Waiting for rahul

Waiting for rahul

With Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, it is difficult to say who needs the other more. Indeed, it is not clear whether the party is shielding (परिरक्षण/बचाव) him from the risk of electoral failure or whether it is looking to him for political leadership and guidance. In any case the seemingly never-ending wait for his ascension (अधिरोहण/आरोहण) as the president of the party was not doing either him or the Congress any good. If the decision of the Congress Working Committee to ask Mr. Gandhi to take up the top post was a surprise, it was only in its timing. Ever since the Lok Sabha election of 2014, Mr. Gandhi was being prepared for this very job; also, his mother and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, had not been keeping good health. But two factors stood in the way. Members of the party’s old guard were unsure of his leadership skills, or were apprehensive (आशंकावान/शंकित) of being left out if the order changed. More important, Mr. Gandhi himself wanted time. He wanted to make sure he did not appear to be hankering (तीव्र इच्छा होना /उत्कंठा) after power and position, and he did not get blamed for electoral defeats that were, by any reckoning (अनुमान से /हिसाब से), inevitable (अपरिहार्य /निश्चित) . But just as the seniors in the party reconciled (सामंजस्य करना/संधि करना) themselves to the changing times, Mr. Gandhi too seems to have become more responsive to the requirements of an organization such as the Congress: that he would have to deal with the party as it is, and that he would not be able to readily mould it to the form he would like it to take.

Quite possibly, Mr. Gandhi would not have had a shot at becoming the party president were it not for his lineage (वंशावली) . But the nature of the faction-ridden Congress is such that it needs a leader whose right to lead is not questioned at every step. Mr. Gandhi meets this requirement. While the fractious nature of the party grants him greater legitimacy (औचित्यपूर्णता/वैधता) as a leader, it also makes his task more difficult. At the CWC meeting, he expressed his willingness to take on the assigned role of party president to “fight for the preservation of the idea of India”. This is a phrase that the Congress believes captures its engagement with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress does have its place in India’s political landscape, but it cannot afford to define itself solely as the antithesis (प्रतिपक्ष/विरोध) of the BJP. Mr. Gandhi will have to take the plunge (किसी काम की जिम्मेदारी होना/ किसी काम में प्रवेश करना) wholeheartedly, with a readiness to carry on the struggle for political change and economic development over the long term. He will have to be ready to get his hands dirty in the every- day politics of bringing about positive change, incremental or otherwise, whenever and wherever possible. There are no shortcuts. Taking blame and sharing credit are synonymous with assuming responsibility.