RAHUL GANDHI
IN A CENTRAL POSITION TO LEAD THE CONGRESS IN THE 2014 GENERAL ELECTIONS
New Delhi, 26th January 20131
Klaus Voll and Kamakshi Nanda2
For further information please contact Ernst STETTER, FEPS Secretary General at [email protected] or David KITCHING, FEPS Policy Advisor at [email protected]
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Outcomes of the “Chintan Shivir/ Introspection camp” of the Indian National Congress, January 2013
Dr. Klaus Voll (Advisor on Asia to FEPS) and Kamakshi Nanda (Political Analyst)
FEPS Rue Montoyer 40 B-1000 Brussels +32 2 234 69 00 | www.feps-europe.eu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Analysis of reactions to the appointment of Rahul Gandhi as the VicePresident of the Indian National Congress
3. Portrait of Rahul Gandhi
Annexe I – Jaipur Declaration
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INTRODUCTION
The Grand Old party of India started 2013 with an introspection camp. Congressmen across the nation assembled in Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur, 18th - 20th January, to thrash out internal problems and
set the agenda for the upcoming years, especially in light of the general elections in early 2014. A
total of 345 Congress party delegates from across India camped at the BM Birla Science and Technology Auditorium to brain -storm together.
Sonia Gandhi in her short and brusque speech reminded her fellow delegates of the need to change
with the times. She emphasized the importance of reaching out to the ambitious youth and growing
middle classes, sections of society previously overlooked by the party, to regain lost ground in public
support. She called for the Congress “to recognize the new India…increasingly peopled by a younger,
more aspirational, more impatient, more demanding and better educated generation.” She highlighted the fact that the Indian youth wanted its voice “to be heard”. The other topics touched by her
included fighting corruption and addressing public concerns over forest, land, livelihood, water and
tribal rights. Although she did not directly refer to the heinous gang-rape of a young paramedical
student in Delhi, she curtly informed her audience that women’s politics would no longer remain the
concern of the Mahila Congress, the women-centric wing of the party, but rather be at the centre of
all Congress political activities.
Congress walked away from Jaipur with two major developments. A new agenda charting out their
goals and means of achieving it, titled Jaipur Declaration (see Annexe I). However the outcome which
has become a talking point in media houses and among the public at large, is the selection of the
new Vice-President of the Congress. Great-great grandson of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru, grandchild of fiery Indira Gandhi, son of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and current
Congress President ‘Madam’ Sonia Gandhi - Rahul Gandhi has a formidable Nehru-Gandhi lineage.
Some journalists have cheekily described the event as “coronation” of the “Yuvraj” (“prince” in Hindi)
– “an extreme application of dynastic politics in a democracy”3.
This paper briefly explores the reactions of the Congress party members, opposition leaders, and
media to the elevation of Rahul Gandhi. A happening that was bound to occur sooner or later but
had kept political analysts guessing on the timing and place of it.
3
When summarising media reaction in Smita Gupta. “Coronation over, Rahul prepares party for change”. The Hindu, Monday 21 January 2013.
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ANALYSIS OF REACTIONS TO THE APPOINTMENT OF THE NEW VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE INDIAN
NATIONAL CONGRESS
The most politically thrilling outcome of the Chintan Shivir at Jaipur was the appointment of the 127
year-old Congress Party’s new Vice-President. The ‘young man’ in his early forties, apparently the
“Prime Minister-in-waiting”, finally accepted the post of Vice-President of the party that had toiled
endlessly for India’s independence from British rule. On 19th January 2013, the Congress Working
Committee (CWC) nominated him to the new post, less than one and a half years ahead of the upcoming general elections in 2014. Rahul Gandhi at last warmly responded to the clamour within his
party to assume a more prominent role.
Rahul Gandhi’s promotion did not come as a surprise. The question was not if the junior Gandhi
would become Vice-President or Prime Minister but rather when would he take on a more responsible position? Although little is known of the nature of Sonia Gandhi’s illness, perhaps the alleviation
came sooner than expected for some. Speculation was rife that, given the current anti-government
perception of the people, the Congress might have shielded Rahul for some more time and use him
with full gusto only in the 2018 elections. The giving of the mantle to Rahul might have been precipitated on account of Madam Gandhi’s health. Political scientist Professor Zoya Hasan thinks, “This
marks the transition of power from Sonia Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi.”
Voices within the Congress, young or old, followed the announcement with eulogies of Rahul to create public hype and myth of Rahul being the harbinger of positive change. While seasoned Congress
party members welcomed it, Rahul’s contemporaries and youth Congress members were ecstatic.
Son of Chief Minister of Delhi, Member of Parliament and Congress spokesperson in his own right,
Sandeep Dikshit felt it was an “important political signal to the country.” Former Chief Minister of
Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, reasoned that Rahul is the key to rejuvenation and transformation
within the Congress. “Rahul Gandhi criticized the functioning of the Congress itself, to make it more
democratic...Give him a chance, he is on test. He likes to build systems and structures. He has to perform and to deliver.” 4 The young Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot on the same refrain said “It’s
a historic decision and we welcome it. It has energised the party workers throughout the nation. We
will go to the next Lok Sabha election with a renewed vigour now,” where Mr. Gandhi “will be a unify-
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NDTV on 20 January 2013
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ing force” for the Congress. Another Minister from the younger generation, Jitin Prasad, rejoiced, “I
am happy that he [Rahul] has accepted the responsibility... We want him to be the face of the party.
He will drive the youth of the country.”
OPPOSITION LEADERS OF THE BHARATIYA JANTA PARTY WERE QUICK TO DISMISS RAHUL’S CHANGE OF DESIGNATION.
RAJIV PRATAP RUDY, A BJP SPOKESMAN AND A FORMER CABINET MINISTER IN THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE
GOVERNMENT, CALLED THIS DECISION AN “EYEWASH TO DISTRACT THE NATION.” ARUN JAITLEY, BJP OPPOSITION LEADER IN THE UPPER HOUSE, LABELLED IT AS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF “DYNASTIC DEMOCRACY”. HE ELABORATED THAT LEADERS OF HIS PARENT PARTY, THE BJP, WERE PROMOTED ON THE BASIS OF TRIED, TESTED AND PROVEN ABILITY. WHEREAS
IN THE
CONGRESS APPOINTMENTS WERE CARELESSLY MADE WHERE “ACTUAL POTENTIAL [IS] NOT KNOWN.” HE SUB-
STANTIATED HIS ARGUMENT BY POINTING TO
BJP POLITICIANS AND CHIEF MINISTERS LIKE NARENDRA MODI
(GUJARAT), RAMAN SINGH (CHHATTISGARH) AND SHIVARAJ SINGH CHOUHAN (MADHYAPRADESH) WHO WENT ON TO
BECOME LEADERS ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR PERFORMANCE AND NOT BECAUSE OF THE “SURNAMES” THEY INHERITED.
TV journalists ran programs debating if Rahul Gandhi was an “agent of change”, embodying the aspirations of the youth. The well known prime time television NDTV presenter, Bharka Dutt, questioned
the notion of "generational change. The examination of Rahul Gandhi begins now.” While she too
hailed him for being blemish free since he had so far avoided been involved in corruption scandals,
she did at the same time point to his poor report card on zero "policy statements" apart from sporadic comments and little participation in active debates on issues of national concern. Yogendra
Yadaw, political scientist and member of the Aam Aadmi Party, analysed the proceeding as “revolutionary rhetoric of Rahul Gandhi”. He understood the present political scenario as Rahul Gandhi being “more part of the problem than the solution...There is a crisis and decline of political leadership in
both the Congress and the BJP.”
Indian media are already predicting a duel between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi, the successful
Chief Minister of Gujarat who was recently elected for a record third time, in the 2014 national elections. The Congress’s reaction to the premonitions is to point to the long procedure , “tradition”, of
final nomination of a candidate for prime minister. Journalists like Bharkha Dutt muse if Rahul Gandhi
will not find his own Manmohan Singh if the situation arises. With the chief parties in India remaining
silent on their prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 elctions, press and observers, will have
enough food for thought and conjectures.
The “Congress boy” who was born with the silver spoon in his tongue is trudging closer towards the
goals set by his mother. His career graph has studiously recorded a steady ascent though at a pace
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decided by the Gandhi clan themselves. There is no doubt that they will all bide their time before
pronouncing Rahul as Prime Minister candidate. The time now is though ripe for giving him a larger
role only in the party itself. This is because it is necessary to project to the Indian populace that Rahul
will wean out all the reeds and despicable elements in their party, and a revitalized ‘clean’ Congress
shall face the elections in 2014.
Whether or not he would be the prime minister will depend on the election results. Should the current establishment lose, Rahul and the Congress might not want to have to explain another failure.
(The previous being the resounding defeat of the Congress under Rahul’s tutelage in Uttar Pradesh
elections in the summer of 2012). However if they were to get the majority, Rahul, might be tempted
to become India’s 15th Prime Minister.
PROFILE: RAHUL GANDHI
“Prince (Yuvraj)”, “Indira’s grandchild”, “India’s most eligible bachelor”, “face of the Youth Congress”,
politician Rahul Gandhi has many labels. His present favourite could turn out to be his current post of
Vice-President of his party, Indian National Congress. The forty-two-year-old Rahul warmly embraced
the Number 2. position in the Congress in an emotional address on the 19th of January 2013.
Young Rahul Gandhi was a student at St. Columbus School and the elite Doon School in Dehradun 5
before the threat of Sikh extremism forced him to be educated at home. Details about his undergraduate and graduate studies are unclear for he assumed a pseudo name of allegedly ‘Raul Vinci’
following the assassination of his father Rajiv Gandhi by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terrorists. He joined Delhi’s prestigious St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, for under-graduate studies however moved to Harvard in Boston after one year of education at Stephens. Thereafter he is
said to have transferred to Rollins College in Florida, from which he graduated with a BA in 1994 and
received an M Phil in Development Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge University a year
later in 1995.
He started his career as a consultant with the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, in London. He became a director of a start-up BPO venture Backops Services Private Ltd a few years later
but politics beckoned him. He entered the Lok Sabha elections arena in May 2004. He contested from
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Indian equivalent of Eton College in Great Britain
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his father’s constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and won with a resounding triumph by a margin
of over 300,000 votes. His sister, the crowd puller, Priyanka Vadra was his campaign manager.
Amethi was also his mother’s constituency and is considered as one of the ‘safest’ Congress parliamentary seats in India.
He patiently waited till 2007 to get a major break within the Congress rank. In September 2007 he
was awarded his first office - General Secretary of the Congress Working Committee with additional
charge of Youth Congress and Students Union of India. Under him both the youth groups recorded a
quantum leap in their membership and currently have over 2.5 million members in their rolls. Success blessed Rahul in 2009 as well. He toiled hard during the general election campaign, addressed
over 100 rallies and his efforts were generously awarded. He secured another win in Amethi, this
time by more than doubling his victory margin over the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party candidate
and was credited with raising Congress’s overall performance in Uttar Pradesh. Congress posted a
win of 21 Lok Sabha seats out of a possible 80, an increase by 12 seats from 2004.
He was though unable to capitalise on his popularity in Uttar Pradesh for the state-level elections in
2012. It was hoped that Congress could be revived in the states and it could displace the two regional
parties. Fate though did not smile on Rahul again for Congress won a mere 28 out of a total 403 state
assembly seats which was an increase of only 6 seats from the previous 2007 elections. He graciously
accepted defeat. He issued a public apology taking “full responsibility” for Congress’s poor results
and made calls for introspection within the Congress members to understand their failures and
shortcomings.
In his political career the fifth generation Nehru-Gandhi scion has courted little controversy. There
were though a few aberrations. In the run-up to the polls in Uttar Pradesh, he had joined the villagers who were protesting against land acquisition in Noida. In the resultant clashes between the police and villagers, some deaths had occurred on both sides, while women from the village had accused the policemen of rape. Rahul visited the volatile areas but was arrested by the local police on
the ground of threatening public order. His release was though secured on the very same day. Although Rahul sided with the narrative that was propounded by the villagers and asked for immediate
corrective action but little came of the cases registered against the uniformed men.
Rahul Gandhi has not been visible in active public debates of national importance. His silences have
been more prominent than his utterances. Disenchanted and grumbling Congressmen have criticised
Rahul publically on this front in the past. The former Law Minister, current Foreign Minister Salman
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Khurshid lamented that “Until now… we have only seen cameos of his thoughts and ideas...[but little]
ideological direction”. Little is known of his opinions on foreign policy, economics and internal problems of the country. A fact not unnoticed by the youth and media.
More recently, in spite of his India’s youth icon status, he gave no comment or reaction to the nation-wide protests which took place over the gang rape of the young student in Delhi. His only response was a short official statement denouncing the assault which was found lacking in depth and
meaning. Banners of the protestors at India Gate in December 2012 screamed, “Where is Rahul G. –
the youth leader. We are here? Where are you?” His absence and silence was both conspicuous and
disliked by many who were on the streets demonstrating against the ghastly event.
Nevertheless a short four weeks later, the mascot of the Gandhi’s was promoted to the status of
Vice-President of the ruling party in India. It would be interesting to observe how and if the young
Gandhi manages to turn round his party and march to an election win in 2014.
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