India's foremost modern historian and author Ramachandra Guha, who has been a vocal critic of dynastic rule, says that making Rahul Gandhi the Congress president is just like making a player who has scored just two fifties in 30-40 Test matches the captain of a national cricket team.
“In the last 12 years, Rahul Gandhi has campaigned in three Lok Sabha and may be 30-40 Assembly elections. They are like Test matches. If you ask me, he has scored just two 50s, a couple of 10 and 20s and many zeroes. You can’t make him captain of the team," says Guha.
According to him the Congress can’t be revived under Rahul or any other Gandhi from the family.
“Congress today reminds me of the later Mughals who came 100 years after the death of Aurangazeb. At that time the British were expanding, the Marathas were conquering new areas and the Mughals just ruled Delhi and surrounding areas. But, they called themselves emperors of India. Congress under today’s Gandhis is also like them. 10 Janpath is to Congress what Red Fort was to later Mughals. Like them they too lack credibility and have lost touch with the realities. But they still think that they are powerful," he says.
Reacting to Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh’s call for a major surgery in the party, he said that no such surgery is possible under Rahul. He points out that the Gandhi family wants to run the party for three reasons.
“Abject psychological dependence, aim to save the party and may be the desire to control money," he adds.
Commenting on Sonia Gandhi’s defence of her son-in-law Robert Vadra, Guha says, "She should not have defended him. If he is a private citizen, say that. Let him defend himself. Vadra has been involved in many dodgy dealings. Under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP did not go after him because he too had a son-in-law. Now Vajpayee is too old and very ill. Narendra Modi is not married. He has no family and children. Modi will go after him."
"People like me are not comfortable with the BJP because of its Hindutva ideology. It is against what Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar and Nehru said and practised. But, we can’t support the Congress in its present avatar led by leaders like Rahul Gandhi," he adds.
Guha points out that Congress' revival is a very tough job. Quoting a survey done by Pune based political scientist Suhas Palshikar he says, “Congress is going down more and more in the state where it lost more than two elections in succession. Revival is really tough."
But he also has a caveat. "Never write off a political party. Who knows what will happen? But Congress will not be a dominant player in Indian politics again."
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