The Chintan Baithak

The congress Party convened a chintan Baithak session in Jaipur to discuss about the elections next year and the strategies to face it.  Congress president Sonia Gandhi touched upon some nagging issues in her speech like inflation, corruption, youth empowerment, protection of women and attracting the middle class.  She wanted to tackle those issues before election time and urged leaders to work for it.

The problems of Congress are unique and are distinct from any other political parties in the world. A Newspaper called the administrative set up of Congress party as 'Monarchy’.  It is true that the party cannot exist without the Nehru family. The Nehru family exerts almost full control over the party and all bickering inside the party are settled once Mrs Gandhi makes a call to the concerned parties. The set up helped the party to remain as one unit under all adverse circumstances.  Unless Sonia Gandhi had entered in politics and taken control of Congress Party, there would not have a congress party as we see it  now and would have got fragmented into many pieces. 

 While it is alright for the internal discipline of the party, the disadvantage is that no new leaders can come up from the party to the top other than from the family to infuse fresh and innovative ideas in the administration.  You can also say that the Congress party is still incapable of standing on its own legs without help from Gandhi family despite its existence for more than sixty years. Any way all party men are happy to work under Nehru family for now and it was evident at the Chintan Baithak.

Mrs Gandhi is getting old and a new leader has to emerge from the family and there is none other than Rahul Gandhi to choose. He was elected as Vice President of the party which, for all intends and purposes elevates him to wield the ultimate control on the party. The all India Congress Committee wholeheartedly applauded the choice.

Both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were reluctant entrants to the political arena and they were forced to join in the party by pressure from all sides. There is also a sizable section in the population that adore the family. However if the family does not involve more among the people their support base may slowly shrink as the new generation has no emotional connection with the Nehru era and the Indian Independence struggle. The Nehru family has to recharge their acceptability anew with hard work amogst the voters and good governance at the government level.

Rahul Gandhi said in his valedictory address that power is a poison and that his mother cried the previous night sitting by his side. Why did Mrs Gandhi cry ? Probably because Sonia Gandhi knows the Indian politics and the life in it and she may have been worried on sending her son in to that wilderness.

 The media has, over time, made Mrs. Gandhi as a lady who enjoys controlling the administration from the back seat. No one knows how she views things personally. It is a big responsibility to be at the helm of affairs in a country like India with such multifarious problems and it is still more uncomfortable to live under public scrutiny all the while for an entire life. If one looks things that way power is not very enticing. 

  

 Then, the handing over of power to her son does not bring her absolute peace or relief as her son’s performance is also a matter of concern for her. It is another disadvantage or sacrifice of a first family, no member can absolutely retire from party matters.

The Indian national Congress begins its Rahul Gandhi era. India is fast changing and it is now  a powerful Nation. Though started late, it was the Congress party that changed India’s financial fortune by adopting reform measures. Now, may be Rahul Gandhi can bring in the badly needed reforms to his old party in order to meet the new challenges.

 Images from Google