While the continuing buffeting faced by Manmohan Singh has robbed him of his earlier appeal, Sonia Gandhi has fared no better because she has not only been unable to stop the slide, but may have even been responsible for setting the government on the downhill slope by being too mindful of the so-called coalition dharma, which was earlier advanced as the reason for Andimuthu Raja’s continuance in office even after his shenanigans had come to light.

The Congress’s leadership deficiencies have been compounded, however, by the absence of a second tier, which can inspire confidence about the future. As a result of the excessive dependence on the Nehru-Gandhi family, the entire gamut of the second rung has little relevance although it comprises individuals of note like Pranab Mukherjee, A.K. Antony, P. Chidambaram, Digvijay Singh and others. This is where someone like Rahul Gandhi might have emerged as a focal point facilitating the process of transition from the present to the future.

Unfortunately, he seems as much out of touch with what is going on as the seniors. Through all the weeks when the scams piled up, encouraging outsiders like Anna Hazare and his band of merry men to make the government run around in circles, committing egregious mistakes and trying vainly to cover them up, Rahul remained very much a mute spectator. His only intervention was a speech in parliament about ways to tackle corruption, but it made no impact, suggesting that mere proposals about an election commission-type body to deal with sleaze were no longer taken seriously.

What was more in vogue was the threat of immediate action – going on fast, setting deadlines for parliament to pass a bill, and so on. Even if these smacked of coercion, they reflected the popular impatience with official dilatoriness. Rahul, of course, did display a proactive side by rushing to places where police were suspected of acting harshly, as in Bhatta-Parsaul and Pune.

The intention evidently was to build up a reputation of being a friend of the farmers, just as his earlier visit to the Niyamgiri hills to tell the tribals that he was their “foot soldier” was an attempt to side with the underprivileged. The same objective apparently led him to spend nights in Dalit huts. But these forays were too transparent in their objectives and too sporadic to carry conviction.

But that’s not all. What was also unclear was his outlook. How will the police respond to a violent agitation? How long will the tribals continue their primitive existence as hunter-gatherers and have no access to the fruits of development, including industrialization? Rahul is yet to clarify what he thinks on these issues. Or on the economic reforms, on which there is seemingly a clash of interest between Manmohan Singh’s preference for market-oriented policies and the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council’s penchant for ushering in the “socialistic pattern of society”, as promised by the Congress in 1955.

Nor has Rahul said anything about what he thinks about the quota system. Should it continue indefinitely, creating conditions of overcrowding in certain groups such as the OBCs which has made the Gujjars seek a relegation to the ST category by flaunting their superstitious and primitive traits? Wouldn’t the census tabulation of castes at Sonia Gandhi’s behest, after a gap of eight decades, lead to fresh demands for reservations and give a new lease of life to the quota system, which was supposed to have been scrapped in 1957?

It is curious that the country should be in the dark about the views of someone who is talked about inside and outside the Congress as the next prime minister. What is more, this possibility has become stronger in view of Manmohan Singh’s declining stature. Had the latter not been embroiled in the current mess in the government, he could have conceivably been expected to continue for a year or two in his third term beginning in 2014. But, now, few will give such a possibility any credence.

And, yet, Rahul remains an enigmatic figure. If and when he becomes prime minister, will he continue the reforms or take the country back to the licence-permit-control raj, as some of his party men favour? Will he move closer to America or favour the non-alignment movement? The jury is still out. (IPA Service)