[Gandhi, dubbed “the Reluctant Prince” by the Indian media, had long appeared ambivalent about his family’s business, and critics have charged that he is effete and out of touch, despite leading a party that has historically championed India’s poor and found its strength in its villages. In 2014, he led the Congress party’s campaign in a national election in which the party won just 44 seats in the lower house of Parliament, the worst showing in its history.]
By Annie Gowen
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Senior
Congress party leaders welcome their party vice president Rahul Gandhi, center,
with
flowers as
he arrives to file his nomination papers at party headquarters, in New Delhi
on
Dec. 4. (Manish Swarup/Associated Press)
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NEW
DELHI — Rahul Gandhi, a
scion of India’s most enduring political dynasty, will take the helm of his
family’s party, enshrining his role as chief opponent to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on India’s political stage.
Gandhi’s promotion to leader of the Indian
National Congress, or Congress party, will officially happen later this month,
but his upcoming elevation became clear Monday after no one filed nomination
papers to challenge him. The move was long expected and comes as the party is
at a nadir in its fortunes, losing a series of state elections and struggling
to counter Modi’s widespread popularity and his upbeat message of development and
economic prosperity for all.
Gandhi, 47, a three-time member of
Parliament, is the descendant of towering figures in Indian history, including
his grandmother Indira Gandhi and his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, who
helped lead the country’s movement for independence from Britain.
Modi, who is campaigning in state elections
in his home state of Gujarat against the Congress party, took a dig at the
political ascension, comparing the Gandhi dynasty to Muslim Mughal kings of the
past.
“When Shahjahan came after Jahangir, or
Aurangzeb came after Shahjahan, were there any elections for that?” he said.
“I congratulate the Congress on their
‘Aurangzeb Raj,’ ” he added, comparing
Gandhi to the widely unpopular 17th-century king.
Gandhi, dubbed “the Reluctant Prince” by the
Indian media, had long appeared ambivalent about his family’s business, and
critics have charged that he is effete and out of touch, despite leading a
party that has historically championed India’s poor and found its strength in
its villages. In 2014, he led the Congress party’s campaign in a national
election in which the party won just 44 seats in the lower house of Parliament,
the worst showing in its history.
Gandhi briefly disappeared from the scene in
2015 — when he reportedly attended a meditation retreat to contemplate his
future — and has appeared re-energized in recent months, analysts say, touring
colleges, criticizing Modi with new vigor and hiring new staff members to
increase his presence on social media.
“People are taking him more seriously now,”
said Sudha Pai, a fellow at the Indian Council of Social Science Research. “He
has played a more sustained role in politics and has not disappeared in between
or kept quiet — that was his style earlier. He was seen as a very reluctant
politician.
“People are prepared to wait and watch,” she
added. “But what use he will make of it post becoming [the Congress party’s]
president is something one has to wait and see.”
As a child, Gandhi lived a fairly sheltered
existence in New Delhi, especially after his father, Rajiv, who served as prime
minister from 1984 to 1989, was assassinated by a Sri Lankan separatist in
1991. He went on to graduate from Cambridge University and work as a management
consultant before winning his father’s former seat in Parliament in 2004.
He declined to serve in a cabinet post
during his party’s decade-long tenure, leaving himself open to criticism that
he has no administrative experience, said Shekhar Gupta, a columnist and editor
in chief of the news website ThePrint.
“Rahul has never had any responsibility,”
Gupta said. “My own view is that he’s been pampered too long and allowed
himself to be protected for too long. Now he’s out there and his neck’s on the
line.”
Gandhi will replace his mother as party
president. Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, 70, has been a powerful leader in her own
right, serving 19 years as party president and leading the party to two
national general-election victories, in 2004 and 2009.
Members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party view
Gandhi’s appointment as a positive, analysts say, because they can continue to
target him as the spoiled child of a fading dynasty who has no acumen for
politics.
“I don’t think he has matured in the sense
that he can stand up and say, ‘I am my own man and I make my own decisions for
better or worse,’ ” said Kanchan Gupta, a journalist and political analyst.
“Unfortunately, the Congress has internalized the fact that only a dynast can
lead the party.”
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