Samikhsya Bureau
There is raging debate in and outside the Congress party that, if Rahul Gandhi resigns from the party president ship then what. And what happens if he does not really quit till the temper over that dies down.
The defeat that the party suffered was indeed a crushing one and Rahul, as its head was politically right to have taken the moral responsibility and offered to quit. But one thing remains that, whether he relinquish his post as the party president or not, the rein would remain in the hands of the family.
As a top notch of the opposition Rahul should not be denied the credit for trying hard to match up to the political firepower of Narendra Modi and team. He did raise many pertinent issues those often agitated people’s mind. Like the slew of promises by NDA 1, which he made a persistent attempts not to allow the people in power to brush under the carpet. But
Of course, the style differs and so it did between Rahul and Modi. Rahul was clinical but was bereft of the oratory skill that his opponent has mastered well, even, often, bordering on theatrics in tone and tenor. And Rahul was allegedly entering into flippancy in his certain observations and perhaps curt in his charges.
Before the climate of the elections in the five Assembly seats last year, there was a perception building exercise by some that the BJP wants an opposition headed by Rahul who was not a match to Modi. But, after the BJP’s debacle in the Hindi heartlands, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, even his critics changed their opinion towards Rahul.
The momentum continued till the campaigns were limited to real issues of people’s concern. But, it was, perhaps, to Congress’s disadvantage that the campaign climate underwent an abrupt change after issues related to national security and rest hardly requires repetition.
While not grudging the Prime Minister his pride in flooring the entire opposition and Congress in particular on the mat, but the questions are being raised that can Rahul’s replacement help or it would be construed as a political genuflection.
Some observers say that Rahul must desist from the dramatics to linger the process and allow someone else to get into his shoes.
Why can’t Rahul step aside for the time being and let an experiment happen. That would not be construed as a surrender, feel some observers and add that Rahul’s exit would rather enhance his image and for some time, the brick bating over family rule can be halted.
