As the chorus for Rahul Gandhi to be projected as the Congress’ candidate for Prime Minister gets louder, there are one of two possible takeaways for the?”heir apparent”.
Which one he ultimately figures will be revealing on how far along he has come in his internship.
The first and more obvious one is that his time has finally come. With key allies like the DMK and NCP endorsing the idea of projecting him, it just was the logical thing to do.
The second takeaway is?a trifle?counter intuitive and if indeed the “not so young anymore” Gandhi figures it out, one would have to attribute far more political savviness than he normally betrays.
So what of the second takeaway ?
Consider this:
The Congress is not calling elections anytime soon.
The Communists are not losing any opportunities to remind us that they dont want to topple the Government.
The Indo-US Nuclear Deal fiasco is yet to be given a respectful burial.
The farm loan waiver is yet to be succesfully implemented.
The UPA is yet to tide the inflation crisis and show that it has weathered the associated political storm.
So if the Congress were to go ahead and project Rahul Gandhi as its candidate for Prime Minister, what does it really mean ?
First and foremost it would be a public acknowledgement by Congress President Sonia Gandhi that Manmohan Singh is indeed electile dysfunctional and unfit to lead the party into the next elections
Second it would also be a public acknowledgement that he was nothing more than a surrogate who kept the seat warm for the “heir apparent” to explain away his non-performance and lack of leadership
Third it would be a signal to all those within and outside the government that the Prime Minister is now officially a lame duck
Sonia Gandhi’s 2004 abdication in favor of Manmohan Singh?which at the time appeared to be a masterstroke is actually a catch-22 for the Congress. There is no way the Congress can spin this bind.
It cannot project Manmohan Singh as the next Prime Minister for it knows its a lose lose proposition.
It also cannot project Rahul Gandhi as the next Prime Minister while he remains outside the Government for it not only reduces Manmohan to a lame duck but it also puts a question mark on the performance of the UPA for the last 4 years.
The only graceful way to do this would have been to draft Rahul Gandhi into the Government and have Manmohan Singh delegate executive decision making to him over time leading up to the next elections, making him the logical heir apparent.
But then Rahul Gandhi would have to take responsibility for all the failures of the UPA starting with the economy and ending with the Indo-US Nuclear fiasco.
That really is the Catch-22 that Sonia Gandhi got the Congress into.
It is this Catch-22?that the wily nily gerontocrats are seeking to exploit with the Rahul Gandhi trial balloon.
If ?Rahul Gandhi was really smart he would figure that this has less to do with him or his youth and more to do with doing Manmohan Singh in.
Offstumped Bottomline: The Rahul Gandhi trial balloon being floated by the gerontocrats is a?hit job on Manmohan Singh to officially reduce him to a lame duck. While it seeks to float Rahul Gandhi’s aspirations it also gives him no cover to hide from the UPA’s failures. Its a Catch-22 that will ultimately sink the Congress’ fortunes come elections.
Filed under: Uncategorized
[...] Offstumped Bottomline: The Rahul Gandhi trial balloon being floated by the gerontocrats is a hit job on Manmohan Singh to officially reduce him to a lame duck. While it seeks to float Rahul Gandhi’s aspirations it also gives him no cover to hide from the UPA’s failures. Its a Catch-22 that will ultimately sink the Congress’ fortunes come elections. Let Others Know About This Post These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
I, for one, fully support candidature of Rahul Gandhi for precisely the reasons you have given. It helps BJP to make capital of Congress’ implication that Rahul will be a better PM than Manmohan Singh. Congress will be hard pressed to prove WHY it thinks so?
If Rajiv Gandhi could not win his 2nd election (we all know that the first one was a sympathy vote after Indira Gandhi’s assassination) while being in the PM’s office for 5 years, then Rahul does not stand a chance having NO experience in ANY office. He cannot even make an extemporaneous speech. BJP should propose 1-on-1 debates between the 2 Prime Ministerial candidates (no mattter who is the Congress’ PM candidate)
It will also burst the bubble that Gandhi name has brand marketing value. Sonia has not been able to encash her “Gandhi” check to win any significant state elections in the last 5 years. As for the last Loksabha elections, it was more a BJP’s loss rather than Congress’ win – so no credit to Sonia Gandhi there. The Hindi slogan “Bharat Uday” was mistranslated in to English as “India Shining” rather than “India Rising”. Just look at the number of MPs of Congress & BJP in the previous Loksabha and the current one.
It will also help BJP if Rahul’s ego is inflated inversely proportional to his capabilities.
Ha Ha Ha…..if Rahul Gandhi is Congress PM candidate for next General Elections…i wonder what PM MMS is doing right now……why shouldn’t he resign and offer PM seat to Rahul Gandhi….
On a serious note, i fear that congress party is now really going down……it cannot find an able experienced candidate to be it’s next PM….infact it has gone a full circle and again is now depending on Gandhi surname to get the party back to power….
What stops congress to go to people with the accomplishments of it’s current government?
Why has the congress already given up the battle?
Karunanidhi too has endorsed Rahul for PM. So this is now, without doubt, a feudal arrangement, as the 1st crop of leaders have created their dynasties and become ready to hand over power to their children. Expect the “humble farmer” of Karnataka too come in favor of Rahul as PM. But feudals are feudals. What about the people? If the electorate is worth a TV and a few saris, do they deserve any better? No. We get the government we deserve. And right now given our lack of discimination, we fully deserve this corrupt and venal cabal.
I think the Congress is trying to play a cunning game here.
Just like they use Sonia Miano to ‘persuade’ MMS on critical policies after they have proven to be unpopular, as if she is part of the opposition, they will use Rahul Gandhi as ‘torchbearer’ of the Congress against the incompetence of MMS. All this will obviously not be stated but implied.
The argument goes something like this, if the ‘aam aadmi’ has suffered the last 5 years it’s because there hasnt been a ‘gandhi’ in power. Mr Advani used a wonderful hindi term that translates into ’shadow wrestling’ when he was referring to the Left’s so called criticism of the UPA. This is shadow wrestling 2.0
Why would MMS go along with it, one might ask ? Does he really have a choice, and, Does he really care ? He’s a beauracrat, not a politician, he’d be happy with his return to babudom or perhaps a tenure at the JNU.
Although Rahul may not be that savvy but his team looks
read this
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Suggestions_of_Rahul_as_PM_sycophancy/rssarticleshow/2953974.cms
Gujjuman – looks like they are reading Offstumped
Good article. I hope in the coming elections even if Rahul is projected as PM, people will understand that he clearly lacks charm and experience enough to lead the country.
http://risingcitizen.blogspot.com/2008/04/rahul-gandhi-is-not-as-smart-as-rajiv.html
http://risingcitizen.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-manmohan-singh-has-fallen-very-low.html
Please read and comment on these.
I envy your political clairvoyance!!
You know what? The Indian electorate can be relied upon to make one mistake after another. Because ours is a land where hope has all but died. The Kaangress has understood that delivering on governance only raises expectations in an endless spiral, making matters difficult for its feudal satraps and their pocket boroughs. Better to hand out baubles and trinkets to the suffering masses and amuse them with a dog and pony show and let the economy chug along. Those who have the guts will make it ahead anyway. The large mass who are happy with peanuts will gladly grab the few crumbs thrown their way and wallow in indifference. So the next time round Rahul will become PM and a the circus will roll on as usual.
[...] reasons described in yesterday’s post and today’s events, this one is a non-starter for the moment [...]
April 14, 2008.
PRESS RELEASE
The proposal of the NCP leader Mr. Praful Patel to support Ms.Sonia Gandhi or Mr.Rahul Gandhi for the post of Prime Minister after the next General Elections to the Lok Sabha, is laughable and unimplementable.
Under the reciprocity proviso to Section 5 of the Citizenship Act, Ms.Sonia Gandhi is ineligible for the post of Prime Minister of India because in Italy Indian taking Italian citizenship cannot become the Prime Minister and hence on reciprocity, Italians becoming Indian citizens cannot become Prime Minister of India. It was this proviso which was responsible for the somersault of Ms.Sonia Gandhi, from staking the claim for Prime Ministership on 16th May, 2004, and then withdrawing the same in favour of Dr.Manmohan Singh on May 18th, 2004. Although this proviso has since been deleted by the then outgoing NDA Government, it is however illegal because the said deletion was carried out on an Act passed in January 2004 for NRIs. Under the Objects and Reasons of the Bill moved in Parliament to enact this law does not empower the Government to delete the said proviso to Section 5 of the Citizenship Act. Hence if Ms.Sonia Gandhi stakes her claim to the Prime Ministership of India it is subject to challenge in court along with the challenge to the deletion of the said proviso to the Citizenship Act.
As far as Mr.Rahul Gandhi is concerned, he was born when his mother was still an Italian citizen and hence his name was under Italian Citizenship Act automatically entered in the Citizenship Register maintained by the Italian Government and the Italian Embassy in New Delhi. Mr.Gandhi has never renounced his Italian citizenship and hence the legality of his Indian citizenship can also be challenged since India does not recognize dual citizenship.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
http://www.janataparty.org/pressdetail.asp?rowid=59
Also read:
Do You Know Your Sonia ?
by Dr. Subramanian Swamy
http://www.janataparty.org/sonia.html
[...] lot of hot air has been passed by the geriatric ward of the Congress Party to float the Rahul Gandhi Trial Balloon. Much to their chagrin the balloon was prematurely deflated by Sonia Gandhi. But that did not stop [...]