Why Rahul Gandhi Should Not Be The Prime Minister Of India?

Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi

Political career of Rahul Gandhi:

Rahul Gandhi’s entrée in politics had been initiated in the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when he had contested from his father Rajiv Gandhis’s former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. The seat was originally held by his mother Sonia Gandhi, who had shifted to the adjacent constituency of Rae Bareilly. The condition of the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh had been deplorable then, covering only a meager 10 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The move had come as a big surprise for the political analysts, who had always speculated the charismatic sister, Priyanka, as the inevitable choice to the political heirloom. The general feeling of the rank and regime of the Congress party had been that, the youthful face of the youngest Gandhi generation might be instrumental in the restitution of the Party’s popularity amongst the youths of the country. Rahul Gandhi had emerged as a winner, marked by a landslide victory. However, till 2006 he had held no important portfolio. Other important political roles of Rahul Gandhi worth mentioning had been the joint campaign with his sister Priyanka Gandhi, for Sonia Gandhi’s reelection in Rae Bareilly in 2006. He had also featured in the Congress campaigns for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Following this, Rahul Gandhi was appointed as the General Secretary for the All India Congress in September 2007.  He was vested with the simultaneous charges of the National Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India in 2008. In January 2013 he was coroneted as the Vice President of the Congress Party, a post only second to the Party President and his mother Sonia Gandhi. This, in brief, is the political career of Rahul Gandhi, from which it is evident that he had earned nothing in his political career. On the contrary, all the achievements that are tagged to him had been handed over to him in a plate by his shrewd mother, in an effort to make him eligible for higher political goals.

The concept – ‘Rahul as Prime Minister’:

The idea of Rahul Gandhi as the future Prime Minister of India was first advocated by the senior Congress Leader Veerappa Moily, during the present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s trip abroad in 2012. Salman Khurshid, a dedicated mouthpiece of the Gandhi dynasty, had further fuelled such ideas claiming that, Rahul Gandhi has the grit to implement policies that are the need of the present day India. While senior Congress leaders like Moily and Khurshid have recently been vocal about the issue – ‘Rahul as PM’, it had always been the master plan of the Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, which is why she was instrumental in elevating the position of her son, Rahul Gandhi, up the rungs of the Congress Party ladder. The low political cunning of Sonia Gandhi had failed to capture the better political prospects of the charismatic daughter Priyanka. She is also acutely aware of the fact that nothing lasts forever, not even the Gandhi dynasty. Especially in the light of her failing health and the crushing defeat of the Congress Party in the last Assembly Elections, she is further apprehensive of the power slipping through her fingers like a fistful of sand. So, as the President of the Party, this is her last valiant enterprise to salvage the sinking Congress Party and, in doing so, she had to move the only chess piece she had got left on the board. That piece is Rahul Gandhi and the move is a desperate attempt to checkmate and win the match for the Congress Party by projecting Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections.

An important controversy surrounding the Gandhi family:

There are many controversies surrounding the Gandhi family. However, the most well known and implicating controversy is the existence of a Swiss Bank Account in the name of Rahul Gandhi holding the whopping amount of 2.5 billion Swiss Francs controlled by Sonia Gandhi with authorizations to make payments in US dollars to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Miss Paola Maino (mother of Sonia Gandhi). Such controversies are further bolstered by the unraveling of the KGB files of the erstwhile USSR and reconfirmed by the revelations in the book, ‘The State Within A State’ by the Russian Harvard Scholar Yevgenia Albats and the Swiss news – magazine Schweizer Illustrierte. While such facts had been widely covered by both the national and the international media, there had been no protests against this issue from the ranks of the Gandhi family till date, nor had any litigations suits been filed discrediting such claims. So Mr. Rahul Gandhi, how do you plan to explain that?

 

Rahul Gandhi as a man and an aspiring politician – an analysis:

Let us start with what Rahul Gandhi thinks of himself as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Congress Party. Strangely enough, unless push comes to shove, Rahul Gandhi stoically refrains from discussing this status, let alone comment on it. Now, is not that highly surprising that, an individual with the searing aspirations of becoming the leader of a nation refuses to talk about it?

Let us now consider the contributions of Rahul Gandhi towards the betterment of the country in any field – political, cultural, social or economical. If the readers have any information on this, please let me know because as far as my efforts go, I have only managed to draw an absolute blank!

A closer look at the personality of Rahul Gandhi reveals certain aspects of his character that definitely go against his claims to fame as the future Prime Minister of India. There are times when, I feel that, Rahul Gandhi never had any well defined political aspiration. When the UPA II Government was formed, if he really wanted to join politics, any ministry he wanted was up for his grabs. Like his coequals, namely Omar Abdullah or Jyotiraditya Scindia, he could have embarked on a proper political career, holding a ministerial portfolio and making his bones as a true politician in the real time politics of the nation. When he had every chance of proving himself as a politician, he had consciously evaded such responsibilities which further highlight his escapist attitude towards a political career. On the contrary, he had chosen the Youth Congress as his playground, not even a cheap imitation of the real time political scenario of the nation.

His escapism is further highlighted by the fact that, being the Vice – President of the Party that forms the majority in the ruling Government, he has done nothing to improve the conditions of the population of India, a third of which is beleaguered by poverty and other dehumanizing conditions. He has no contribution in solving the serious issues plaguing the country like the Maoist problems, Muslim fundamentalist terrorism that is tearing the country apart or promoting bilateral relations with the neighboring countries like Pakistan and China that is under heavy stress. Where was he when the Finance Minister P Chidambaram was fighting the economic uncertainties looming over the country? Let alone contribute, he has not even made a single comment ever, on such issues. The only two instances where he had been able to capture the attention of the media were, once when he had delivered a speech in the Parliament (read it out of a sheet of paper actually) in favor of the constitutional status of the Lokpal Bill and, once when he had openly criticized the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh for advocating a bill that nullified Supreme Court’s verdict of prohibiting convicted criminals from contesting in elections.

Why Rahul Gandhi should not be the Prime Minister of India?:

In the light of all these discussions, I personally feel that, Rahul Gandhi is the proverbial ‘unwilling horse’. He may have taken a plunge into active politics, but in all probabilities, that is an act goaded by a sick mother and pushed by the demands of the Congress rank and regime. His whole approach is half – hearted and can be best described as lackadaisical. It is to be mentioned here that, the same rank and regime, that is screaming for the Prime Ministerial candidature of Rahul Gandhi, deluded by the fact that the youthful face of the youngest Gandhi generation, might be instrumental in reinvigorating the position of the Party in the country, will inevitably revolt against the nonexistent leadership qualities of Rahul Gandhi, if he ever manages to become the leader of the nation.

Being an educated man, Rahul Gandhi is not dumb and well aware of his limitations. He definitely considers the commitments of active politics too heavy a burden to shoulder or else he would not have waited so long for his official induction into politics. As I personally visualize him, he is a man who would rather bask in the reflected glory of his family title and heritage (which incidentally is also fading), under the protective wings of her mother, sampling the political limelight at his will, playing the role of the eternal minor, while the Prime Minister Manmohan plays ‘Singh is King’. Probably that is why the Youth Congress is his favorite and most comfortable amusement park where according to the media, he had been proactive in democratizing the party ranks.

Now here is a man who is the Vice – President of the Congress Party, that forms a majority in the ruling UPA II Government. Given his position in the Party, he doesn’t give a damn about the country he lives in, has never even lifted a finger at times of crisis of his country, has enough black money stashed away in Swiss Bank accounts to last two lifetimes, a man whose political achievements can be written down behind a matchbox (there would still be space left!) and a political career like a piece of paper that has just gone through the shredder. Added to these are a severe attitude problem, stemming from deep-rooted emotional and psychological disorders, little or no connection to the public, severely limited communication abilities with the public and the Party workers and long absenteeism from the political scenario of the nation. I leave a question for the readers. Would you, in your sane mind, vote for such a person for being the Prime Minister of India? Definitely, I will not.

Conclusion:

Being the Prime Minister of a country is an incredibly difficult task, not only the final responsibility of the nation rests on the Prime Minister’s shoulder, he is answerable to the population of the nation for any untoward action and he also becomes the chief representative of the country in the global perspective. The only factor that goes in the favor of Rahul Gandhi’s Prime Ministerial candidature is his breed, his lineage or his title, whatever one decides to dub it. As far as I know, the breed factor works well in choosing primates, but definitely such factor cannot cut out a world class leader for a nation. Everybody knows Rahul Gandhi as the pampered son of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, but nobody has any clue as to what he can do for the betterment of the country if he is chosen as the leader.

In this article I have furnished enough reasons to answer the question ‘why Rahul Gandhi should not be the Prime Minister of India?’. I leave it for the readers to decide whether I had been able to answer the question ‘why Rahul Gandhi must not be the Prime Minister of India?’

 

Related Information:

List of Prime Ministers of India

Who will be the next PM of India?

Narendra Modi’s Likely Cabinet

A Review of Manmohan Singh’s Tenure as India’s PM

Why Rahul Gandhi Should Not Be The Prime Minister Of India?