Dear Rahul Gandhi, is Congress willing to start anew for something larger?

Much of the solution today to the current challenge to the idea of India lies outside the Congress party, writes Yogendra Yadav

Dear Rahul,

I take the liberty of writing to you in response to your resignation letter.

I draw upon our earlier acquaintance nearly a decade ago. My impressions from those few meetings with you were of a leader who was more sincere than most politicians one meets and more intelligent than anyone was willing to believe.

That positive impression, however, is not the trigger for this letter. I write to you because you invoke something bigger than your party’s interest, something that speaks to me. You seek to fight “to defend the ideals India was built upon”. Knowing you, I