05-17-2005, 12:04 AM
Rahul: Tender Line On The Palm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The people want him in the thick of things, but the party is saving him for the 2007 polls
Rahul Gandhi recently sat through a two-day seminar at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, devoted to political and economic changes in Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s. After one of the sessions he was asked whether he agreed that the Congress needed to reinvent itself in UP. His response was: "Yes, the party does need to reinvent itself, but it must be done on a sustainable basis. There must be a long-term plan, not something worked out in a hurry.''
For those banking on Rahul Gandhi taking the lead, it's going to be a long wait. Ever since he contested and won the traditional family seat of Amethi in the Lok Sabha 2004, and demonstrated his ability to draw large and emotional crowds, the party has been waiting anxiously for him to launch himself on the national stage.
Indeed, across UP, during the 2004 elections, many peopleâespecially the Brahmins, the Muslims and the youngâwere beginning to look on him as the future leader, the updated version of the tried and trusted brand of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
In the year since that election, as party members clamour that he be given an important role in the party organisationâparty general secretary Ambika Soni says there is a demand from party members that he be made a general secretaryâhe has been "educating'' himself.
There have been the much-publicised visits to different parts of the country. There was the Northeast where he met political and youth leaders to acquaint himself with the problems of this trouble-prone region. In Bangalore, he learnt more about the country's IT revolution. He met tsunami victims in Tamil Nadu. There have been frequent visits to his constituency, Amethi, and the youth workshops in UP's Chitrakoot and Gorakhpur, where he has rubbed shoulders with young Congressmen.
And there have been the less-publicised parts of his "education'': Visits to nac member and former civil servant N.C. Saxena's home to learn more about the developmental process. Discussions with World Bank officials working on UP. His keen interest in the most backward castes and Dalits in UP. Rahul asking for printouts of detailed election results in UP to study the changing voting patterns there. Outside Parliament, he led a dharna of young Congress MPs to protest against the NDA's behaviour in the House. A speech on sugarcane prices which brought succour to farmers in UP.
But the current sense in the party is that the "data-hungry, techno-friendly and pro-reform'' young MP should be launched in a big way closer to the UP assembly polls, slated for 2007. <b>Says a party functionary: "We are saving him. We don't want him to peak too early.''Â </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The people want him in the thick of things, but the party is saving him for the 2007 polls
Rahul Gandhi recently sat through a two-day seminar at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, devoted to political and economic changes in Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s. After one of the sessions he was asked whether he agreed that the Congress needed to reinvent itself in UP. His response was: "Yes, the party does need to reinvent itself, but it must be done on a sustainable basis. There must be a long-term plan, not something worked out in a hurry.''
For those banking on Rahul Gandhi taking the lead, it's going to be a long wait. Ever since he contested and won the traditional family seat of Amethi in the Lok Sabha 2004, and demonstrated his ability to draw large and emotional crowds, the party has been waiting anxiously for him to launch himself on the national stage.
Indeed, across UP, during the 2004 elections, many peopleâespecially the Brahmins, the Muslims and the youngâwere beginning to look on him as the future leader, the updated version of the tried and trusted brand of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
In the year since that election, as party members clamour that he be given an important role in the party organisationâparty general secretary Ambika Soni says there is a demand from party members that he be made a general secretaryâhe has been "educating'' himself.
There have been the much-publicised visits to different parts of the country. There was the Northeast where he met political and youth leaders to acquaint himself with the problems of this trouble-prone region. In Bangalore, he learnt more about the country's IT revolution. He met tsunami victims in Tamil Nadu. There have been frequent visits to his constituency, Amethi, and the youth workshops in UP's Chitrakoot and Gorakhpur, where he has rubbed shoulders with young Congressmen.
And there have been the less-publicised parts of his "education'': Visits to nac member and former civil servant N.C. Saxena's home to learn more about the developmental process. Discussions with World Bank officials working on UP. His keen interest in the most backward castes and Dalits in UP. Rahul asking for printouts of detailed election results in UP to study the changing voting patterns there. Outside Parliament, he led a dharna of young Congress MPs to protest against the NDA's behaviour in the House. A speech on sugarcane prices which brought succour to farmers in UP.
But the current sense in the party is that the "data-hungry, techno-friendly and pro-reform'' young MP should be launched in a big way closer to the UP assembly polls, slated for 2007. <b>Says a party functionary: "We are saving him. We don't want him to peak too early.''Â </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->