Sonia Gandhi’s speech may have been written by Rahul

Sonia Gandhi, in her speech at the Congress Working Committee meeting on September 8, started with a scathing attack on the Modi government over the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill. She praised Congress workers for forcing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to abandon the proposed amendments but gave the final credit to her son Rahul Gandhi. “The credit for this goes to every worker of the Congress party, who under Rahul's active guidance, carried out a sustained agitation,” said Sonia, making it clear that the Congress from now on will revolve around Rahul’s political ideologies.

She then appealed to her colleagues to start similar agitations on several other issues such as tribal welfare, women and child welfare, labour and environmental laws, right to information (RTI) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act (MGNREGA). There is no rocket science in deciphering that these issues have been championed by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi since he joined active politics.

The mother even tried to match up with the son’s new vocabulary such as “suit boot ki sarkar” and “bina dum ki prime minister”. “It has become painfully clear that most of the pledges made by the prime minister during his election campaign were nothing more than hawa baazi,” she said. This was perhaps her second such dig at Modi after the below-the-belt “maut ki saudagar” in 2007.

The reference to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) controlling Modi government is another line picked up by Sonia from Rahul’s statements in the last five months.

Her criticism of Modi government’s Pakistan policy was also a rehash of what Rahul had said during his visit last month to the border areas. “From aggressively mocking Dr Manmohan Singh and his policy during the election campaign, the prime minister has been reduced to unedifying flip-flops, casting doubts on what he really stands for,” Sonia said, clearly challenging the “dum” of Prime Minister Modi.

But the last two points of her speech have actually set the tone for the future of the party. Her emphasis on strengthening the party at the booth and block levels bears the most visible imprint of Rahul’s vision. India Today, in February, reported that after his extensive deliberations with Congress workers between October and November last year, Rahul had come to the conclusion that the revival of the party had to start at the booth level, rather than by making cosmetic changes at the top. He also wanted some changes in the party constitution to introduce new norms for membership. Sonia’s announcement that the party constitution would be amended to that effect shows that Rahul is now the last word in the party.