The news item “A chorus to bring back Rahul” (December 15) appears to suggest that there is a wave across the Congress party to bring back the prodigal who deserted his post during the most trying times, Rahul Gandhi, to run the party’s affairs as president all over again. While there is no denying the fact that the younger leaders in the Congress have been rooting for his reinstatement, the old guard who currently have the ear of the interim president Sonia Gandhi could baulk at any move to handle the mantle back to him. What has to be appreciated is that the Gandhi loyalists in the party had done their best to absolve the Gandhis from any responsibility for the rout in the general elections as per the set norms but Mr. Gandhi had decided to pack his bags and even his doting mother could not bring him out of his shell. Mr. Gandhi’s leadership of the Congress was quite unsatisfactory where electoral gains were concerned and he was reduced to the status of a hapless bystander as the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah juggernaut continued its triumphant run, winning State after State, a victory spree that culminated in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s mammoth win in the parliamentary polls in May. Partymen who hold the view that the return of Mr. Gandhi is the panacea for all the Congress party’s ills are living in a fool’s paradise.
C.V. Aravind,
Bengaluru
