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Rahul’s three decades in politics have been marked from the outset by a series of verbal outbursts and petulant behaviour. These have been defended as youthful ardour by his followers in the Congress party but cited by his critics as evidence of his immaturity and unfitness for office, despite his dynastic credentials. His nickname among his opponents is Pappu (Hindi for a pampered child) and that childish sobriquet has stuck, even though he’s now a middle-aged 53.
Rahul has so far been adept at exercising power without responsibility, relying on the dynastic loyalty he commands in the Congress party. Despite his role as crown-prince-in-waiting, he has consistently avoided taking office. He has focused instead on his media image and on mass appeals via a recent spectacular 2,485-mile padayatra or marathon walk across India to increase his support.
Rahul has undoubtedly matured politically recently. He has given coherent media interviews and even well-rehearsed talks at Oxford and Cambridge, stressing the need for Indian democracy to build consensus, instead of the majoritarian, Hindu chauvinism of the ruling BJP. He has also endeared himself with spontaneous gestures during his padayatra, such as hugging a shivering little girl or stopping to chat with those who looked most deserving.
What none of this has succeeded in bridging is Rahul’s credibility gap as the alternative to a seasoned, charismatic politician like Narendra Modi. Even some of Gandhi’s friends lament his own apparent lack of ambition for the top job. Where Rahul has succeeded is in deterring potential rivals in his own party, who might have been more effective against the BJP.
The long-term political outlook for Indian democracy is far from healthy. Prime Minister Modi bestrides politics like a colossus, and few observers doubt he’ll be returned for a third term in the general election due next year. With his impeccably humble origins as a chai-wallah (street tea-maker), Modi has a perfect foil in Rahul, the privileged scion of India’s most aristocratic political family.
For his part, Rahul has condemned the anti-Muslim sentiment whipped up by the BJP, but he rides the Hindu-majoritarian wave himself by emphasising his own Brahmin descent, with no reference to his Parsi (Zoroastrian) grandfather, Feroze Gandhi.
The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty he belongs to, despite its secular rhetoric, has been far from consistent when it comes to religion. Nehru himself was so appalled when his sister eloped with a Muslim that she was made to divorce him and accept an arranged marriage to a fellow Brahmin. When Nehru’s daughter Indira chose to marry Parsi Feroze, he was made to convert to Hinduism. Indira herself became a very observant Hindu, often visiting temples and gurus. The family has also never been averse to cashing in on some deceptive name recognition. Many Indian voters still think the dynasty’s name derives from the martyred Mahatma, not from Feroze Gandhi – the two are unrelated.
Meanwhile, Rahul’s Italian-born mother Sonia has played down her European origins and managed to preside over the Congress party for a decade, pulling strings from behind the scenes. When she finally stood down as party president in 2022, she made sure the job went to an elderly nonentity she can control, elected by a landslide with the dynasty’s blessing.
The reasons the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty continues to dominate the Congress party range from India’s deeply embedded respect for heredity, to speculation that the dynasty controls the purse-strings of the party. The result has been the decline of a once great ruling party to a small rump today, lacking even the official status of ‘Opposition’. Rahul’s defamation case, whatever its outcome, will not change that reality, even if it wins him some sympathy votes.
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Also by Zareer Masani
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