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Editorial
Error margin in Rahul Gandhi’s Lab
 Rahul Gandhi is
a young face of Indian politics. He comes from the House of Nehru-Gandhis
which has a lot of baggage attached to it as far as its relationship
with the Sikh community is concerned. Rahul was born much after the
grooves were already carved in the relationship, and he was too
young when some of the worse chapters were written in history.
When Rahul
Gandhi entered politics with full gusto, it raised serious questions
about dynasty rule and about the culture of nepotism. Those
questions still remain and it is for everyone to engage with issues
of nepotism as seen through the Indian prism or through the eyes of
scholars like Adam Bellow. This is not the time to go into all that
because we plan to limit our argument to Rahul's recent intervention
in Punjab.
We may have a
view on nepotism and dynasty but we do not grudge Rahul his wish to
rise in politics in the same paradigm which exists for others. From
the Badals to Karunanidhis to Ramadosses to Sharad Pawars, that
paradigm remains the same, and Rahul has as much right as anyone
else's son, daughter or crony.
We also do not
grudge Rahul the wish to revamp his party functioning and to induct
new blood into it. The depoliticisation of our youth and the concern
about the younger generation's lack of societal concerns is an issue
that perhaps requires a different kind of engagement than dishing
out party tickets to 25-year-olds. That is something on which Rahul
trips only as much as many of
India's
other politicians with claims to induct the youth, and we do not
expecially grudge Rahul that too.
It is for him to
decide from where to lead his experiment and if he has made
Punjab
his laboratory, getting elections conducted to the Youth Congress
with some modicum of transparency, our good wishes.
He wanted to
prove a point by insisting on very fresh young faces with promise,
and who can grudge that?
But we have a
problem with the choice that Rahul Gandhi has made in
Punjab.
Of all the
families in Punjab, of all the Congressmen in Punjab, of all the
Sikhs in the Congress, of all the young men and women eager to
engage with the politics, of all the movements being led from the
front at the grassroots by men and women dedicated to not allow
Punjab to slip into the crisis that is staring it in the face, of
all the young hearts bleeding at the thought of our younger
generations growing up in a moral and political vaccum, Rahul Gandhi
was guided and coaxed to zero-in on the one family that has a
luggage which the Congress should know well that it will be a heavy
burden to carry.
As he went
searching for candidates, Rahul Gandhi has selected the grandson of
late CM Beant Singh, a man known to have trampled over lives and
human rights of hundreds of thousands and actively and passively
connived in a "Final Solution" kind of a game played out in Punjab
in the early 1990s that has left blood marks on the psyche of anyone
who has ever dropped a tear for the land of the Gurus.
Ravneet Singh
Bittu surely cannot be held responsible for what his grandfather
did, but since he is entering politics, has he engaged with what his
grandfather did? And what pray, has been the result of this
engagement? Rahul has not chosen him for the local municipality, but
for the Lok Sabha. And the state does not know his credentials.
Except his grandpa, who, unfortunately, does not measure up.
The young have
at times proven that they can evolve, Ranjit Singh Kukki has proved
it. Ravneet Singh Bittu has not.
This was Rahul’s
chance to make a statement, and he has made a wrong one. The Sikh
community is disappointed. Rahul’s lab experiments for the young
have an error margin too high. He is young, and should be far more
careful.
1 April 2009
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