Rahul Gandhi and the Bharat Jodo Yatra made their triumphant entry into Wayanad, his parliamentary constituency. Another day and Bharat Jodo Yatra would be clean out of Kerala, into Tamil Nadu, and next breathing Karnataka air. But carry out a straw poll in Malappuram, and Wayanad and Rahul Gandhi will be crowned ‘Emir’ or ‘Sultan’ of all he surveys, his popularity in the Muslim-majority areas of Kerala is unparalleled. However, Malappuram and Wayanad are not the only ‘Bharat’ the Yatra will have to cover. There’s a whole distance of the country it will have to traverse before it can claim to be Bharat Jodo Yatra, even then. That said, every step forward is one step closer to Kashmir, the final destination. That is if Congress communications head Jairam Ramesh didn’t deviate with inane comments like the “Cheetahs were released to divert attention from Bharat Jodo Yatra” when he was the one raising and bringing cheetahs into the discourse.
Like Anand Ranganathan, a chemistry professor of JNU will complain, “Navika, this is too much, Jairam Ramesh should tell us the latest on the Congress presidency; after all, he is the communication chief of the Congress!” Right, who will be Congress president now that Rajasthan chief minister, and that likely not-for-long, Ashok Gehlot has screwed up his chances and laid the door split wide open for whoever has the guts to lay claim to this crown of thorns? For now, the UN-returned and Thiruvananthapuram-anointed Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor appears to be the only Congress leader thrilled at the prospect of becoming Congress president. Shashi Tharoor is one foot in the BJY, and the other in Delhi’s Congress circles, where the buzz remains that ‘Rajasthan’ overshadows the Congress presidency dilemma. The sure-shot candidate Ashok Gehlot hasn’t been able to pull himself out of the Rajasthan hole he dug for himself. And while he did that, “Shashi Tharoor for Congress President” went clear out of the mind of everybody except Shashi Tharoor. People spoke of Digvijaya Singh’s hat also being in the ring. But communications head Jairam Ramesh wouldn’t confirm or deny it.
The Congress right now is the “closed corporation”, the term BR Ambedkar used to give an acceptable impression of Islam. Jairam Ramesh, for all his erudition, cannot express himself like Ambedkar. “Shashi Tharoor for Congress President” is not a wrong thought. The clean-shaven MP has the “personality”, but what does the Gandhi family think of “Shashi Tharoor for Congress President”; what does Sonia Gandhi think of “Shashi Tharoor for Congress President”? How does Rahul Gandhi rate “Shashi Tharoor for Congress President”? These are the questions roiling Congress-watchers. However, to be honest, one will get more from bird-watching than from Congress-watching these days of Congress discovering and rediscovering itself. Like the man said about two religions, one should come clean on what it thinks of the other to conclude. Till then, there will be no end to the battle of civilisations. The dilemma in the race for Congress presidency will also only end if the Gandhi family deigns to end the dilemma, and communication head Jairam Ramesh communicates the conclusion, which is his designated job, and not raising the tricolour at BJY container camps!
Related Posts:
