Doubts over Rahul Gandhi’s political future deepened on Monday as the Congress party vice-president decided to skip the budget session of parliament so that he could take time to “reflect” on the future of his battered party.
The budget session is considered crucial for the government of Narendra Modi, prime minister, as it seeks to push through pro-business legislation including a mining bill and another to allow greater foreign investment in the insurance sector. The session is expected to see heated debate on business-friendly amendments to a Congress-designed land acquisition law, which Modi wants to push through to make it easier to acquire land from farmers for mining and industry.
But according to reports, Rahul, who was absent as the session got under way on Monday, had asked Sonia Gandhi, his mother and the Congress president, for permission to take a few weeks’ leave of absence “to reflect on recent events and the future course of the party.” Sonia declined to elaborate.
Rahul's decision to skip the crucial session excited ridicule on social media. “Does anyone know where Rahul Gandhi is going on holid . . . I mean ‘leave of absence’ to deeply contemplate the future of Congress?” Sadanand Dhume, the writer and fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, tweeted to his nearly 60,000 followers.
His absence has given rise to deeper questions about Rahul's judgment and his role in a party that has been led by members of his family - including his great-grandfather, grandmother and parents - for four generations and which appears to be slowly imploding under his half-hearted and erratic leadership.
“It seems an incredibly irresponsible and goofy thing to do,” Siddharth Varadarajan, a senior fellow at Shiv Nadar University, said. “It’s awful timing. It just shows that neither he nor the party is prepared to do what it takes to be a fighting force.”
While many Congress activists privately grumble about Rahul and his lack of leadership abilities, rival factions have long looked to the illustrious Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, often referred to as the party’s “high command”, as the only unifying force capable of preventing the party from splintering.
It seems an incredibly irresponsible and goofy thing to do. It’s awful timing. It just shows that neither he nor the party is prepared to do what it takes to be a fighting force - Siddharth Varadarajan
Rahul was 14 when his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, then prime minister, was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, and 19 when his father, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was killed by supporters of Sri Lanka’s LTTE, a Tamil separatist group.
Although he entered politics a decade ago, Rahul, a 44-year-old bachelor, has often seemed uncomfortable in his public role, quoting his Italian-born mother, who described power as “poison”.
During the past decade of Congress rule he repeatedly refused to take any cabinet or ministerial role despite pleas from Manmohan Singh, then prime minister. Gandhi said at the time that he wanted to focus on overhauling Congress to make it more open and democratic and to end its dependence on his family.
His efforts brought few results. In May he led the party to its worst parliamentary election battering, which saw it winning just 44 seats, down from 206 in the previous legislature.
The campaign was personally bruising. Rahul was mocked by Modi as “shahzade” (crown prince), amplifying already widely held perceptions of the young Congress leader as someone who had risen by virtue of his bloodline.
Congress fared little better in Delhi’s local elections, when it did not win a single seat in the 70-member local assembly. Its supporters defected en masse to the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) party.
Congress has yet to conduct any serious analysis into the causes of its waning public support, political analysts say. Many believe the party is facing an “existential crisis”, with the administration of the ruling BJP even demanding it vacate the government-owned bungalow it uses as its headquarters.
Party officials say Rahul will return to politics within a few weeks. But many believe Congress would stand a better chance of surviving in the long run if he did not.
