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Why Rahul Gandhi blaming 2014 loss on generational feud will have a bearing on 2019

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Vandana
VandanaAug 27, 2018 | 20:39

Why Rahul Gandhi blaming 2014 loss on generational feud will have a bearing on 2019

Rahul Gandhi's Twitter account tells you just how late he was to the party. The 48-year-old Congress scion joined the social media website in April 2015 — a full year after the Narendra Modi wave swept the grand old party reducing the party's tally in the Lok Sabha to a mere 44.

On more than one occasion in the run up to the 2014 general election, the Congress leader had been found missing from action when the country, more importantly, those within his own party, were looking to him for decisive action that behoves a leader staking claim to the country's highest chair.

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And yet the Congress president has chosen to give himself a clean chit for the worst drubbing the party received in its history.

A wrong diagnosis or misdiagnosis can often prove more dangerous than the ailment itself because it can lead a physician to administer the wrong medication to his patient. Needless to say the consequences could be fatal. Electoral defeats are no different.

An electoral loss is in itself not a catastrophe. In the Indian context, all parties and candidates get the opportunity for course correction every five years. But course correction only follows a correct assessment of what led to the party on the wrong course.

Rahul Gandhi's statement blaming the defeat on "generational fault line" is thus just one example of the party's preparedness for the big battle in 2019.

Speaking to a gathering of students at London School of Economics Gandhi said, "There are senior leaders with experience and understanding and there are youngsters who are developing. You can't break the past because there's a lot of value in some of the senior people. So, the present had to be a merger of the future and the past, and that's really why Congress ran into trouble in 2014 because we found that there was an internal fight taking place between the older generation and the younger generation."

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The problem in Congress wasn't the internal fight. It was Rahul Gandhi himself. (Source: Twitter)

There is no party which has been in existence long enough to claim it has a history to it that can deny the generational clash often prompted by personal ambitions.

The BJP is no different.

Narendra Modi's 2013 anointment as the party's prime ministerial candidate was followed by an angry letter from LK Advani — whose aspiration to see himself in that position is no secret — to then party president Rajnath Singh. The letter, which was leaked to the media in no time, read:

"For some time I have been finding it difficult to reconcile either with the current functioning of the party,or the direction in which it is going. I no longer have the feeling that this is the same idealistic party created by Dr Mookerji, Deen Dayalji, Nanaji and Vajpayee ji whose sole concern was the country,and its people. Most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas..."

Advani resigned from all three main forums of the party — the national executive, the parliamentary board, and the election committee — in the same letter. He was, however, cajoled into staying with the party.

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BJP's young leaders had rallied solidly behind Modi, many forming the old guard were relegated to the party's "margdarshak mandal". The rest is history.

The Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh saw its generational war being fought on the streets and rally stages in full public view ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. It is difficult to say whether the party could have won had the fight not been so acrimonious and so public but yes, the party seems to have learnt its lesson and new alliances are being forged in the run up to the 2019 national election with Akhilesh Yadav clearly in control.

In contrast to the BJP (before 2014) and the SP, the Congress has always had a clear chain of command. Orders come from the high command (ambiguously named to represent the Gandhi family) and are followed by those on the ground. If a generational feud festered and couldn't be reigned in, this too is statement on Gandhi's ability as a leader.

But the problem in Congress wasn't the internal fight. It was Rahul Gandhi himself.

In 2011, when the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare was gaining strength Sonia Gandhi was abroad for a treatment. Rahul Gandhi was left to decide on day-to-day matters. Riding on the emotive issue of corruption, Hazare posed a formidable challenge to the credibility of the UPA government in fighting graft. Gandhi chose to look the other way. The public began to see Congress as a party neck-deep in corruption.

In 2012, when a para-medical student was gang-raped and murdered, agitators were met with tear gas shells and water cannons in Delhi's winters. Gandhi was missing from action. He made no attempt to reach out. To prove he was a young leader and with a knowledge of the pulse of the youth.

Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai aptly described Gandhi's 'absence' in an article written for the Hindustan Times, "He never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity."

But what really seems to have put the last nail in Congress' coffin was the mother-of-all interviews that came in the January of 2014. Just months ahead of the election, Gandhi had a chance to prove his leadership skills. The interviewer and the news organisation to carry that interview had been chosen with fine precision to maximise the reach of Gandhi's message.

The goof-up that followed was so embarrassing that even Congressmen accepted that it was horrible. Of course, they tried to sugar-coat it with why it had gone wrong.Gandhi it seemed to have prepared just three answers for his first formal interview — RTI, women empowerment and youngsters. No matter what the question, he chose one of the three themes to respond.

While Gandhi appeared struggling and fumbling for answers when the interview was broadcast, the answer for the rest of the country was simple — Rahul Gandhi just did not have it in him.

In the fight with the ace speaker Modi, Gandhi seemed to have dropped his weapons even before picking them up.

Voters have short memories. They can quickly forget and forgive.

What Gandhi did (or did not) do in the run up to 2014 could have been forgotten if only Gandhi could have realised that it is he who led the party's march to the 2014 wreck.

At a time when the country was fed up with corruption allegations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself in the eye of a storm, Rahul Gandhi himself undermined the PM's authority by tearing down an ordinance on convicted politicians being allowed to contest elections.

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Rahul Gandhi stands accused of undemining the authority of then PM Manmohan Singh (Source: PTI)

But with a Gandhi to his surname, Rahul has the privilege of issuing himself a clean chit.

He is, after all, only learning the ropes of politics. How long will he learn? Being a dynast and with a Gandhi to his surname, he can take an entire lifetime and longer.

This meanwhile is not just a loss to the Congress party but also the country. A formidable Opposition is central to a healthy democracy. Unless, Rahul Gandhi learns we will have keep our hopes low.

Last updated: August 28, 2018 | 11:25
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