Congress has a trump card for 2024 but Rahul Gandhi must resolve his Hamletian dilemma first

There was a time when Congress insiders would say, 'If not Rahul, then who?' This perception has been changing since Kharge took over the party’s reins.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi addressing press conference in New Delhi, Friday | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

At a recent event in New Delhi Saturday evening, Sugata Srinivasaraju, author of Strange Burdens: The Politics and Predicament of Rahul Gandhi, made an interesting suggestion: “Rahul Gandhi should declare that he will not be the prime ministerial candidate…he should embrace the trusteeship idea and become the custodian of its ideology, its values.”

By all accounts, the author isn’t known to be a professional critic of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi. Despite critically appraising his politics, the book ends up leaving an impression of empathy and sympathy with the Congress leader. Srinavasaraju sounded convinced of Gandhi’s determination to reset the Congress’ ideological compass. The two had an interesting exchange in 2018. When the author told the Congress leader how he had got a Marxist scholar to interpret the Bhagavad Gita for a podcast in Kannada — ‘an experiment to counter exclusive Hindutva ideas’ — the latter wasn’t convinced. “I will tell you how to do it,” Gandhi said. The best way to counter it, he said, was “to take away the text from them, appropriate it…It is best to allow them to dance in their little castles while you build an alternate narrative. We should quote from the Upanishads,” Gandhi told him.

One doesn’t know how that search for an alternate narrative led to the Bharat Jodo Yatra. But Srinivasaraju’s suggestion — that Gandhi must renounce claims for prime ministerial post — is interesting. Not just because the Congress has a potent alternative but also because it has the potential to scuttle the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) tried-and-tested electoral strategy. But before we come to this point, let’s look at Rahul Gandhi’s Hamletian dilemma — to be or not to be the PM candidate, to consume or not consume the ‘poison’.

Rahul Gandhi’s Hamletian dilemma

Long since he refused to join the Manmohan Singh Cabinet and subsequently declared power as “poison”, Rahul Gandhi has been equivocating over his prime ministerial ambitions. Veteran journalist Neerja Chowdhury, in her recently released book How Prime Ministers Decide, has quoted K Natwar Singh as saying that it was because of Rahul’s threat to “take an extreme step” that Sonia Gandhi was forced to “sacrifice” prime ministership in 2004.

Nine years later, his power-is-poison remark had Congress leaders borrowing handkerchiefs to wipe their tears at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Jaipur. By January 2014, however, he seemed to be doing a re-think, saying that his remark didn’t mean that he wasn’t ready to take up the responsibility if the organisation gave it. He has maintained a tight grip on the organisation, putting his family loyalists and hangers-on in all key positions in the party, including the Congress Working Committee (CWC). He is to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in the party what Sonia Gandhi was to Manmohan Singh in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s affairs.

What is, however, keeping Congress leaders guessing about his future plans is his apparent lack of interest in governance issues. While he is building a love-against-hate narrative and attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for alleged omissions and commissions, Rahul Gandhi’s interest in policy matters has been perfunctory, if at all. He shows little interest in participating in the debates on Bills concerning any sector of governance. His speeches inside or outside Parliament are mostly laced with rhetoric, generalisation, and populist demagogy. None of these signals his readiness or keenness to deal with the nitty-gritty of governance. Yet, he has never ruled himself out of the PM race — in or beyond 2024.

Kharge as trump card

There was a time when Congress insiders would say, “If not Rahul, then who?” They didn’t see another Manmohan Singh among the ranks. This perception has been changing since Kharge took over the party’s reins in 2022. He has shown a brilliant understanding of what the Gandhis want or expect him to do. Since taking over as the Congress president, he has been following the dotted lines. Accordingly, he threw the Udaipur Declaration, adopted by the CWC at the conclusion of the party’s Nav Sankalp Shivir in May 2022, into the dustbin. The Declaration had committed the party to providing 50 per cent reservation to those below 50 years of age at all levels of the organisation.

Another important decision was that no person would hold any party position for more than five years. This was especially important as it would mean the dropping of some big names in Rahul Gandhi’s coterie, including KC Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Avinash Pandey — you name it. No wonder Kharge felt compelled to dump the Udaipur Declaration. Out of 39 permanent members of the newly reconstituted CWC, only three are below 50 years old, as the party president had to retain all Gandhi family loyalists.

For the Gandhi family, these are reassuring things about Kharge. In my PoliticallyCorrect column, published on 22 May, I argued that among a dozen PM contenders and pretenders in the opposition camp, there are at least three disruptive choices—Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Nitish Kumar. I have been taking feedback from INDIA leaders. Going by their assessment, Priyanka is ruled out. Many of them believe that while Nitish Kumar’s Kurmi caste and Bihari PM slogan can be very disruptive as far as the BJP’s calculations are concerned, the Bihar CM’s governance record in the past decade can be “a big negative” when compared with PM Modi’s track record in public perception.

In my column, I argued that after Jagjivan Ram, no Dalit leader has had the political heft to be seen as a PM contender in a country with a 17 per cent Dalit population. Mayawati’s credibility among Dalits is vastly eroded, and therefore, Kharge as the prime ministerial candidate could be a potentially disruptive choice.

Rahul Gandhi vs Kharge

Today, I proffer a few more points to bolster my argument. What are the points PM Modi and other BJP leaders use to run down Rahul Gandhi?

First, he is a dynast with a sense of entitlement. Well, Kharge comes from a poor family. His father was an agricultural worker and factory labourer.

Second, as per BJP leaders, the Gandhi family is synonymous with minority appeasement. Kharge, when he was seven years old, lost his mother and sister when Razakars—Muslim militia supporting the Hyderabad Nizam—set their hut on fire and killed them. The young boy and his father, who were not in the house, narrowly escaped. It would be difficult for the BJP to hurl minority appeasement or anti-Hindu charges at Kharge.

Third, the BJP paints the Gandhi family as corrupt, citing the National Herald case against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and cases against Robert Vadra. Kharge has an impeccable record.

Fourth, the BJP takes jibes at Rahul Gandhi for having no understanding or experience in governance. Kharge became a minister in the Karnataka government in 1978 and has run a number of important ministries in the state as well as the Centre since then.

Fifth, the BJP paints Rahul Gandhi as a non-serious, part-time politician who takes his privileges for granted and doesn’t treat even his party colleagues with respect. Even at 81, Kharge is a 24×7 politician who treats even his rivals in the party with respect. Siddaramaiah’s choice as Karnataka CM and Shashi Tharoor’s induction in the CWC, to cite just a couple of instances.

There are many more reasons why Kharge as the prime ministerial candidate may force the BJP to go back to the drawing board to come up with an innovative strategy. Goes without saying that even in the INDIA camp, prime ministerial aspirants will find it hard to oppose a Dalit leader’s candidature.

The best part is, win or lose, Kharge as the prime ministerial candidate may help the Congress regain, to an extent, its traditional Dalit vote bank at a time when Dalits are exploring options like the BJP.

There are so many possibilities for the opposition with Kharge as the PM candidate. But for that to happen, Rahul Gandhi has to resolve the Hamletian dilemma. And there is nobody in the Congress who can tell him what to do. In a conversation with Srinivasaraju once, as mentioned in his book, Gandhi asked him who could possibly be the guru of someone like the Buddha who had attained enlightenment. That’s a million-dollar question for INDIA, too.

DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. Views are personal.

(Edited by Humra Laeeq)