Guest Column/Politics : The Louis XVI of Indian Politics

Rahul Gandhi’s preference to be surrounded by a dyanstic coterie that keeps him as far away as possible from reality

Shehzad Poonawalla

Louis XVI of France was the only King of France to be executed. With his death, a thousand years of  continuous French monarchy came to an end. Born to privilege and wealth, Louis XVI had a knack of being  indecisive, uncommunicative and was unable to distinguish sound advice from the one given to placate his ego by those in his inner circle. Living in denial, his failure to identify and resolve France”s problems led to the French Revolution and that eventually led to his downfall. The King only made matters worse by often escaping to more pleasurable activities like hunting instead of dealing with pressing matters decisively.
Ironically, this personality sketch of a tragic king from the pages of history finds glaring similarities to another tragic figure in contemporary Indian politics—Rahul Gandhi. A reluctant politician who likes status quo more than taking bold decisions, whose part-time commitment to a full time job as the leader of the Congress Party, coupled with his obsession to be inaccessible even to the senior most leaders of the party, and his preference to be surrounded by a dyanstic coterie that passes off to him, praises his advice and keeps him as far away as possible from reality, makes him not much of an Aurangzeb but more of a King Louis the XVI of Indian politics!
In 2014, with Rahul already at its helm as Vice-President, the Congress Party ruled 13 states and the BJP had a presence in 7 states. With Himachal Pradesh going to the BJP & the Congress being unable to wrest Gujarat even after 22 years of anti-incumbency, BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi & Amit Shah now has a presence in 19 states and the Congress is down to just 4 states and one of the bigger states Karnataka which Congress rules is up for elections in 2018!
Even as the political equivalent of a French Revolution stares Rahul Gandhi in the face, he remains in denial. Addressing the press on the Gujarat verdict about 24 hours too late, after the Prime Minister and Amit Shah had already met the BJP workers and pushed their own narrative of a victory in the national media, Rahul cut a sorry figure. Calling Gujarat a “moral win” for Congress and his reading of it as a dent on the credibility of Modi is probably just as fictional and illusional as the Star Wars movie he reportedly preferred to watch at 7pm on the evening of the results rather than meeting his leaders and workers to decide the next course of political action!
Rahul needs to realise that about 65 per cent of India is below the age of 35 and it is this section of voters, especially the undecided, urban voters and fence-sitters, who played a decisive role in the 2014 Parliamentary elections and also in the Gujarat elections of 2017. Armed with social media enabled smartphones, they will play a bigger role in the 2019 elections. Apart from jobs, the state of the economy, this Young India has voted, does and will also vote for a personality that reflects its  aspirational and identity quotient better, even in the face of tremendous anti-incumbency. That it voted in 2014 with vengeance for a man perceived as a complete political outsider to the NDTP (New Delhi to Parliament Street) establishment of elite, champagne activists, especially after that classist “chaiwala” jibe made by Mani Shankar Aiyyar, is an indicator of the revulsion most people have,  especially in this age group, for  privilege, especially dynastic privilege in the politics of a transforming, new India.
Many in the NDTP circuit now want to present Rahul Gandhi as some sort of Justin Trudeau. At best he is a cheap imitation without the seriousness, commitment or aptitude to lead a political party with such a rich legacy. Defeat is not the reason why allies and the electorate do not take Rahul seriously. It is his inability to learn from defeats that makes him a liability. His social media presence may have improved but he is still a patron of a feudal, Shehzada politics where the party overwhelmingly affords positions of power to dynasts. This structure is incompatible with what young India wants. If Rahul fails to understand this his career will face the political guillotine in 2019 like a tragic figure from France once did!
(The writer is former Secretary of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee)