The son must rise
When Congress president Sonia Gandhi was under treatment in the United States some time ago, a young Congress MP from Rajasthan said something of import. Ordinary Congress workers did not know whom to turn to in Mrs Gandhi’s absence, she observed.
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, seen by all as the number two in the party after his mother, was not around on a typical day to offer succour, give advice or project ideas as a leader. Perhaps that is what Union law minister Salman Khurshid now seems to be suggesting.
Neither Mr Khurshid nor his Rajasthan colleague are looking to criticise Mr Gandhi. But they indeed appear concerned that he is not doing quite enough. In other words, he is playing the outsider — that he has not really assumed “functional responsibility”, as Mr Khurshid put it, in comments earlier this week that have brought on some anxiety in Congress circles and attracted taunts from the Opposition parties.
As a Congressman of some standing, the law minister has called on Mr Gandhi to give “ideological direction” to party members of the new generation. He is right. Mr Gandhi is capable of thinking and speaking, as he showed in Parliament when he made a heart-felt speech before the no-confidence motion in Parliament in the days of UPA-1, elaborating on poverty and the role of power. If the young Congress leader does not rise to the challenge and make his presence count, confusion could spread in the Congress.
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