When Priyanka Gandhi took oath as Member of Parliament on Thursday, feelings were mixed. Her presence would reinforce the clout of the Nehru Family, known today as the Gandhis. Time alone can say how much her presence in Parliament can be of help to the Congress party. The combined clout of Rahul Gandhi who now represents Rae Bareli and Priyanka who holds the Wayanad seat should help the Congress sharpen its role as the Opposition.
It is well-known that Sonia Gandhi who led the Congress from the front for over two decades preferred Rahul Gandhi as the future face of the party. However, his good intentions as a politician were tamed by a lack of aggressiveness, which the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi took full advantage of. This is a reason why the saffron establishment, despite its patently communal and religion-oriented ideology, managed to have the upper hand in both parliament and outside. If unity is the Congress party’s mantra as always, the BJP divided the nation and its people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi played to the gallery, “acted” as the leader of the poor and disadvantaged sections and helped the BJP win power in successive polls. Yet, the BJP would soon be at the cross-roads. A new leader in Modi’s place sooner or later would face the relatively young Rahul and Priyanka. Modi tactfully avoided touching hot subjects. Change was not in his scheme of things. He continued his rule on the same lines as the Congress did and avoided confronting vested interests. The bureaucracy has become more corrupt under his rule, but fact is also that he or his central ministers have not tarnished the image of the Government so far by corrupt practices. Modi seems to have maintained absolute control over them. By contrast, the Congress led UPA governments proved to be epitomes of corruption, evidenced in the series of scams that erupted before 2014. These sealed the fate of the Congress party. In fact, Sonia Gandhi’s backseat driving added to such problems. From now on, the new generation of Congress leaders will be directly under the watch of the brother-sister combine.
Priyanka Gandhi has acquired political legitimacy by winning a parliament seat with a huge majority. She may be carrying the baggage of her husband Robert Vadra, who subverted systems and emerged as the biggest land shark around the Delhi region via facilitation from some Congress governments in Haryana, Punjab etc. The Opposition is bound to rake up such issues and target Priyanka Gandhi in the coming days. She would do well to demonstrate a fighting spirit that her paternal grandmother, Indira Gandhi, had shown when faced with adversities. The Nehru dynasty is not like the other, the hand-in-the-honey pot, political establishments. This family shed blood through generations for the nation.
