No Congress without first family, no 'first family' without Power !!!

"Sonia is no goongi goodiya", wrote Late Vinod Mehta in his memoir. When it comes to her son, Sonia displays another similarity with her late powerful mom-in-law, India Gandhi --- Sonia remains a dotting mother. 

August 12, post-3PM as the Lok Sabha debate on Lalitgate continued with embattled Sushma Swaraj holding forte for herself and party for her party BJP, one person was often seen in somber mood and partly anguished. Honestly, a bitter critic of the dynasty and thus also Rahul Gandhi – 1970 born and almost my age - I could sense a fear in his eyes. 

An angst looking man; he had almost bet everything in Lalitgate and Vyapam scam; and all that he was getting -- a bad name to his dead father. The pathetic below-the-belt hit was Sushma Swaraj’s sermon: “next time you are in holidays and sit in solitude, read the HISTORY OF YOUR (Nehru-Gandhi) family”. The entire script had gone wrong!

“Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi became a butt of social media jokes on Thursday, after a photograph of him entering Parliament with a transcript of his speech went viral,” went a story in The Hindustan Times.com.

It all started after The Telegraph newspaper printed a photo on its front page that showed the Congress leader holding a sheaf of papers.

IRONY IS BOTH PAPERS ARE KNOWN FOR THEIR ANTI-MODI AND PRO-FAMILY TILT....
** this is really a case of SICKULARISM ZINDABAD....zindabad!!

“Log PM Modi ko sunna chahte hai, woh unki rai janna chahte hai, Modigate par, Vyapam par,” the first point said. The letters were distinctly visible in the close-up photo. Many tweeter-savvy netas mocked at the crown prince of Congress dynasty, who also had the audacity and lacked the basic decency when he said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi "did not have guts" to face him and his partymen in the House.

This came from a man, who had mere 44 MPs and who had 'by choice' hesitated to be the floor leader in Lok Sabha. Another BJP leader Arun Jaitley had summed up his angry-young man pretension very well, when he said, "when seniority is thrust upon, you must show some maturity....and more he grows, more he shows immaturity".

The script for Rahul Gandhi -- ostensibly prepared by the likes of Digvijaya Singh and partly the NGO-variety people like Jairam Ramesh - had gone wrong earlier too. 

In his usual combative outburst Rahul Gandhi thundered is his address to the massive Congress conclave at Talkotara Stadium on 17 January, 2014, “we will not stop till the battle is won”.  Ironically that day Rahul's uncle Mani (Mani Shankar Aiyar) threw cold water literally on the entire script by his tasteless 'chae wallah' remark on Narendra Modi.

The BJP quickly lapped on the statement. "The strength of Indian democracy will be proved when a former tea vendor defeats a dynasty representative. Let this be the battle of 2014,” said Jaitley while another BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy had said, "the people of this country will answer Mani Shankar Aiyar. The countdown of the Congress party has begun".

In effect, the battle has again come down to Rahul versus BJP, who has lost no time to give a major spin to Vyapam and Lalitgate by turning the entire battle now between India's democracy and growth momentum and the Congress 'enslaving' itself to the dynasty. In other words, firstly Rahul should sack his script writers and his 'momma' should immediately ensure that all his 'adviser uncles' are replaced sooner than later.

Shouting Mom: Should get her own house in order

 Now what happens to the Congress party and the family -- mutually - with or without each other. First thing first, when 'family' runs Congress, it's India is Indira and Indira is India. Take two: under Sonia Gandhi, Rahul should be India; come what may.

There has been no accountability yardstick for Rahul and every time, he failed; Sonia returned the 'non performance' with a promotion. This is how, Rahul is today, the Congress vice president and probably by September-October will also happily replace his mother as party chief. 

The Congress president Sonia Gandhi has undoubtedly a challenging task in reorganising her party machinery. But her bigger challenge still lies in deciding for her son the role, Rahul Gandhi would exactly like to play, and importantly bring in some accountability. In effect Rahul remains an enigma, and that simple fact offers: Advantage Namo!

"Nobody really knows what he is capable of, nor what he wishes to do should he ever attain power and responsibility. The suspicion is growing that Mr (Rahul) Gandhi himself does not know," wrote a western magazine in 2012 – when the decline of UPA had just started. Things have hardly changed.

In the meantime, a visibly relieved BJP leaders can tweet around: "Does Rahul Gandhi himself know or understand what he says?" - courtesy Delhi BJP leader Nupur Sharma.

Arun Jaitley was again ruthless in his Facebook posting saying, "As for Shri Rahul Gandhi, there was no serious expectation that he would raise the level of the debate. He has failed to recognise the difference between sloganeering and a Parliamentary speech. The more he grows, the more he immatures. Aggressive body language is never a substitute for substance." 

ends