Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
It’s official. Shahzada Rahul, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s description, would love so very much to have power, but not the responsibility. Like, he would have loved to be the Prime Minister and nothing but that. Yes, that’s what seems to be the case.
Rahul Gandhi, one of the 44 MPs the once grand old party managed to return to the Lok Sabha, wouldn’t want to be the leader of the small group of party MPs. Forty four may be a half-score short of what it takes to be officially designated the Leader of the Opposition in the House, but in the newly constituted lower house of parliament that still is the largest single group, followed by the AIADMKs and the Trinamools.
But Leader of the Opposition is obviously not what the Gandhi scion would like to be. Pedigreed upstarts don’t settle for anything short of the best. It would have been so infra dig, considering the sacrifices his grandmother, father and the family generally had made for the greater cause : the country. And, of course, the Gandhi legend.
Have you forgotten Rahul’s assertions during his failed election campaign, the never ending rant about the family’s sacrifices and the gains the Gandhi family conferred on us, the poor, illiterate, unemployed, homeless Indians. Yes, 1.2 billion of us. Or, do you want me to recall the many socio-economic reforms the Gandhi-blessed UPA I and II ushered in the decade they ruled. Why, the family even gave us the mobile. Just like that. Gogia Pasha. Gilly, gilly, gilly.
The great discomfiture or was it a most humiliating defeat inflicted on it by the other parivar, the saffronites, led by now Prime Minister Narendra Modi – it seems in retrospect, has been like so much water down duck’s back. Having reluctantly accepted the reality of the post-election scenario, Sonia Gandhi, the party Chief finally did so handsomely, but obviously the mother-son team doesn’t want to think in terms of the magnitude of their defeat.
The acceptance was qualified with minions owning up defeat. Not the party leadership, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and her son. Theirs was an acknowledgement of something having gone wrong somewhere. Murmurs of dissent though were heard from deep down Kerala and Rajasthan on the western flank, but the voices, ugly as they were, went unheard drowned by the orchestrated cacophony of loyalist noises. Rahul may have been called a “joker” by a couple of resentful party men but the important thing was that “managing director of the private limited company (Congress)”, “with the leader surrounded by a pack of jokers” stayed unscathed and untroubled. So much water on the duck’s back, I said and so it seemed when he gave that half silly smile while conceding defeat. He chose to disappear for a day ostensibly out of the country. Which country it was remained unsaid because even ISRO wouldn’t claim to have carried him into space and back, all within 24 hours. Anyhow the grudging admission of defeat apart there hasn’t been any serious introspection. No heads have rolled. Indeed, that was not possible. For the only head to have rolled would have been that of Rahul Gandhi who masterminded the party campaign, minus party seniors but with his pack of whiz kids of unknown skills, very much there. He did make two public appearances after the loss : in UP to visit the village with the mango tree from which two young girls were hung after being raped (followed by another five rape incidents within three days), and the other time early this week when he visited the BJP headquarters in New Delhi to pay homage to Gopinath Munde, one of Modi’s senior ministers, who was killed in a road accident in Delhi : even before taking his oath as an MP.
That was a sign of responsibility, if not statesmanship, his doting mother would have said, when it was no more than mere civility. Rahul Gandhi, nor his mother, have studiously avoided to say why the party Vice-President, and the face of its poll campaign refused to be the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Is it that he does to not have the kind of time the LOP must devote to his duties. For someone with his dismal parliamentary record Rahul Gandhi, with the less than 44 percent attendance, two minor interventions in debates over a five year period, no legislative record except some uncleared UPA II bills which he, during the poll campaign, claimed as his own, probably believed that he didn’t have it in him to play the LOP’s role.
Given the emaciated opposition in the new parliament, Rahul’s refusal to accept the LOP’s position does not affect the Congress alone. A leader of the opposition who combines authority within his ranks and popularity outside is necessary to take the lead in challenging the government of the day, particularly one that enjoys a single party majority, to keep a check on an unusually powerful executive.
Forty four may seem small but Rahul, to cite the malodorous example of the last Lok Sabha, should know that it doesn’t take very large numbers to influence or stall the course of the working of the House if you choose to be obstructionist.
I have nothing against the leader named by the Congress Party, Mallikarjun Kharge but the right thing to do would have been to name the party vice-president, who had led the election campaign, to that position. This is not to suggest that Rahul would have been the ideal candidate but at this point in time the Opposition needs all the conviction and strength it can muster to make its presence felt in a lopsided House. Perhaps aware of his own limitations as a parliamentarian and his apparent lack of awareness of the cut and thrust of Parliamentary game was a consideration. But his party ought to have realized that fulfilling the role of a robust opposition in parliament is a duty that the party owes to the country. That involves speaking for causes and interests that the government may disregard, and being heard for the strength of its argument. The Congress President and Vice President acted irresponsibly in having failed to accept the challenge. Sonia Gandhi has been unwell for a long time and it was incumbent therefore on her son to own up responsibility, if only for her sake. Rahul Gandhi should literally have jumped up to grab the job of the leader of the Opposition.
I don’t believe – and I speak in the context of his ten-year-old record as someone who sought to reorganize his party – that his so called prioritization of the organization over matters of government and legislations is wholly misplaced.
The two, reviving the party and accepting parliamentary duties are in fact two sides of the same coin; you cannot discard one in favour of the other. You can’t hope to be the top dog and yet refuse to defend your territory. You cannot get away by wanting to be at the head of pack without defending your own territory. You cannot hold back that challenge. It happens in the animal kingdom too. That’s basic! Mr. Rahul Gandhi wants to be taken seriously as a top leader but is unwilling to accept responsibility. Being the leader of the opposition is the next best if you do not make it to prime ministerial kursi.
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