We all have heard in our childhood the story of a Pied Piper, who came to a village and promised to eliminate the rats menace in the village, at a cost. When his demands were not met, he momentarily kidnapped the children of the village and later released them.
India has been witnessing a Pied Piper phenomenon in politics since independence. And the Pied Piper in this case is the Nehru Gandhi family. Generation after generation, the Gandhi family members have been playing the flute and the congressmen have been following them blindly. And the flute playing had been very effective all these years. So much so, that every generation prepared the next generation for playing the flute. However, for the first time, the Pied Piper concept is in danger of not continuing further. The rule of Nehru Gandhi dynasty is appearing a bit shaky at this point of time.
With Sonia Gandhi out of action for few weeks due to her health related issues, the mantle is on Rahul. When Sonia left for US last fortnight for a surgery, she was not sure that she could appoint Rahul as her successor. So, she formed a committee of 4 lesser known members of congress party headed by Rahul. This committee was expected to take decisions on governance matters. Now that brings out a very important point. First, why the Prime minister, Home minister or Finance minister are NOT part of this committee? Are they so inexperienced that they cannot be even a part of the committee formed to rule the country for temporary period of few weeks? And secondly, is the only intention of nominating some lesser known faces in the committee is to make Rahul appear stronger in front of them? That is very much like Ekta Kapoor producing the movie ‘C Company’ with Tushar Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav and Anupam Kher. If the film becomes a hit, the only claimant of ‘hero’s role’ would be Tushar Kapoor. It is another thing that the film flopped miserably at box office, in spite of all out efforts by his sister.
This is the acid test for Rahul to make his mark in Indian politics and show his true caliber. His mother is away and the senior party leaders are currently pretty much confused without the ‘Pied Piper’. All these years, they have only learnt to close their eyes and follow as directed by the ‘high command’. Now that there is no high command, they are feeling lost. They have lost the knack of taking decisions on crucial matters.
So far, they behaved as though ‘Sabka Malik EK’. But now, when the real malik is away, they are looking at one another trying to assess their strengths and weaknesses. They do not trust one another – a fact very well known after the shocking incident in which the finance minister discovered that his office was bugged with 64 microphones and he chose not to complain the home minister about it. Probably he did not do so, as he suspected the home minister himself behind this scheme..! The Congress was at its silliest best by dubbing the adhesives used to hide the microphones as chewing gums. No one approaches the Prime Minister as even a child knows that the only decisions he takes is on matters like where the sun will rise or which day comes after Sunday.
So, there is sort of anarchy at the centre currently, with no senior leader willing to listen to others.
And, as they say, troubles do not come in ones or two. They come in hordes. The Pune police have needlessly fired at the agitating farmers killing three of them. Rahul went all out to Bhatta Parsaul to appease the farmers on cases of ‘assumed atrocities’ against them. However, he has not bothered to visit Maharashtra to be with the farmers in their protest or to at least enquire about their problems. Rightly, the Shiv sena paper ‘Samna’ gave headlines today that ‘Rahul Gandhi is missing’.
However, more than that the real problem facing the Congress and Rahul is that of Anna Hazare. Rahul would have much liked Anna’s protest to be started after arrival of Sonia on scene. But, the dates for his protest were declared by him long ago and no changes would happen. In absence of any cohesive force within the Congress party, the leaders are taking ad hoc decision and stooping to low levels like leveling corruption charging on Anna Hazare. That is the worst mistake anyone can make, because the common people’s anger will only rise with such gimmicks.
The knee jerk reaction is already visible in the Congress circles and they simply are not prepared to tackle the Anna wave coming like a Tsunami in next one week. If they survive this, they pass. And the ‘Pied Piper’ for new generation would be ready to lead.
Otherwise he will be lost into oblivion very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment