A tale of two future PMs: 'Reluctant' Rahul Gandhi vs 'over eager' Narendra Modi

Endorsing Rahul seems to be a matter of compulsion as the PM is under a sustained onslaught by the Opposition

Who will unfurl the Tricolour from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi in 2014? The million dollar question will linger at the back of every voter’s mind till 2014.

The Lok Sabha elections must take place before May 2014 and the two principal parties – Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) –  have already chosen the leaders to lead their election campaigns.

 

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, 43,  is chief of his party’s election coordination committee and is believed to be the grand old party’s PM-in waiting. 
 

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, 62, was made this year the BJP's election campaign committee chief, fuelling speculation that he is in the race for the Prime Minister's post, though he stated last week that he would continue to be the Chief Minister till 2017.

On Saturday, responding to a query on the journey back from the G-20 summit in St Petersburg, the Prime Minister said: “I have always maintained that Rahul Gandhiji would be an ideal choice for the Prime Minister’s position after the 2014 election, I would be very happy to work for the Congress party under the leadership of Mr Rahul Gandhi”. 

The Hindutva poster boy took a dig at Singh, asking whether he was not already working under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. “PM talks of happily working under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership next year! Wasn’t he doing the same all these years? Misleading the nation again?” Modi tweeted.

Has the PM echoed the sentiments of Congress president Sonia Gandhi who fears motivating the ordinary party activist would be impossible without this objective?

The pertinent question is: Why Singh re-ignited the debate when Rahul had himself demonstrated unease with this question?  Senior Congress leaders didn’t see this as a sign of Rahul’s detachment but as proof that the Amethi MP does not hanker after power.

The move hints at a game plan aimed at highlighting the alleged scramble for power in the BJP and potential third-front parties that are flooded with prime ministerial aspirants. The overt positioning is particularly an antidote to the hype around Modi, whose recent ‘pronouncements’ are being seen as an attempt to project himself as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for Prime Minister.

Till date it is not clear what future role Rahul intends to play. Though the second-in-command in the party hierarchy,  the Congress leader has managed not to be around at critical times. Opportunities have presented themselves to Rahul in the past couple of years. Rahul’s detractors cite his failure to offer specific solutions to some of the country's most daunting problems – such as inflation, public debt, statehood issue in Andhra Pradesh, and a serious charge of misgovernance and corruption. 

And all this when Modi appears to practising hard to be premier, doing whatever it takes, including delivering a speech from a Red Fort-shaped dais, a symbolism that was not lost on anyone.

 

In theory, promoting Rahul at this juncture makes sense for the Congress. The scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has long been presumed the successor-in-waiting to the Congress chief. It is high time that he should start showing some skills as a leader before intense campaigning starts for the 2014 polls. Political pundits say it’s the Rahul-era in the Congress and the next general election will be his test, not Sonia’s or Manmohan’s.

But he has long refused to take on a responsible position, preferring to work on reorganising Congress’s youth wing, and leading regional election efforts (read Bihar and Uttar Pradesh), both with generally poor results. The problem is that Rahul has so far not even shown sufficient hunger for the top job.

As Rahul does not seem in a hurry to become the Congress’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 election, Singh astutely used the occasion to put a full stop on the ‘two power centres’ allegations. Congress observers feel that the PM pricked the Opposition balloon hinting that if Congress voted to power in 2014, there would be one power centre. 

There is one school of thought that argues that Sonia, too,  didn’t want Rahul to become a victim of the sudden rise and sudden fall that marked his father Rajiv Gandhi’s political career. Unlike Indira Gandhi, Rajiv had an easy debut and a stunning rise. He came into the Congress in 1981, a year after his brother Sanjay died and was elected an MP from Amethi. He became a political adviser to his mother and was appointed the president of the Youth Congress.

After Indira Gandhi’s assassination, he led the Congress to its biggest victory and was elected Prime Minister, only to lose power within five years. He was assassinated during the next election.

Rahul’s reluctance has been a problem for the party.  The congress is playing a wait and watch game at present. The party will probably see how many seats the UPA wins and then explore if Rahul is ready.

However, the latest ABP News-Nielsen predicted that 47% of the respondents favoured Modi  as the PM, followed by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Singh.