Rahul Gandhi needs his own Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India at the same age that Rahul is now, but he made an effort to acquaint himself with the country

Rahul Gandhi is no Mahatma Gandhi, but he will be hard put to find another leader to relate to more. Rahul, who will turn 45 in June, is as old as Gandhi was when he arrived in India on January 9, 1915, after spending 21 years in South Africa. Like Rahul, the 45-year-old Gandhi didn’t understand India very well. But, to Gandhi’s fortune, he had a mentor like Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who realised his potential as well as shortcomings. 

Gokhale asked Gandhi to first acquaint himself with India’s problems. He extracted a promise that for one year, Gandhi would not answer any political question and would treat his first year in India as a ‘year of probation’. 

Gandhi followed Gokhale’s advice and for the next year travelled in third-class compartments across the length and breadth of India. In that year, Gandhi visited Poona, Kathiawar, Bolpur (near Kolkata), Rangoon, Kangri in Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and then south India. He made contacts and learned about the issues people were facing. To relate to his fellow passengers, he gave up his cloak and turban for simpler clothes and travelled barefoot, to mourn Gokhale's death in February 1915. 

By the end of the year, Gandhi was surer of himself. He knew what he wanted to do. Next year he launched the Champaran satyagraha, after which he never looked back. 

But being out-of-sync isn’t Rahul’s only problem. The bigger concern is his inability to ensure that the issues he picks reach some conclusion. In the past five years, Rahul has passionately picked at least four issues but left them midway. These are: Reviving the Congress’ fortunes in Uttar Pradesh, making the Congress party a more democratic organisation, selling FDI in retail, and leading farmers’ agitation against land-grab in western Uttar Pradesh. The latest addition to this list is the Land Acquisition Bill. His lack of commitment to these issues can be linked to his lack of understanding of how real India works. Is it any wonder, then, that he appears so unconvincing most of the time that he speaks. 

Right now, what Rahul needs most is a Gokhale in the Congress Party who can advise him to junk the foreign trips for travel closer home. But then who in the Congress can play that role?