.

The matriarch has invited you to her home for dinner. As someone who has spent his whole career with the firm, you definitely make it a point to attend. It is a signal honour, to be recognised and invited to her home for dinner. However, somewhere deep inside, you feel a sense of resentment. You view yourself as an intelligent and capable employee, who if given half a chance, would do a really great job of running the firm.

Once at the party, you mill around and talk to the other family retainers who have also been invited. You also deferentially greet the matriarch’s precocious young son. It is very clear to everyone present at the party that the son is being groomed for a leadership role, though his skills have never really been tested. On the rare occasions that the son has been given any real responsibilities within the firm, he has failed to perform. This fact is kept under wraps as the matriarch invariably finds a scapegoat when things go wrong.

The matriarch’s philosophy is simple – take credit for herself and her son when things go well, pin responsibility on others when they go badly. This deepens your sense of resentment and insecurity, but you are helpless. After all, many family retainers like you have been sidelined by the matriarch when things have not gone well for the firm. You have no choice but to bow in deference to the matriarch and her son. After all, who else can run this family firm? All your life you have been conditioned to believe that only the family the matriarch belongs to is capable of doing so.

This scenario pretty much captures the way things are run within India’s Congress Party. Sonia Gandhi rules with an iron hand. Manmohan Singh is the regent, keeping the Prime Minister’s chair warm for Rahul Gandhi or Rahul “baba” as he is still known. Rahul “baba” is now forty years old, and it is time for him to grow up.

He has been hovering on the fringes of India’s political scene for years now. The problem with him is that he appears to be well-intentioned, but has yet to demonstrate any leadership or administrative skills. He does not have any ministerial portfolio. The Congress Party carefully stage-manages his few public appearances. I can think of two or three such instances recently. The first was last year, when he went to meet the Prime Minister about the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The NREGS was already being implemented nation-wide without Rahul baba’s help. But the Congress Party made it a point to send out several detailed press releases on Rahul baba’s meeting with Manmohan Singh. This stage-managed event was designed to show how much Rahul baba cared for the rural poor.

Another such event took place recently, where Rahul baba was photographed helping low-caste Dalit farmers build earthen dams. Here again, the press release and photographs focused on how Rahul baba’s heart bled for the poor, not what was being done to alleviate the miseries of the Dalit farmers in question. He is being projected as being well-intentioned and articulate. Unfortunately, that is not enough to govern a country. Every politician (including and especially the villainous ones), claim to have the country’s best interests at heart, and all of them say that all they want to do is “serve” the country.

There is nothing wrong with Mama (Sonia Gandhi) trying to project Rahul Gandhi as India’s next Prime Minister. This is the way “democracy” works in the Congress Party. But what the rest of the country needs to know is whether Rahul baba has the actual skills, intelligence and gumption to run the nation. His past record is not inspiring. He graduated from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi about twenty years ago. There were vague reports that he “studied” at Harvard University in the US. This means nothing, because anyone who is rich and well-connected can take a few summer classes for fun at Harvard University. The point is, he did not graduate or complete any degree at Harvard (or anywhere else).

He has never really worked or held a regular job in the last twenty years. Even within the Congress Party, he has never ever been directly responsible for conceiving or implementing any of the various public-works schemes the government has come up with. In terms of garnering votes for the Congress, his record is disastrous. He pulls in the crowds everywhere he goes, but these people never seem to vote for him. To date, every time he has campaigned for the Congress, the party has lost elections. This pattern has been repeated – in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and many other places. Rahul Gandhi’s presence at campaign rallies are the kiss of death (at least so far).

Before I am accused of being a supporter of the BJP or any opposition political party, let me say here that I have nothing against Rahul baba in person. The point is – I have nothing positive to say about him either, because nobody seems to know exactly what he stands for. Being blandly polite is not enough. What are his views on the economy, and reducing poverty in India? How does he propose to deal with terrorism? How does he propose to handle India’s huge environmental problems? How does he plan to tackle an overstaffed corrupt bureaucracy that feels it is not accountable to the people of India?

It is possible that Rahul Gandhi is extremely intelligent, well-intentioned and capable. If so, this is India’s best kept secret. But for the rest of us to know what he is really made of, he needs to be plain-spoken and take up a position of real responsibility within the government. To paraphrase an old rap song – “Will the real Rahul Gandhi please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?”