A dynasty called Indian National Congress
Troika of dynasty: Queen Mother, Crown Prince and Princess
At the ripe age of 49, Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, once portrayed as the future Prime Minister, is neither a happy common family man nor a successful politician. He has been reduced to the level of one of the many unsuccessful politicians. The developments during the last few months and his plight today compel one to analyse why it is so and what are the likely consequences.
Has he suffered because of an Italian mother’s ambition to make him a leader without any quality in him?
Has he suffered because of his own stupidity i.e. believing that being the scion of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty he is born to rule, even if he has no capacity to do be a leader?
Has he suffered because of another stupidity i.e. following a German propagandist Goebbels?
Has he suffered and will continue to suffer because the ‘loyal’ Congressman will not let him be a common Indian (or Italian)?
Or, has he suffered because of all these factors working simultaneously?
Perhaps, the last hypothesis is more correct.
No doubt, Sonia Gandhi is a ruthlessly ambitious lady. She had the opportunity to become Prime Minister in 2004 but (for reasons best known to her) which she did not use and now wants her son to be Prime Minister. But why blame her for ambitions? The Indians in general and the Congressmen, in particular, made her believe that she was married to the prince of a dynasty that had birth-right to rule over India.
Before accepting the Indian citizenship in 1983 (15 years after marriage to Rajiv Gandhi in 1968), Sonia had seen rise and fall and again rise of Indira Gandhi, daughter of India’s first Prime Minister. She had seen how Indira Gandhi was grooming her second son, Sanjay Gandhi, to succeed her because her first son Rajiv Gandhi did not show any interest in politics. She saw how after Sanjay’s untimely death, Indira Gandhi inducted Rajiv in politics and started grooming him.
After Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Sonia saw how the Congressmen made Rajiv his mother’s successor even without following the constitutional propriety of first electing him leader of the Congress Parliamentary party. She knew that soon after the President of India came to know of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, he decided that he would appoint her son as her successor. (https://www.devendranarain.com/rajiv-gandhis-ap…unconstitutional/) Rajiv Gandhi not only became Prime Minister of India, but he also became president of the Congress party, a post he held until his death.
Sonia saw how when Sitaram Kesri was Congress president (1996-98), the Congressmen manipulated to throw him out and install her as the Congress president in what seemed to be a ‘palace coup’. (https://www.devendranarain.com/who-will-make-india-congress-mukt/)
It is a reflection on the people of this country in general and the Congress fellows in particular that a semi-educated girl came from Italy and became the supreme leader of India’s oldest political party. Her only qualification was her marriage to Rajeev Gandhi whose only qualification was that he was son of Indira Gandhi who entered politics only because she was daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru who became first Prime Minister of India because Mahatma Gandhi whom people called Bapu preferred him over Sardar Patel who was the choice of 15 out of 18 Provincial Congress Committees in 1946. For over 19 years she ruled over the party and for 10 years she ruled over the country (through her nominee though) like an empress. Anyone who differed with her had to go out of Congress. (https://www.devendranarain.com/who-will-make-india-congress-mukt/)
Born and brought up in this atmosphere, it is quite natural for Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to believe that they are born to rule and the Indians are their subjects. They believed and perhaps still believe that the Indians commit a blunder if they do not vote for the dynasty. Unfortunately, the leadership qualities cannot be thrust upon anybody. Despite all the grooming, Rahul Gandhi could not prove himself. He continued to commit mistakes after mistakes.
Since Rahul has no understanding of how to do politics and how to connect with the masses, since he has no vision of his own (in fact, he is incapable of having any vision) but is expected to deliver, he goes by the advice of his courtiers. I can not say whether on his own or on the advice of his courtiers, during the 2019 election campaign, he decided to follow Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels has given several mantras to people like Sonia and Rahul Gandhi:
- “A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”
- “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.”
- “If you tell the same lie enough times, people will believe it; and the bigger the lie, the better.” “
- “Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.” “This is the secret of propaganda. Those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it.”
As Rahul himself told a TV journalist during an interview, when his advisers told him that Prime Minister Modi’s greatest strength was his image of an incorruptible person, he decided to destroy that image. He invented “corruption” in Rafale fighter deal and almost on a daily basis chanted in the election rallies that ‘Modi is a chor (thief) who put ₹ 30,000 crore – money that belonged to the Indian Air Force – in the pocket of his friend Anil Ambani’. When Modi claimed that being the country’s chowkidar (security guard) he could not do anything to harm the country, Rahul coined the slogan “chowkidar chor hai”. The loud support of the assembled Congressmen convinced him that he had hit the ‘bull’s eye’.
However, Modi being Modi. he gave a stronger counter and made millions of Indians say that they were also chowkidar. More the attack on Modi’s integrity, greater the support Modi got. Even Modi’s detractors know that he is not corrupt. Even if Rahul Gandhi knows that, he believed that Goebbels’ mantras were working.
There is a long list of Rahul’s mistakes but concentrating on personal attack on Modi was his biggest mistake.
All propaganda against BJP and NDA failed before Brand Modi.
Under Rahul Gandhi, Congress has suffered a number of humiliating defeats. The consolation – victory in 3 Hindi heartland states – has lost its impact. In 2019 general election Rahul Gandhi failed to revive Congress to the extent expected and needed.
The nation saw a dramma being played in two parts. In part one Rahul Gandhi took the responsibility of defeat and ‘offered to resign’ and in part two he yielded to the pressure of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to continue as Congress President. Those who know the Congress, know that the final decision-maker is not the CWC but the triumvirate of Sonia, Rahul, and Priyanka.
According to the media reports, during the meeting of the CWC, members made emotional appeals to Rahul Gandhi to continue. Former finance minister P Chidambaram claimed if he resigned ‘the party’s cadres in the southern states will commit suicide’
Obviously, Rahul Gandhi would not like to live with the guilt feeling that ‘the party’s cadres in the southern states’ committed suicide due to him.
Incidentally, in the CWC meeting he expressed his displeasure that Congress leaders like Chidambaram, Ashok Gehlot and Kamalnath were putting the interest of their sons above that of the party on account of which also the Congress suffered. I feel like asking Raul Gandhi, ‘my dear Rahulji, what moral right you have to express displeasure over what these Congress leaders did? Have you forgotten that like your grandmother and father you are holding the post of Congress President only because of your birth in the dynasty and harming the party?’
The ‘family dramma’ is not yet over. Rahul Gandhi has announced that he has resigned from the post of Congress and has asked the CWC to select another person to preside over the party. (To preside over the liquidation of the party, I would say.)
Rahul Gandhi has left the dynasty in lurch. Neither mother-daughter nor their courtiers know what to do.
The obvious conclusion is that the Indian National Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty cannot exist without each other. Nor can the two promote each other. But they can certainly destroy each other.
Devendra Narain
(Links for related articles: https://www.devendranarain.com/congress-a-decaying-old-age-home/; https://www.devendranarain.com/who-will-make-india-congress-mukt/
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