Does Rahul still need a political tutor?

Now that Rahul Gandhi is Congress president, all eyes are set on him to see him performing. People, his own party leaders, opposition and political pundits would analyse every bit of his speeches to see if he delivers the quality stuff to the countrymen. Even as he has given a tough fight to BJP in the recent Gujarat polls, he is still not taken seriously even by his party men who feel he is ‘unimpressive’. Everyone feels that he hasn’t much to offer to the people except for criticising prime minister Narendra Modi, his policies and the Saffron Brigade. People now realise that this criticism is for the sake of criticism only as its lacks logic. All this compels one to think if he needs more exposure and grinding to become ripe for giving direction to his party and the country, especially when there is no one in Congress who can even think to tutor or mentor him. He is often accused by the party elders of stubbornness and lack of motivation to become a leader. Of course, he has Sonia Gandhi behind him but she can’t be Indira Gandhi as she herself is dependent on a ‘select’ group of party leaders who guide her on various issues facing the country. Rahul, with all the party backing, may be trying to establish himself as a leader of masses and make himself acceptable to the party veterans, but there are many in Congress who doubt his leadership qualities. Indira Gandhi loyalists are among his critics. One of the critics was quoted by a news agency as saying that “a time will soon come when questions will be raised from within the Congress ranks on the leadership qualities of Rahul.

Majority Congressmen feel that he is not the stuff to be projected as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in the next General Elections in the country. Though the critic would by all means like to see Congress growing from strength to strength, he went to the extent of saying that Rahul’s leadership was not acceptable to the country and there was none to provide direction to the party. Even some AICC leaders privately confess that certain people around Sonia had never wished Rahul to succeed her because they knew if he establishes himself as a leader and if his accessibility increases among the masses, they would themselves become irrelevant. These leaders are alleged to be working overtime to derail him, instead of guiding him on the right path.

Surrounded by them, Rahul would virtually be in a dilemma. Sonia had an overriding desire to see her son succeed in politics, but she also didn’t want to do things without her ‘yes-men’ in the party, who actually don’t want to see Rahul as their leader. The rivals of Rahul and his Congress party have often accused him of being ‘confused from head to toe’, saying: “How can you expect vision from a man who is confusion personified? Given all these apprehensions expressed by the party elders about him, he needs to put extra effortsto establish himself as a leader.