Congress Opposes Rahul Gandhi Takeover, Gag Order on Leaders Not to Raise Leadership Issue

NEW DELHI: Congress scion Rahul Gandhi has finally returned to India via Bangkok with a chorus of voices from within the party urging Sonia Gandhi to remain the President and not surrender the position to her son.

The opposition to Rahul Gandhi’s takeover of the party has grown sufficiently to alarm the top bosses who have issued a virtual gag order, urging leaders not to speak about the leadership issue.

Rahul Gandhi’s return is being projected by his coterie as the beginning of the revival of the party, with the kisan rally slated for April 19.

Unfortunately no one in or outside the party is untowardly excited. There is curiosity of course, but arising more from the reasons for the long disappearance, than new found faith in Rahul Gandhi’s leadership abilities. And as Congressmen point out even before journalists notice it, no one really wants to hand over the reins of the party to him at this stage.

Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has come out openly in support of Sonia Gandhi "I will not be able to give any idea what will happen or what will not happen. He (Rahul) could succeed. There is another point we must understand that the overpowering and very successful leadership of Mrs Sonia Gandhi is there. So there is a comfort feeling with her," Dikshit said in an interview.

Her son Sandeep had already set the ball rolling by maintaining that a generational change could not be done “with a knife.” And more recently Ambika Soni, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh have all made it clear that Sonia Gandhi should continue as president of the Congress party.

If there is a vote within the Congress as to who should be---or remain---the President of the party, it will go to Sonia Gandhi hands down. Ironically, Rahul Gandhi will only be the party’s choice if his mother officially hands over the baton to him as a fait accompli. And that is a decision she has been wanting to take for at least a couple of years now, but election defeats and others controversies have prevented her from doing so.

The party is as curious as the scribe about the real reasons for the scion’s disappearance. All agree that the government would be in the know and wonder why there has been no ‘leak’ on this so far. In fact several friendly opposition MP’s have also been speculating about the government silence and as a senior West Bengal politician said, “we can understand the Congress silence but not the BJP’ government’s silence.”

Interestingly those supposedly supporting the move to place Rahul Gandhi as the party president remain silent--Digvijay Singh being a notable exception---there are many who have opposed it by declaring their faith in Sonia Gandhi’s leadership. The list includes Veerappa Moily, Amarinder Singh, Ambika Soni and Sandeep Dishit. Others like Sachin Pilot initially said the same, but then claimed they had been misquoted. The Kerala PCC for instance passed a resolution blaming the Lok Sabha defeat on him, but then amended this.

Congress chief minister of Assam, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Kerala have not come out in support of Rahul Gandhi as party president. Clearly there is a reluctance within the party, with the occasional and almost desperate “we want Priyanka Gandhi’ being the only cry heard every now and again from the rank and file. This has been silenced by stern admonishment by the top leaders, with the party now unequivocally supporting the status quo.

Rahul Gandhi’s return thus, has not enthused the Congress that is not keen to have him at the helm of affairs.His supporters within remain restricted to Jairam Ramesh who is organising the rally, CP Joshi and a couple of others. A great deal will depend on his first challenge: that is performance in Parliament as the party prepares to combat the Land Acquisition Bill and turn the agrarian crisis to its advantage.

The second challenge of course, will be the Bihar Assembly elections although the Congress is unlikely to use this as a revival strategy. At least there is no indication of this at the moment.

The reasons for Rahul Gandhi’s long absence from politics are many, running from the more charitable “he needs a holiday” to the downright cynical “rehabilitation.” As a Congress leader said , no one will ever know where he went and why he went just like we have no real information whether Sonia Gandhi is ill, and if so, what is she suffering from?

The ways of the top dynastic family remain secretive, with decisions taken by friends, family and a handful of politicians who have access at any given point in time. The decisions are then communicated to the rest, as was the case in 2004 when the family took the decision that Sonia Gandhi would not be the Prime Minister, then informed the close political leaders, and then came out to tell the waiting media and the rest of the world.