Once upon a time it was Indian National Congress that led people to fight for independence from the British under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. But later, after independence, Congress was led by Nehru and his family. First prime minister Pandit Nehru was succeeded by his daughter Indira Gandhi.
Some journalists contend that Nehru never wanted his daughter to step into his shoes and that he wanted LalBahadur Shastri to take over the reins. This is not borne out by what Shastri himself said to Kuldip Nair when he asked Shastri on his taking over after Nehru : “ I think Nehru thought about you after him.” To this Shastri’s immediate response was : “No no, he wanted his daughter”. This is recorded by Kuldip Nair in his book Beyond the Lines and is in public domain. During his tenure Nehru sidelined the strongest Would-be-contenders, by Kamraj Plan, popularly known as : “ kamrajed” Most of the aspiring leaders like Jagjivan Ram were removed and congress leadership was left with what came to be known as Syndicate, loyal to Nehru. When Shastri died in Tashkent under suspicious circumstances, it was this syndicate which helped Indira to take over, thinking that she will toe their line. But Indira outsmarted them by splitting INA by setting up Congress (I) i.e Congress(Indira) which is the real congress to day, of course, now known as congress.
Congress never left the precincts of Nehru-Gandhi family. For sometime it appeared that Sanjay Gandhi is being grooved to follow Indira. In fact, even during Indira’s regime de facto power was usurped by Sanjay who is said to be the one taking important decisions bypassing Indira. We will never know what were the goings-on during that period. But one is inclined to believe the substance if one looks at some of the high-handed policies followed under instructions of Sanjay like forced nus-bandhi, later abandoned by Indira after Sanjay’s death.
Then there was a tremor. Indira was killed as a Sikh backlash after the raid on Golden Temple to eliminate Bhindranvala who was created by Indira herself to counter Khalistan movement in Punjab.
Congress had to have a leader, of course, from Nehru-Gandhi family.
Indira’s eldest son, Rajiv, never wanted to enter politics. He was a professional pilot. But family needed a Gandhi to lead congress. Before he could perceive what is happening, Rajiv was pushed into the driving seat of active politics by succeeding Indira. Let me describe the actual scenario.
On the death of Indira two persons rushed to Delhi by the same plane, Rajiv Gandhi to perform the last rights of her mother and Pranav Mukerjee who Legitimately aspired to step into the shoes of Indira. But as we all know, a hurried oath-ceremony was performed to install Rajiv Gandhi as the Prim Minister, leaving the most eligible one in larch.
Rajeev had not to prove his credibility. He got mammoth backing by sympathy vote on account of his mother’s tragic death.
Unfortunately, Rajiv was murdered in Tamil Nadu by LTTE militants to avenge operation Pawan by The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to take control of Jaffana from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, better known as Tamil Tigers, to enforce disarmament of The LTTE as part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
After Rajiv’s death, Sonia Gandhi won by a thumping majority and led and is leading the party. She, however, refused to be the prime minister as a response to strong opposition to a foreigner becoming prime minister of the country from leaders like Sharad Pawar and others. She preferred to keep her remote control on the government when congress formed the government or had a major voice in a coalition government like when Dr Manmohan Singh formed a coalition government.
She could not, however, exercise her influence on the minority government of P. V. Narasimha Rao who was dumped into oblivion by Gandhi family by not allowing cremation and Samadhi in Delhi where other congress prime ministers were cremated. Same thing would have happened to Lal Bahadur Shstri but for the threat of ‘fast unto death’ given by his wife Lalita Devi Shastri.
Let us now see what happened when Rahul Gandhi succeeded Soniya Gandhi as congress president in 2017 and led congress for elections in 2019. Congress got only 52 seats out of 545 seats. Rahul contested from two constituencies (i) Amethi, Gandhi family bastion since inception and (ii) Wayanad, Kerala. He lost Amethi to Smriti Irani, but won in Wayanad. He resigned as congress president. He is growing wild beard perhaps under the impact of his (as he thinks) rival.
It is a writing on the wall that Congress is going down the drain. The last chance to resurrect it was to have free and fair election of the president and let some charismatic youth with new ideas and fresh political strategy resuscitate the GOP. But again Gandhi family has done it. Kharge is put up as a sponsored candidate against everyone else.
Gandhi Family’s Congress is destined to wither away into oblivion on the Indian political landscape.
In politics miracles can happen and Rahul may dwell in the wishful thinking that congress under his leadership will romp back to power. Will Mallikarjun Kharge, if elected, be Kesaried then ? Wait and watch.
Is there a chance that Phoenix will someday rise again from the ashes ? One can’t say. Anything can happen in politics. Lt us wait and watch.
We the People 