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Jul

Rahul Gandhi: A leader whose time has come

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Dr Satish Misra

New Delhi, 1 July 2024

Dispelling all doubts and silencing even his worst critics, Rahul Gandhi has left no doubt that he is ready to serve the country as the Leader of the Opposition as mandated by the people of the country.

 

While Rahul Gandhi was recently dismissed as ‘Pappu’ and lacking the qualities to lead the Congress, today he has finally arrived at leading the party and country from the front.   

 

His two decades long political journey that began in 2004 when he contested his first Lok Sabha election from Amethi has been stormy and tortuous during which he moved with his back towards the wall warding off opposition from both within his party as well as from the RSS-BJP’s systematic plan to project him as incapable, incompetent and an object of ridicule and derision.

 

Article at a Glance

Rahul Gandhi has silenced his critics by emerging as a strong leader, ready to serve the country as the Leader of the Opposition. Despite being dismissed as "Pappu" and lacking leadership qualities, Rahul has proven himself through his two-decade-long political journey. He has fought against all odds to democratize the Congress and align it with the grassroots. Rahul's analytical skills and willingness to learn have helped him evolve into a flexible leader. He has taken bold steps to reform the party, including introducing elections in youth organizations. Despite facing setbacks, Rahul has remained undeterred and has connected with people through his country-wide journeys. The Congress has accepted him as their leader, and he is now ready to play a constructive role in the Lok Sabha, working towards a bias-free and progressive India.

 

 

Fighting against all possible odds, Rahul Gandhi kept his goal of tuning and aligning the Congress with the grassroots and reviving the party’s political fortunes by democratizing it. While it was very easy for him to be a minister or even a Prime Minister, the young Gandhi kept his focus on the party.

 

One quality that has stood out well with Rahul during good times, as well as bad times, is dissecting any problem through his analytical skills and finding solutions. He is on a constant mission of learning which has helped in evolve into a leader who is flexible and ready to change if times and circumstances demand.

 

His penetrating insight and keen observation had convinced him that the Congress was being run by a coterie of leaders who had lost touch with people and were leaders till they were acceptable to the Gandhi family, especially by his mother Sonia Gandhi.

 

Right from the beginning that he entered politics, he knew that the Gandhi family was losing its appeal and that Congress could not stay afloat only with the appeal and hold of Nehru-Gandhi over the people. The Congress had to be a well-oiled organization with its ears to the ground. Reforming the party was no easy task, he knew but he had to do it to keep the country on the steady path to ward off the ideological onslaught of the RSS-BJP which in his understanding was working hard to undermine and finally dismantle the Idea of India that had emerged from the long freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi. In his comprehension, the Congress of which he was a part was incapable of protecting the basic character of the Constitution.   

 

To start with as the party’s general secretary in charge of the frontal organizations including the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), he chose election over selection to bring in committed youth to the party. But holding elections in the two youth outfits was anathema to old leaders who resolutely opposed it by sabotaging the elections by various means. It was easy for them to pack these two organizations with their sycophants and their family members.

 

However, Rahul didn’t lose his nerves and kept his cool drawing lessons from the whole exercise and subsequent failures. Becoming the party’s Vice President and then the Congress President, Rahul Gandhi learned that there are no easy shortcuts to making the Congress acceptable to the people.      

 

Two defeats of the Congress in 2014 and 2019 forced him to introspect and analyze more. Some senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad left the party. Others like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada chose easy paths of walking to the BJP- shaking hands with the party’s ideological rivals for power and pelf.    

 

Undeterred by the gloom and undaunted by defeats, he kept his resolve firm and decided to go to the people by embarking upon two country-wide journeys namely ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which took him from South to North and from East to the West.  Though the two ‘Yatras’ were arduous yet they proved to be equally rewarding as they brought him face-to-face with people. His acceptability grew by many counts.

 

The Congress had to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls against heavy odds facing a willy rival in the ruling BJP which was not shy of using, misusing, and abusing every means at its disposal facilitated by its government under the direction of the Modi-Shah duo. Despite the country’s oldest party being deprived of resources as its bank accounts were frozen and many of its leaders being forced to compromise, the party did reasonably well doubling its tally from 52 to 99.

 

Accepting the popular mandate, the Congress has accepted to play the role of a constructive opposition and Rahul Gandhi has also bowed down to the diktat of his party to lead the party in the Lok Sabha from the front while also playing an active role to build the party further along with its elected chief Malikarjun Kharge.                 

 

He has finally arrived proving the age-old maxim that slow and steady wins the race. A young leader knows well that he has to fight many battles to win people’s war to create an environment devoid of hatred and bias so India, that Bharat can progress and prosper.

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