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The nation also cares about Rahul Gandhi

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Shiv Visvanathan
Shiv VisvanathanApr 19, 2015 | 17:17

The nation also cares about Rahul Gandhi

One of the wonderful things about India is that antagonisms decline quickly. People who voted against the Congress now seem concerned about it. It is as if you hated the party but still feel fond of the characters you criticised, once they taste defeat.

It is a part of the Indian norm that arrogance should be defeated but everyone deserves a chance. The idea of chance is a part of the folklore of Indian democracy. It is more precious than rights or votes, a chance is a more sacred ritual, a rite of passage, the one heaven-sent opportunity everyone is entitled to.

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Citizenship without chance is a meaningless phenomenon. The other day I heard people who laughed at Rahul say even he deserved a chance. I thought it was the beginning of a joke and then I realised that we as a nation are concerned about him. I did not quite understand the motivation. I think it's a sense of ownership we feel for the Nehru family. It is a legacy that all of us feel we have to maintain.

Another sense of concern is given our pride in youth, we feel we cannot let a young man like Rahul go to waste. While he was away to contemplate his failure, which a cynic described as a sabbatical within a vacation, my friends in various parties got together to create a "friends of Rahul" (FOR) consortium. This group had ex-IAS officers, management consultants, activists and even some individuals from religious organisations. FOR was abandoned a few months later, but for those interim months it made efforts to solve the Rahul problem.

This document was part of a report but even as a fragment it gives one a sense of its efforts. It is simplified to a list of suggestions to the problems encountered. None of the experiments worked but the suggestions are worth preserving as it provides one a sense of the possibilities of Indian politics.

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The first suggestion was to merge Congress with the CPM. The recent meeting of the CPM discussing the future of leadership was echoing in every ear and Sitaram Yechury's plea that CPM return to its mass base was timely. The consultants felt that Congress too should become a mass party, an organise kisan rallies. The first was organised on May 15. It ran well for a week till Rahul decided to spend June in London. He claimed as a seasonal worker he felt close to rural India. The second suggestion from the other end was to merge the Congress with the BJP. There was enthusiasm for this, especially from the Congress in Delhi.

Some even hoped he would head the Delhi unit. While Congress and BJP were celebrating the merger, the RSS in Nagpur panicked when they discovered there was little difference between BJP and Congress cadres.

The fact there was no difference threatened the world of the Shakha. As a diaspora consultant confessed "The RSS felt one Eliza Dolittle a generation was enough". The third suggestion which came from the BJP - worried about the rise of the Congress - was to make Sonia ambassador to Italy.

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Many felt it was a brilliant idea but Modi realised that it would be more effective to return the Italian marines. A grateful European Commission invited him for a tour. Stunned by these suggestions, a desperate Congressman, tired of the family came up with the idea of dispatching them to an island. He felt it could be easily arranged under the terms of the Land Acquisition Act. What he did not anticipate was that Queen and court cannot be separated. Most of the big names of the Congress left with her.

The reformers realised there was no party without Sonia. Desperation increases urgency and the Congress felt maybe Robert Vadra, was not so bad after all. Vadra's tenure was short but violent. He tried to combine Congress's land holdings with DLF projects. Worse he turned all Congress party offices into gymnasiums, using a franchise called "muscle in".

Like all of Vadra's episodes, this one too was short and tempestuous before Khemka was transferred once again. Moments of crisis are moments of nostalgia. Friends of Rahul and Rajiv thought the family and party needed a rejuvenated sense of being elite. They created the Doon school division of the party. The only surprise was the Doon school-like Congress was seen as outdated, an institution low in the pecking order, what with all the new NRI schools in Bengaluru and Delhi. When the empire disowns you, all you have left are management consultants. The first choice of every Indian is Mckinsey's.

One out of two aspirants from BCG felt left out but Mckinsey's it was. The fact that it had a junior minister in the BJP was an added incentive. The Mckinsey report on the Congress was never published. Sonia threatened to sue and the consultants withdrew. The only one who loved the report was Rahul.

He quoted from it pages whenever he felt bereft of ideas. But that was the last chance to create a management revolution within the Congress. The final solace was astrologer Pandit Kashinath, a protégé of Dhiren Brahmachari, who was present in Delhi. He told Sonia the soul of Rajiv had to be catered to first. One needed a yagna.

Times were bad and Kal Yug would be over a decade from now when Rahul would become a family man. As a mother, she was content but as a politician she knew the search must go on. I wonder if my readers can do better.

Last updated: April 19, 2015 | 17:17
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