Prashant Kishor's pitch for Rahul as CM proves dynasty must go down

Forget whether or not Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi accepts poll strategist Prashant Kishor's advice to lead UP elections as chief ministerial candidate next year. Forget whether a Gandhi scion can lead the party to win 20 without throwing his/her hat in the ring or become chief minister by getting 200 seats.

The hard reality is this: Kishor as an outsider to politics has done in one stroke what nobody, no rival, and no Gandhi family's foe had ever done. Kishor has brought the Gandhis down from high pedestal to the ground.

Napoleon Bonaparte had famously said, "I saw the crown of France lying on the ground, so I picked up with my sword." Kishor sees the Gandhi crown lying in disarray; he has brought it down to dust.

Dynasties, monarchical or political, have one thing in common. They may be built by sword or sweat and sacrifice, but are sustained by myth and mystique. Kishor has busted the myth; he has robbed the Gandhi dynasty off its mystique.

Kishor's strategy that Rahul Gandhi should be fielded as chief ministerial candidate might be farsighted. It might well lead to revival of the Congress in UP and prepare solid ground for rejuvenation of the party at the Centre. But in return for revival of the Congress, the Gandhis have to pay the price of being one among the many frontline leaders of the party.

They have to vacate the numero uno position they occupy in the Congress in perpetuity. It could be a trade-off for revival of the Congress, but at the cost of demise of the dynasty.

Imagine Rahul Gandhi, who fancies himself as Modi's rival for the prime ministerial chair in 2019, sitting in front row at the meeting of state chief ministers presided over by Narendra Modi! Imagine Rahul Gandhi driving to Chaudhary Charan Singh airport in Lucknow to receive Modi on a state visit to Lucknow!

Will he savour it? No.

Kishor might be a brilliant strategist but his idea that for Rahul the road to 7, Race Course Road goes through Lucknow, though desirable, is amateurish. Rahul sans Gandhi dynasty has no brand value. Without the aura of dynasty, Rahul or any other member of the family will have no enviable identity. And without dynasty, there is no road to South Bloc.

The Gandhis have built India's first modern political dynasty with much planning, care and thought. They have faced many crises, they have lost elections but never ever for a moment they did anything to compromise on the overriding idea to keep the family rule alive. The guiding force behind the idea has not been preservation of the Congress but the preservation of the family and its numero uno position in the party. The party can be there but only as a pocket borough.

A cursory glance at the Congress's history will show how the Gandhis - from Indira to Sonia Gandhi - haven't baulked at sacrificing the party for preservation of the family rule. Indira Gandhi decided to split the party, not once but twice - when she faced challenge to her authority within the Congress. Nobody thought she would carry the day and bounce back stronger after she took on the powerful party satraps such as K Kamraj, S Nijalingappa, SK Patil, Sanjiva Reddy in 1969. Again in 1978, few thought she would survive the crisis arising out of the Emergency opprobrium. She split the party again to come back with force.

Sonia Gandhi took on powerful leader like Sharad Pawar within a year after becoming the Congress president and expelled him from the party. Earlier, she encouraged her family loyalists Arjun Singh and ND Tiwari to raise the banner of revolt against Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. Though she was untested in power politics until then, she had the family brand on her side.

The current crisis is bigger and more unsettling for the Gandhis than they have faced before. It would have been audacious for anybody associated with party in any capacity whatsoever, to suggest Rahul Gandhi's demotion to state-level leader and yet continue to carry the brief. It's a commentary on the sad affairs of the Congress and of the Gandhis that Prashant Kishor has had the audacity of suggesting a below-profile role for Rahul.

The very fact that the Congress loyalists and workers are not up in arms, the fact that there is no aggressive show of loyalty in front of 10, Janpath proves that Kishor's strategy for Rahul doesn't appear to so outlandish to the Gandhis.

The Congress would do well to listen to Kishor. His plan for the Gandhis is cheeky but it's imaginative for the party's revival. The Congress has to decide what it wants: Revival of the grand old party of India or the Gandhi dynasty!