New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s letter posted on Twitter Wednesday afternoon betrays the utter helplessness of an opposition leader who felt betrayed by everyone and everything around him — his party colleagues, the Election Commission and other institutions, and his inability to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s all-pervasive influence in his fight for the idea of India.
Here are five takeaways from his letter.
To Gandhi, it’s another ‘sacrifice’
Gandhi feels his resignation as Congress president is another sacrifice by his family — the others being the sacrifice of lives by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi for the country, and his mother Sonia Gandhi’s decision not to become prime minister after winning the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
The sense of sacrifice is reflected clearly in the last three sentences of his four-page letter: “It is a habit in India that the powerful cling to power; no one sacrifices power. But we will not defeat our opponents without sacrificing the desire for power and fighting a deeper ideological battle. I was born a Congressman… (the party) is my life’s blood and forever that way it shall remain.”
Lack of faith in the election verdict
Unlike other opposition leaders, Gandhi doesn’t raise questions about the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in his letter, but throws enough hints about his suspicion about the lack of fairness in the elections.
Stating that the Congress didn’t fight against the BJP but against the “entire machinery of the Indian state”, he raises, though obliquely, questions about the fairness of “arbiters” such as a free press, an independent judiciary and an objective and neutral Election Commission.
“There is a real danger that from now on, elections will go from being a determinant of India’s future to a mere ritual,” he writes.
Betrayal by party veterans
Gandhi says he fought against the prime minister, the RSS and the institutions “they have captured”. “At times, I stood completely alone and am extremely proud of it,” he writes in the letter, suggesting he felt his party colleagues didn’t back him in his fight against the BJP.
At the first Congress Working Committee after elections where he had offered to resign, Gandhi had suggested as much, expressing bitterness about the way he was compelled by his senior colleagues to give party tickets to their children. “Numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019,” Gandhi writes.
Gandhi can do no wrong
He may have resigned citing “accountability” for the electoral drubbing of the party, but the outgoing Congress president doesn’t say a word in the four-page letter which would suggest the realisation or admission of any mistake on his part.
He blames his partymen, the RSS, the prime minister, the BJP’s financial resources and different institutions, but there is not a word about where he went wrong.
He might be facing criticism for making the alleged Rafale scam the party’s central plank, which backfired, but Gandhi remains unrepentant: “The Prime Minister’s win doesn’t negate the breadth of corruption allegations against him.”
Option open to return as Congress president
Party leaders who wanted Gandhi to withdraw his resignation should read between the lines. He says he will continue to fight for the ideals of the Congress with all his strength. He also hints at his intention to remain actively involved in party affairs.
“I am available to the party whenever they require my services, input or advice,” Gandhi says in the letter, in what may come as a big solace to Nehru-Gandhi family loyalists who would like him to return to helm the party just ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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