VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
Who has a bigger stature in
Congress and the Government — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Congress Vice
President Rahul Gandhi? The worst kept secret is now out. The entire world now
knows that Gandhi not only has the veto power in the party but also the
Government.
What the entire world now also
knows for sure is that the first family of the Congress always had this power
but they made everyone believe that executive power had been delegated to the Prime
Minister. The façade that executive leadership vests with the Prime Minister
had been assiduously built for public consumption in the last almost 10 years.
But the mask fell down in one blow as Rahul dashed to the Press Club of India
in New Delhi in a pre planned move
to disassociate himself from the Ordinance on convicted leaders.
Senior leaders and those who know
the functioning of the Congress knew that the first family always had veto
power pertaining to anything in Government and the party. After party Chief
Sonia Gandhi started keeping unwell, it was left to Rahul to exercise this veto
power first in the formation of the Cabinet some time ago, then a reshuffle in
the organisation and now to derail the Ordinance. He used it to great effect to
make Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet colleagues realise that he calls the shots
not the Cabinet.
Even if the Prime Minister sticks
to the chair and does not resign after this, he has been shown his place and
told in no uncertain terms as to who is the boss. Whatever Rahul or Sonia
Gandhi tell the PM in their letters and phone calls and try to console him
after public humiliation, the message has gone.
In the remaining term, he will have to seek the advice of Rahul for anything
and everything he does because another round of humiliation or reprimand would
severely erode whatever little credibility he has as a Prime Minister.
But whatever the critics of Rahul
and even the status quoists in his own party say, for the first time the scion
of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has taken a pro active stand ever since he came
into politics. For the first time, Gandhi respected public opinion on an issue
of wide importance. So far, his entire politics was based on NGO style
operation-championing the cause of dalit one day, tribal the other and without
being serious to either of the two. Rahul has not spoken anything on the
deteriorating economy, international relations, political issues facing the
country, on Telengana or even the victory of Indian cricket team in a bilateral
series.
For that matter, after becoming
Vice President of the party when a bigger role was expected, he has not spoken
anything of significance which the voters expect from the prime ministerial
candidate of Congress. His main competitor Narendra Modi speaks on everything
under the sun every other day and the entire world knows what is good or bad
about him. Now that Rahul has made a beginning by terming the Ordinance as a
“nonsense” that “deserved to be torn up and thrown out”, people would expect
more from the leader who has practically been anointed as the prime ministerial
candidate by Congress.
BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate
Narendra Modi may have lashed out at Rahul on Sunday in his rally in New Delhi
for undermining the authority of the Prime Minister but remember as this was
the first time the Congress Vice President took a stand on an issue, he should
be excused. The authority of the Prime Minister in any case was always
undermined in the Congress regime of this century where loyalty and lack of
political base was the criteria for the top job of the country. A hue and cry is being made as this was the
first time people saw the undermining of the democratic institutions-PM and the
Cabinet-taking place in public domain.
However, Gandhi’s political
immaturity is apparent when he chose the wrong place and time to debunk the
Ordinance as “nonsense”. He could have barged into the meeting of the Congress
Core Group which took the decision to bring in an Ordinance to help the
convicted leaders to help the Government. He could have picked up the telephone
and called the Prime Minister or the Law Minister and told them what a nonsense
it was. But alas he chose a press conference for it.
What has happened now is that the
entire system—Congress as well as the Government is demoralised. They do not know where to hide their face. As
this has come in the run up to the 2014 polls, the embarrassment is all the
more serious. Ask Cabinet Ministers Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram and Manish
Tewari along with a battery of spokespersons the party has about the latest
stand of Rahul and all they will offer now is a sheepish smile. All of them
defended the Ordinance before Rahul voiced his opinion on it.
In fact, when Congress media
in-charge Ajay Maken was defending the Ordinance, Rahul barged in and termed it
“nonsense”. No mediaperson would now believe Maken when he speaks on party’s
stand on various issues and they will invariably ask him whether this was the
line of Rahul or not. Similarly, whenever the Cabinet passes a Bill or approves
an Ordinance, people would invariably ask whether it has the stamp of Rahul or
not. They will also tell the Government, “be serious, first get Rahul’s
approval and only then bring an Ordinance or a Law”.
My point is different. When you
are all powerful and have the veto power not only in Congress but the
Government as well, why pretend to be an outsider? Why behave like a kid who
does not want to shoulder responsibility? Why not remove Manmohan Singh
straight away and become the Prime Minister so that the next General Elections
are fought under your leadership?
These are the questions which
Rahul should consider in the next couple of weeks as the battle for 2014 is
getting hot. (September 30, 2013)
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