HINDU WORD LIST 2

Indeed, Rahul’s emotional speech at the Congress’s Jaipur plenary was all about fulfilling a moral obligation: “My mother came to my room and cried because she understands power is poison,” he had said.

Yet by holding up Mahatma Gandhi as his role model and extolling the virtues of detachment, the Congress vice-president has signalled a reluctance to wield power should he be faced with the eventuality.

There was logic in the presumption that Rahul’s elevation was a precursor to his projection as the Congress’s prime ministerial candidate.

The ambiguity in this cannot but unsettle the Congress rank and file, which has since Independence looked to the family to provide leadership, and assumed by force of habit that the fifth-generation Nehru-Gandhi would take his rightful place when the time came.

An outsider watching all this might want to ask why the clan cannot once and for all sever the umbilical cord that links it to the Congress.

But his mere presence is enough to foster sycophancy.

All indications were to the effect that reluctant as he was, Rahul would eventually bite the bullet, if only out of a sense of duty towards his ‘inheritance’ — India’s largest political party.

Any dithering at this time can only be to the advantage of the principal Opposition, where there is already a buzz around Narendra Modi.

Rahul surely would not have waited eight long years to accept a party post of such obvious significance if he meant to throw in the towel when the bigger opportunity came.