Rahul has very evidently painted a picture of himself as a mama's boy. The contemplation here is whether Rahul will be able to get over this image. Will he be able to take charge of the nation independently? With a mother of such powerful persona and influential status, it seems a little difficult for the moment. But you never know. The same was being said about Indira Gandhi in the early Sixties, and about Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-Eighties.
We have heard Rahul making statements like ``had I not been from a political background I couldn't have made it to this place, if one does not have money and lacks political influence he cannot make to politics, I want to change this system''. The disengagement Rahul feels with Gandhi surname has been in the open many times.
He does not desire to be associated with Gandhi legacy and does not wish to follow the footsteps of his grandmother, mother and father. But the fact of the matter is, the Nehru-Gandhi legacy that started with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and has continued with Indira and Rajiv, persists. The mammoth party organisation has always kow-towed to the dictates of the family. Rahul may transform the party, but the style of running the party may continue to remain the same.
Another challenge that the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty might have to face is its gradual decline in popularity. Since 1947 and even decades before that, the Congress party had been following the footsteps of Nehru, Indira and Rajiv, but disillusionment is fast setting in.
The emerging young generation, with the spread of social media, wants results. Gone are the days of a scion of Nehru-Gandhi family addressing lakhs of spellbound voters. Round-the-clock news television, internet, cellphones and social media have changed the rules of the game, and that is what Sonia Gandhi was alluding to in her speech at the Chintan Shivir.
And now, the personal front. Rahul Gandhi turns 43 this year and he is yet to tie a knot. Hence, by the time his descendants reach an age of carrying forward their family legacy, India would have new people to look up to. Varun Gandhi's extremism is not a fabled story and Priyanka's son Rayhan is still too young to take up charge.
Now that the jury is out, 2014 Lok Sabha polls will not only decide the fate of this nation but also the fortune of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty as India stands at the crossroads of the mid-second decade of this century.
