Rahul, came, saw, but did he conquer? | A. Jayaram

Published on 03-04-2008 In National

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Rahul, came, saw, but did he conquer?

The "Heir Apparent to the Delhi Gaddi" , Rahul Gandhi has now discovered that there is a State by the name Karnataka in the south of the country, which prides itself over its distinctness. He has made the discovery thanks to his position as General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee.

No doubt Rahul Gandhi came and saw Karnataka. But has he conquered the State is the question.

Karnataka no doubt knows the Indira Gandhi or "Amma's" family too well. Though the AICC President Sonia Gandhi is no stranger to the State, her name ranks below that of Indira Gandhi. Now the AICC and the State Congress leaders are attempting to introduce Rahul to Karnataka. Was is it not Karnataka and Chikkamagalur in particular which sent Indira Gandhi to the Lok Sabha in the September 1978 Lok Sabha by-election at a time when she was a persona non grata in north India ?

The organizers of Rahul's visit tried to take credit for making him stay or visit the homes of ordinary folk. This has evoked a strong protest from the former chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D.Kumaraswamy who has called Rahul and the Congress leaders, copycats. Kumaraswamy was staying overnight in the homes of the poor as chief minister. It had been assumed so far that those becoming chief ministers or AICC general secretaries knew of the problems or privations of the poor. But as some leaders are being pitchforked to high positions without any apprenticeship in politics, they exhibit ignorance about the harsh realities of life. Though a beneficiary of dynastic rule as in the case of Rahul Gandhi, Kumaraswamy knows rural life better.

Rahul Gandhi is somewhat like Prince Siddhartha who was brought up in the insular life of the palace and discovered the naked truth of the world at large when going round Kapilavasthu. But unlike Siddhartha who renounced the good things of life, Rahul Gandhi will not change his aim in life, prime ministership.

The State Congress leaders might not know that during his first visit to Bangalore and princely Mysore in 1931 Jawaharlal Nehru had stayed in the attic of a modest house at Cottonpet in old Bangalore. He had been accompanied by his wife Kamala and daughter, and then known as Indira Priyadarshini. Their visit and stay had been organized by the Congress pioneers of Mysore, Sampige Venkatapathaiya, Ramlal Tiwari and others, whose names are unknown in today's Congress Bhavan.

It is now clear that Rahul Gandhi will be the mascot of the Congress and not S.M.Krishna who gave up his governorship hoping to regain the chief ministership. Though the State Party leaders are aware that Rahul failed badly to garner votes for the party in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, they hope he would succeed in Karnataka. It was sad to see Krishna, who entered politics years before Rahul was born, playing second fiddle to him at the public meetings addressed by the latter. But Congressmen and women are experts at swallowing personal pride and swear loyalty to the Party high command, all for the sake of power. Sycophancy and toadyism are the rule in most political parties and more so in the Congress and the JD (S) in Karnataka.

There is no leader today in the Karnataka Congress who can question or even reason with the High Command. The State has produced four chief ministers who fell out with the high command or the AICC leaders.

First was Kengal Hanumanthaiya who was not much of a respecter of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He paid the price for his insolence and was removed from office in 1956. Then came S.Nijalingappa who himself was the high command and fell out with Indira Gandhi. D.Devaraj Urs parted ways with Indira Gandhi towards the end of his chief ministership, only to lose power and go into wilderness. S.Bangarappa had the temerity to oppose the then high command, P.V.Narasimha Rao. He too lost office to Veerappa Moily in 1992. But even Bangarappa would not have dared to do so if Indira Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi were at the helm. Can anyone today expect Mallikarjuna Kharge, S.M.Krishna, Dharam Singh or Siddaramaiah to stand up to Sonia Gandhi?

Though sycophancy and dynastic rule are the common denominators in most political parties in the country today, they are more so in the Congress. Interestingly, dynastic succession in the Congress can be traced to the days of Mahatma Gandhi himself. Who succeeded Pandit Motilal Nehru as the Congress President at the Lahore session of 1929? It was Jawaharlal. Former prime minister Morarji Desai has hinted at it in his autobiography that Motilal who became Congress President at the Calcutta Congress of 1928 insisted on his son succeeding him ! Rahul Gandhi represents the fifth generation of the Nehru-Indira Gandhi dynasty, a record which few monarchical dynasties could boast of. Jawaharlal straightway introduced Indira Gandhi to active politics in 1957 by naming her as the AICC President succeeding U.N.Dhebar. He rejected strong suggestions in the Working Committee to appoint Nijalingappa.

Like his father Rajiv, Rahul Gandhi too is a direct recruit AICC general secretary. It is not surprising as his mother became the President 62 days after her formal entry into the party. She overthrew a President who had served the Party loyally for 62 years, Sitaram Kesri! Interestingly hardly any New Delhi based journalist referred to this while commemorating her completing ten years as Party president. He was one of the few elected presidents in recent decades. But who cares for such niceties when it comes to loyalty to the Indira Gandhi family which alone can bring power and what goes with it.

However one can't write off the Rahul Gandhi visit as a damp squib. The State leadership made him interact with various sections of the people and visit the different regions. He was made to woo even the well to do professionals including those in the IT industry to join the Congress. It is widely reported that the J.N.Tata Auditorium of the Indian Institute of Science was misused without informing the authorities for a political meeting. However the educated audience is reported to have made it plain to him that they were not for entering politics.

Insiders in the Congress say that the Rahul visit is bound to benefit the Party in the coming Assembly elections. It has succeeded in uniting the different groups especially those supporting the KPCC President Mallikarjuna Kharge and S.M.Krishna. Though the Krishna group tried its best to take the credit for the visit, it is Kharge who emerged as the real boss and not the former governor and chief minister.

Rahul is bound to visit the State again and again as the election campaign hots up. But it should be visits and not visitations from the average Bangaloreans point of view.

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