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Five ways Congress can gain from #RahulOnLeave

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Kaveree Bamzai
Kaveree BamzaiFeb 24, 2015 | 17:42

Five ways Congress can gain from #RahulOnLeave

It's a well known joke but now is the moment to retell it: when told that President Calvin Coolidge was dead, Dorothy Parker is said to have remarked: But how can they tell he's dead?

If Coolidge was known for not doing much (he believed least government was the best government), Rahul Gandhi has been known for going missing in action. His breaks, whether to Dubai or Singapore or London, are the stuff of urban legend in Delhi - known to everyone but impossible to prove. His performance in Parliament has been abysmal, though the last session saw him coming to life for a bit by uncharacteristically jumping into the well of the House. His track record as a leader of his party in the aftermath of the historic defeat at the hands of the BJP is even worse - he has largely been absent from state elections.

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But for a man known for the frequency with which he takes leave to ask his mother officially for leave to "'reflect" is a cruel joke, not just on his party but on his mother, when both need him most. The temptation to indulge in what has sneeringly been called "'feelings journalism" is very strong. Is Rahul Gandhi undergoing a mid life crisis? He is, after all, 44, not the young man he is purported to be.

A party less than two years old, led by a soldier of the people much like Rahul aspired to be, has stolen a march on a 189-year-old party, reducing it to a pathetic zero in a state the Congress ran competently for over 15 years. After two years, Arvind Kejriwal seems a consummate politician, at ease with the burden of responsibility, delegating where needed, and acting where required.

After 11 years, Rahul is still a work in progress, struggling against the party's old guard, chafing at his mother's so called control, smarting perhaps at the inevitable comparisons with his sister.

So, is this a prelude to a final goodbye to a decade long experiment with politics? Is this a precursor to a renewed Rahul, who will change the party in ways that cannot be imagined?

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Regardless, Congress should see it as a gigantic opportunity for five reasons:

#1. Get the party to skip a Gandhi generation: The real truth is if Rahul is a reluctant politician, the great white hope Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is an even more untested one. Terrific charisma, great speeches, and superb at one-on-one contact, but is she the future of a party that requires 24X7 handling? Not quite. If the Congress is so wedded to the idea of a Gandhi leading it, and if it is a proven fact that the Gandhis give it a 10 per cent edge in voting, then perhaps they can skip a generation.

#2. Form a committee of regional satraps and a few elders, headed by Sonia Gandhi: The Congress has been run by a Syndicate before, why can it not be done again? Isn't it better that the Congress keep its regional satraps within, rather than let them form independent organisations as YSR's son Jagan Mohan Reddy was foolishly allowed to do -to use another Americanism borrowed from Lyndon Johnson better to have them inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in? It has emerging leaders in virtually every state despite Rahul's best efforts to not engage them.

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In Rajasthan, it can lead with Sachin Pilot; in Punjab, it can allow a free hand to Amarinder Singh instead of losing the anti-incumbency vote to the rising Aam Aadmi Party; in Madhya Pradesh, it can ask Jyotiraditya Scindia to shore up the forces that are bound to emerge after 15 years of BJP rule. And so on. At the centre, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram and Kamal Nath are focusing on their legal practices and business interests. Why not use their combined talents for the party when they are willing to offer them?

#3. Form a coalition with other regional parties: Currently the regional parties see a rallying point in Kejriwal. His model of seeking public apology has been adopted very quickly by Nitish Kumar in Bihar and he will no doubt reap its benefits in the months leading up to elections in Bihar. Why has the Congress ceded that space to AAP? Yes, we know it's because Rahul believes in going it alone; because he believes that the Congress may well have to self destruct before it can rebuild itself. But if the person pushing that philosophy is himself in a mood to reflect, perhaps the party should do so too.

#4. Rebuild the cadres in states where it has been wiped out: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal are states where the Congress has ceded space to regional organisations or breakaway leaders. This is the time to reclaim that space by allowing leaders to emerge and giving them opportunities. There is much work for the party to be done but as elections in Delhi showed, where there is a strong leader in the opposition it's not a cakewalk for the BJP.

#5. Embrace everything that Rahul stays away from: Go big on social media, communicate with people, use senior leaders on television to get your point across (please note how the current Cabinet comprises several ministers who spent much of their time doing battle in TV studios and think whether you can see current Congress spokesmen on TV in any future government), re-engage with minorities not by playing on their fears but by building on their hopes, rebuild bridges with corporate India not by stealth but at industry forums.

Last updated: February 24, 2015 | 17:42
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