Monday, January 23, 2006

We want Rahul... Rahul! Rahul! Rahul!

Thirty-four-year-old Rahul Gandhi was visibly uncomfortable at Rajiv Nagar in Hyderabad where some 10k delegates of the Congress wanted Rahul to get centrestage pronto.

Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi's imminent induction into the CWC overshadowed all else on the second day of the 82nd AICC plenary yesterday, as bemused party leaders admitted it was turning into an "emotive issue".

The scion of the Gandhi family was clearly uncomfortable as the nearly all delegates demanded that he take his place on the dais alongside party president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other top leaders just as the AICC meeting was about to begin yesterday morning.

Party managers were unable to control the delegates who shouted slogans like "Rahul Gandhi Zindabad" (long live Rahul Gandhi) and refused to sit down until Rahul Gandhi, who was seated in a corner on the front row, came up on stage.

He merely smiled to the chants till AICC general secretary Janardhana Dwivedi requested him to walk up to the stage and acknowledge the greetings of the gathering. The delegates allowed the meeting to start only after extracting a promise from him to address them today.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

After Mr Indira Gandhi had been assassinated, nothing was certain, wrote Salman Rushdie in his introduction to the Tariq Ali book The Nehrus and The Gandhis: An Indian Dynasty. Except one thing, the master writer hastened to add. Rajiv Gandhi would become the next Prime Minister of India.

Has Rahul's time come? Not so soon, one would like to think. But from the way things are going, it is clear that the dynasty is our destiny.

Anonymous said...

It is sad that there are people out there who believe that Rahul Gandhi is a leader! I don’t recollect Rahul making a statement on any issue of national importance. Does this 35 year-old, whom the Congress is so keen on thrusting into our faces as the next Leader of the Nation, have any views at all? Does he have any opinions on foreign policy? Or economic growth of the country? Or the uniform civil code? What is his stand on corruption? Or anything!

Remember ‘Leaders’ such as Rahul Gandhi & Co. cannot be thrust upon people and nor can they be created by the surname, the party, the mother or the media! Leaders have to prove themselves worthy to be followed. The first way to do so is to Speak Out!