Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Rahul Gandhi gets a vote of no-confidence' that was published in Newsband

Rahul Gandhi gets a vote of no-confidence

Nobody is surprised by the extension of Sonia Gandhi’s tenure as Congress president by a year. But the vote of confidence in Ms. Gandhi by the Congress Working Committee was a vote of no-confidence in Rahul Gandhi. No matter what Ms. Gandhi thinks, the party is not ready to let her hand over the reins to her son. The party’s highest decision-making body thought he needed protection from the impact of electoral losses. Clearly, senior Congress leaders thought he could not be of much help, and actually could do a lot of harm to the party’s prospects in these States. The Old Guard in the Congress remains sceptical of his capability to lead from the front, and his acceptability among prospective allies of the party.

When India became a free nation in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi did not honour the democratic decision but imposed Nehru on the party though not a single authorised elector supported Nehru for Congress President. The history of foisting a favoured person as Congress President is repeating itself with Sonia Gandhi wanting to impose her son on the party as its President. So what started as an aberration in the 1940s is coming to be institutionalised. It is that party's prerogative and others don't have any say in it.

How long they will protect Mr Gandhi? According to present Congress, its leader must be from the Gandhi dynasty, so today or tomorrow he has to be crowned. He has been in the politics for more than a decade, but till today he has not accepted a single responsibility except some herogiris like tearing of ordinance, eating in poor's home etc. Mr. Gandhi keeps a coterie of a younger generation of leaders like his father and uncle did in the past. But there can be no power without responsibility.

Congress in its current form has lost its relevance. Either it has to go back to pre-Nehru era or it should gracefully concede space to AAP and move to the sidelines like the British Liberals. The Congress party with its sticky scams is in a very bad shape. It is immaterial whether the mother continues as the President or hands over the post to her son and probably anoints her daughter as the Vice President.