Very likely, it seems!
Rahul in the race for PM?
Very unlikely!
The ruling leading lights shout: It is PM vs. chaos! Opposition unity, a shame!
Political issues are getting hotter everyday. Election outcome in 2019 is the major guessing game. There is less and less of tolerance and
Dissidence of any sort is not welcome. Because politics is grabbing of power, raw power at that!
What the people, the voters would show in 2019?
It is always easy to talk of global issues, in a sense. Be it high finance or trade or any other issues. So, we often see the Indian media reports that India would grow at 7.5 % while the world growth might slow down. Anyway such praise comes at times when the country needs some light and energy to life our spirits.
It is only when the Opposition gets its acts together and get the government functioning stalled as it has been happening in recent times, one gets a bit unnerved. After all we are a democracy, more precisely a Parliamentary democracy and that means some imposition of rules and discipline in behaviour in Parliament.
Again, the Opposition has lots of opportunities to disrupt the proceedings of the House and also, if the government is weak in its activities and that too in such high sensitive matters like, say the Rafale deal, then it is most likely the government looks very weak and defenceless and the Opposition seizes the upper hand.
Mr.Rahul Gandhi might not have put the government on fire but he has succeeded by concentrating on only one-point agenda of attacking the
Prime Minister, sometimes, by overdoing the same sort of attacks by over-doing the same.
This only has dented the image of the Central government as one that has lost its track and nothing to show by way of progress on other fronts. For example, the question of corruption is high on the agenda and also other sensitive issues have come to public notice recently. The CBI issues are man-made or systemic?
Surely, the CBI is only the most critical and also directly under the Prime Minister’s portfolio. Surely this has dented the image of the quality of the Central government. The government acted very late and has led to too much waste of time and energy.
Surely, the PMO must take the blame and it looks the final solution is something that is far away. There can’t be any quick-fix here and the image of corruption and a search for clean image for the PMO is not in sight. The 2019 general elections might have come and gone and much water must have flowed since then.
So, the issue of corruption and also the related issue of the most suspect one is the postponement of the creation of the high office of the Lok Pal.
Really it is galling to imagine why we have showed ourselves as a nation of hypocrites, as people who don’t mean anything when it comes to high corruption when it comes to running our democracy.
The BJP, the main Opposition with a radically different ideology, one that is secular and so on was harping for a long time an ideology, the
Hindutva that was to give an answer to all the questions, issues and very modern issues of social, economic and cultural perceptions.
Yes, the Congress was otherwise deficient, dynasty-focussed; it put the interests of a family above the larger country. This was a bit repugnant and not giving enough transparent and honestic public conduct.
A great nationalist party of long legitimacy lost its core values for the existence of a family’s interest and also giving rise of a succession of corruptions that became public scandals. Big guns were also involved and yet a weak Prime minister hand-picked from the ranks of bureaucracy and it became evident soon that no among of justifying would hide the fact that the PM candidate himself didn’t know he was chosen but he learnt from other vested interests! One scandal followed the other and in the coal scam, it was the poor bureaucrats, it is alleged, who were made the scapegoats!
The government became so scandalised that in the ensuing elections there were not enough right candidates and the party met with a historic low number.
Now, is the Congress ready to rise up to the new challenges?
It is doubtful it can rise up now. When other Opposition parties, now numbering some 19parties have come out with a show of unity. Yet, the past suspicions have gone away.
These suspicions only showed the absence of some key players.
Mayawati and Akilesh have joined hands. So too, it looks, Lalu Prasad’s RJD. Anyhow, even if Lalu wills his progeny with newly acquired power and opportunity won’t fall for Rahul as the likely Prime Minister and that seems a distant dream!
Surely the time is right, it seems for a new coalition in the 2019 elections and someone other than Rahul might be elevated to lead the country.
And that also seems right given the personality of Narendra Modi whose image, though somewhat dented, has not lost its sheen!
Also, the money power, the electoral funds calculations. Yes, you need funds and big funds and the current scenarios such that the BJP is far above the next party, the Congress is election funds tally.
Given the disenchantment of the moment it is only mature wisdom some new names and new ideas of a new coalition era to give stability and a new direction to the country.