Before I comment on Rahul Era it would be worthwhile to talk about his father. Rajiv Gandhi started on a very good note embarking upon major initiatives for the development like Panchayats Raj, 15 points economic programme. He was a man of technology. He laid the foundation for IT, Electronics, and many other technology missions.
He was intelligent, articulate, and decisive with a long-term vision and made his mark on the international stage too. Initially, he too tried to cleanse up corruption. Remember when Rajiv tried to take on AR Antulay who said he is cleanest of clean? He could have done anything with the brut majority that he had. Unfortunately, he was surrounded by the old guard who prevailed upon him stating without corruption one cannot survive and Bofors happened. Many people like VP Singh, Arun Nehru, and Arif Mohd Khan stabbed his back and the rest is history.
As for Rahul, he is not endowed with his father’s skills, abilities and charisma. He does not have what it takes to be a leader.
In the following paragraphs, I have tried to do SWOT analysis of Rahul Gandhi.
Strengths: Rahul is a harmless guy. He has so far no personal scandals but that is the only good quality I can list for now.
Weaknesses:
• Poor communications skills and not articulate
• Inability to connect with masses
• Lack of leadership qualities
• Poor grasp of topics/ issues, policies and lacking depth of knowledge on variety of issues
affecting the country
• Lack of continuity and substance in his thoughts
• Surrounded by people and sycophants with dubious track records
• Abysmal parliament attendance records
• Dependent on advice of others which shows his lack of confidence in his own abilities means
needing spoon feeding.
• His tearing of an ordinance during UPA-2, while PM was away, showed his immaturity.
• Lost the greatest chance to show his administrative capability had he accepted the offer of MMS to join any ministry of his liking. That means he was not confident of his abilities and instead wanted top job straight away.
• Running away from parliament debates when crucial bills were being discussed showed his lack of commitment, focus, sincerity and hard work. One has to show full devotion and seriousness 24x7 in nation building, like PM Modi does. Politics is not a part-time job.
As a new leader breaking from the past, the first thing he should do is to admit that under UPA rule mega scams indeed took place. Make the fresh beginning to remove the tag ‘Congress means corruption’. If he is honest, people will give him a benefit of doubt. He has nothing more to lose now.
He should remove all old guards who are identified with the corruptions and other scandals and bring in new young leaders even if he does not get chance to win the election in 2019. At least he would be ready for 2024.
Just harping the failure of Modi's government is not going to help. Rahul should offer his alternative solutions for the problems faced by the people which are more important. He should give the roadmap instead of merely giving slogans devoid of substance which is not going to help.
I shudder to think why the person having lack of such skills, knowledge and leadership qualities will be handed over the reign of the country with economy scale of USD 3 trillion to handle. Do you think country’s present educated youth population is so naïve as to hand over the reign to Rahul in the present avatar? The answer is NO. Just giving slogans or acronyms would not fetch the votes. An acronym without substance does not win you elections. In the current form, Rahul is a mediocre
leader without leadership qualities.
Maybe in the next decade if he is able to improve in the above deficient areas, the situation would be different. But at the moment he needs to work hard. I am surprised a person coming from such an illustrious family does have the basic leadership qualities even after a grooming of ten years. It only speaks of his abilities as a leader. So far Rahul has given a little glimpse of his abilities to lead a country of 125 crores. Whether the country is ready to hand over the reign of the country to such an inexperienced person having such limited capabilities with only a surname to show- will be seen in 2019.
