If Transition of Daughter into Political leader ..... Power & Politics/The Sunday Standared/ Mayn 04, 2014

If Transition of Daughter into Political Leader is to Go By, History Will Soon Repeat Itself 

  

History’s predilection is to repeat itself. But in case of the Gandhis, a rerun at very short intervals is the norm. Verdict-2014 is not just a skirmish between Narendra Modi and the Gandhis. It is a fight for survival for the Gandhi Parivar, which is now pitched against a United Sangh Parivar. On test are the political pull, power and charisma of the ruling clan. The piercingly piquant Priyanka, the relentlessly roaring Rahul and the sanguine strategist Sonia are fighting a last ditch battle to retain their identity and authority over the 120-year-old Congress. Sonia delivered the power, Rahul took over the organisation, and now Priyanka is determined to change the political discourse by turning the Lok Sabha battle into a furious fracas of Gandhis vs Modi. As Sonia voluntarily and tentatively begins her journey into the political sunset, she has left it to the Gandhi siblings to either swim or sink in the political whirlpool. Priyanka is neither a candidate nor office bearer. She has confined her campaign to 200 km of the dynasty’s topography, covering less than half-a-dozen constituencies. But when she speaks, her voice is heard all over India and provokes even a puissant PM candidate and his party to sit up and take note. Mrs Gandhi Jr has little political experience, and few achievements to showcase. Her password to fame is her surname—Gandhi. For the past 10 years, she has been talking about local issues. But now she speaks on national issues with authority. She invokes her pedigree by saying “I am Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter. My father gave his life for the country and cannot be compared with anyone.” It was political retort to Modi’s claim that Priyanka is like his daughter.

It was evident that the Gandhi daughter has taken upon herself to deal with Modi, who has been targeting mother Sonia, brother Rahul and husband Robert Vadra for the past six months. Modi and BJP leadership have hardly castigated scam-ridden Manmohan Singh’s stupor and slide. Their target has been the Gandhis. BJP is aware that this election is perhaps the last chance to explode the Gandhi myth. Once their influence is diminished, the Gandhis will be reduced to being Minimum Leaders, which will in turn lead to disintegration of Congress. The Gandhis are the only source of blood and oxygen for the Congress. Their pedigree has kept the party going for over a decade.

But historically, only one member of the family has been responsible for the rise and fall of the party before. When Congress was in trouble in 1967, it was left to Indira Gandhi to win the elections. Two years later, when the syndicate challenged her, she split the party and survived. In 1971, not only did she trounce the syndicate and created Bangladesh, but also returned to power with two-thirds majority. But she was in trouble again for rising corruption and inflation. Jayaprakash Narayan led a silent revolution against her. She imposed Emergency in 1975 and lost election in 1977.  The party was out, but Indira and her younger son Sanjay were never down. Some senior Congressmen flew the coop. But mother and son returned to power in 30 months; first by dismembering the ruling Janata Party and then by winning two-thirds majority. Sanjay’s death in 1980 and Indira’s assassination gave India its first accidental PM, Rajiv Gandhi, who won over 400 seats for Congress, with almost 50 per cent votes polled in his favour.

Rajiv also was the only Gandhi who couldn’t win a second uninterrupted mandate for the party. His government was accused of corruption, and senior ministers like V P Singh left to become challengers. In 1989, the Gandhi name was no longer an election-winning talisman. He lost to V P Singh. But Rajiv, like his mother, could pull down Singh’s government and revive the party. Unfortunately, he was killed and the reins of the party passed to a non-Gandhi for the second time. P V Narasimha Rao was chosen to head both party and government in 1991. For the next eight years, Congress ruled five years; supported others for two years and then lost badly again in 1998. Saffron replaced the tricolour. In 1998, the Gandhis realised that they have to take over the party, otherwise both the fraternity and the family would become just another chapter in India’s history. The family sponsors made sure that party boss Sitaram Kesri was ejected from 24 Akbar Road and replaced by a Gandhi—Sonia took over as AICC president; fought her first election in 1999 from Amethi, and defeated sitting BJP MP Sanjay Singh by over three lakh votes. Within the next five years, she turned the tables on opponents within and outside by springing a surprise, forging an alliance with even those who campaigned against her. With 145 seats, she not only spurned the offer of becoming PM, but also ensured that her nominee Manmohan Singh became PM. Her objective was clear. Acquire authority without responsibility and revive the Gandhi line. 

In 2009, Sonia won a record 206 seats, its largest tally since 1989, and brought the BJP down to 116 seats. But a weak PM, massive scams, policy paralysis, dual centres of power, Vadra’s questionable deals and an economic slowdown left the party disastrously demoralised. Most ministers, senior Congress leaders and even the PM are once again passing the buck for the party’s collapse to the Gandhis. The G-clan, however, has chosen to pick up the gauntlet. This election, which started on a positive note of development vs corruption, has been reduced to a war between dynasty and an individual. While Modi doesn’t miss a chance to attack the family, the Gandhis counter him with, “Bahut ho chuka hum par var, ab hum karenge Modi par palatvar (Enough is enough. Let Modi beware of our counter-offensive).” From media reports and opinion polls, it appears that Priyanka is fighting a losing battle. If Modi’s high-voltage publicity putsch can make a difference of 100 seats in favour of NDA, Congress leaders are confident that the First Daughter’s onslaught can save the party from sinking below the three-digit mark. In a dangerously personalised struggle, it is the future of both the dynasty and Modi that is more at stake than the destiny of India. For Congress, it’s once again a woman moment. It was led by two women for 34 years as against just five years by a man (Rajiv). Is the transition of a daughter into a political leader an omen for the future? If so, history will repeat itself sooner than later.

Prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

Snippets / Mail Today, September 21, 2009

Priyanka set to occupy centrestage?

SPECULATION is rife in the Congress about Priyanka Gandhi reinventing herself to take on a more prominent public role in the years to come. This follows her frequent forays of late to Jawahar Bhavan where the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation is situated.

After her father’s assassination in 1991, it was Priyanka who was widely believed to be the heir, blessed as she is with the face that wore her father’s angelic smile and the political craftiness that made her grandmother once the most powerful woman on earth. Therefore, it came as a surprise to all of us when the carefree, sport loving Rahul Gandhi was nominated as the political heir and fielded from Amethi, Rajiv's former constituency.

Priyanka’s politics has since then been limited to campaigning in Amethi and the adjacent Rae Bareilly constituency, represented by her mother. But with the uncertainties of unstable coalitions well behind them, family watchers see in the latest developments some sort of division of duties and responsibilities.

Sonia is the president of the Congress, the mother organisation, while Rahul is doing a commendable job as its general secretary overseeing the revival of the Youth Congress and other frontal organisations of the party. That leaves Priyanka in charge of the RGF and the many trusts and foundations that the family runs. Nothing of course can be dearer to her than the RGF. It was established on 21 June 1991, exactly a month after Rajiv’s killing to, as its charter says, “ commemorate Rajiv’s vision for India… it aims to work in areas which were of deepest concern to Rajiv and to act as a catalyst in promoting effective, practical and sustainable programmers in areas of national development.” Though the foundation has kept a low profile in recent times, Priyanka’s entry is set to inject fresh life into it giving it an international and intellectual flavour that the family so loves. And when she gets down to work, she will have a formidable team of advisors to assist her. The trustees of the foundation include, besides her mother and brother, a virtual who’s who. Among them: Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, Suman Dubey, MS Swaminathan, YK Alagh, RP Goenka, V Krishnamurthy and former Commonwealth Secretary General Sridath Ramphal. Their efforts will soon begin to show.

THE newspaper front pages last week would have us believe that there was no more pressing matter than the appropriateness or otherwise of Shashi Tharoor’s “ holy cow” remark. The twittering classes backed the minister to the hilt; the masses in khadi frowned and sought his head.

The debate has now reached ridiculous levels and is it surprising that in the melee, the issue at hand — austerity — was forgotten? It was refreshing therefore to read a report in the Hindu newspaper about the cost of Rahul Gandhi’s three day visit to Tamil Nadhi last week. The reporters calculated helicopter and aircraft rentals on an hourly basis, expenses on crew, cost of ferrying SPG commandoes on Pawan Hans helicopters and even landing, parking and routine navigation charges and came up with a figure of a little over Rs 1 crore that the Congress would have to pay for Rahul’s Tamil Nadu darshan . This was just a week before he took the much televised train ride to Ludhiana where commercial flights don’t operate anyway.

I have been told by very reliable sources that the CPWD had estimated a cost of Rs 12 crores for renovating ministers’ houses and offices. Some ministers have put a halt to the restoration work, though one carried on merrily despite being a relic from the last regime.

He obviously found nothing wrong in getting his house refurbished all over again just because he had been sworn in for another term! I am told official agencies are collecting information about the expenses incurred by some ministers and their bureaucrats in hosting dinners at five star hotels in the city in the last few months. When collated, the information is bound to cause indigestion in many.

Maya out to prove Cong hypocritical

WITH the Supreme Court and Mayawati locking horns yet again, the political pot is beginning to boil. And not just in Uttar Pradesh. The BSP chief’s “ statue politics” has now spread beyond its borders and is leading to polarisation of the kind that we have never seen before. Dalit organisations are becoming more and more aggressive and many more self styled Dalit outfits have surfaced during the last fortnight claiming Dr Ambedkar deserves no less than what successive governments at the Centre and in the states have accorded to Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

You would be wrong if you think the many newly sprung Dalit outfits are fully backing Mayawati’s cause. Unlike Mayawati whose fixation is for statues of herself and her mentor Kanshi Ram, these organisations are demanding a fair deal for Dr Ambedkar who figures low in her scheme of things. They want the house in Old Delhi’s Alipur Road, where Dr Ambedkar lived and which was taken over by the NDA government in 2003, be declared a national monument.
Mayawati's opinion on the matter is still awaited.

After defying the apex court orders for a week and going ahead with statue building, Mayawati acquiesced and ordered a halt but she has hasn't thrown in the towel. The court has deferred the hearing to the first week of October.

But one thing is clear: The Congress is looking for a place to hide. With the assembly elections in Maharashtra just a month away, Mayawati is planning to hit the Congress where it hurts — the state government’s decision to install a 315 ft high Rs 400 crore statue of Chattrapathi Shivaji more than a mile into the Arabian sea facing Marine Drive in Mumbai. It is not her contention that Shivaji should not be honoured.

She merely intends to expose the Congress’s double standards: do in Mumbai what you don’t want someone else to do in Uttar Pradesh. I can’t wait for October 5 for the action to begin in the apex court.

Power & Politics/ Mail Today, June 15, 2009

MYTHS don’t die easily. But in less than three weeks after the UPA’s surprise victory in the 15th General Elections, Sonia Gandhi has managed to explode many myths that had grown around her and prove the skeptics who felt she was an introvert and a misfit in politics, wrong. All the Cassandras — yours truly included — are gladly eating their words and will have no hesitation in conceding that she is the best thing to have happened to the Grand Old Party at this moment in its long history. The finest of professionals will find it hard to match her public relations’ acumen; she is the Great Communicator who manages to convey her messages without even speaking.

I was among the 370- odd journalists — from junior reporters to chief editors — who were invited to a lunch that she hosted last week. In my 35 years of covering politics, I have attended several such do’s, mostly held on the lawns of party offices, under a tent meant to serve as protection from the blazing sun. But this was a proper sit- down lunch at a five- star hotel. Sonia came on the dot, spent about two minutes at each table, asking everyone present their names and the organisation they represented and moved on to the next, a process that took almost an hour- and- half since about 40 tables had been laid out in the huge convention hall. She took no questions and everyone from the cub- reporter to chief editor was given equal treatment before she moved on to a table reserved for her where she was joined by only her party colleagues.

Eleven years is a long time in politics and we have seen the best of them — Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and even Advani — lose their way around, but I think the Sonia story is just beginning. She has already got several firsts to her credit. She is the first person of foreign origin to become the Congress president since Independence; the first foreign born to become leader of the Lok Sabha and perhaps the only politician to reject the office of the Prime Minister, something she did not just once but twice. Her eyes, I presume, are now set on another: the first mother to preside over her son’s coronation.

The folks at the BJP are just making it easier for her. Instead of indulging in some serious introspection, the BJP leadership is writhing in self- inflicted pain and Sonia should ideally have been doing the victory dance all over again. Instead, she is thinking ahead and putting plans in place for the next elec- Priyanka Gandhi tions. Three days after the first session of the 15th Lok Sabha ended, she was in Rae Bareily along with Priyanka for a “ homecoming” where more than 7,000 party workers who had worked as booth level election agents were invited. The party workers came to celebrate and have a jolly good time but were caught by surprise when both mother and daughter stood beside each other and greeted and shook hands with each of them. It’s of such small gestures that electoral wonders are made of. Those at 11 Ashoka Road who thought winning elections was all about accumulating flying miles would do well to emulate Sonia.