Of late the return of the Gandhi scion has taken much of newspaper and media space. The congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is back from Thailand after 56 day sabbatical. I fail to understand why press is going gaga over his break and his return. Congress party and Gandhi family passing through testing times. Though winning or losing elections is a common phenomenon for any political party, but for congress’s winning record has hit rock bottom and people are wary of everything happening in Congress. Rahul Gandhi undoubtedly has every right to take a break from this gruelling political acrobatics. But even his staunch advisers feel that this is very badly planned and timed move. Presently I feel congress party has reached a terminal stage, where any call taken by Mrs Gandhi can either resurrect it or bury it completely.The recent statements by Digvijay Singh and Sheela Dixit are indicators of conflict within the party. And these conflicting voices its leaders will certainly have adverse impact on the party image.
But it is not an uncommon to hear dissenting voices in the face such massive defeat. Whenever the party suffered massive defeats a section of its leadership gets impatient to leave the party by finding some scapegoat or some excuse, which was clearly visible during 1969, 1989 and 1995 elections .
It is time for Congress to take a call whether it still needs a reluctant leader at the helm. Even though there have been such instances in the party in the past. It is time to assert itself when the BJP’s graph is falling as per the latest India Today report. It is facing very rough weather in getting the Land Acquisition Bill passed. In fact Mrs Sonia had led the entire opposition to President for revocation which augers well, as not only the opposition political parties are opposing it, even the prominent social groups like Medha Patkar, Anna Hazare etc are also opposing it tooth and nail, on the plea that the Govt is hobnobbing with the Corporate Houses, as far as this bill is concerned.
Despite its worst electoral defeat no one can write off its relevance as age old party. It's history shows numerous instances of electoral defeats and come backs. But this time around it has not yet shown any indication of its revival and it is wasting the opportunity to have the Govt on mat on issues that opposition and social groups both within and outside the parliament are opposing. Whatever it is Mr Rahul, has certainly failed to enthuse the workers and voters as well. His unorthodox campaign style and vanishing tricks have raised questions about his ability to lead and to keep the party together. Inspite of all its failure we find a person carrying its flag in every Indian village but we don’t see any credible leader leading them. It is one of the main reasons for its disappearance locally.
