Priyanka Gandhi too must be ready for a trial by fire and attacks by Modi and his men

Like Indira Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi too is a reluctant politician. Like her grandmother, Priyanka too had refused to contest elections. A trial by fire awaits her as it did her grandmother

Priyanka Gandhi too must be ready for a trial by fire and attacks by Modi and his men
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Mrinal Pande

What the NDA expected but did not need and what it most certainly did not wish for, has happened. On January 23, 2019, weeks before the crucial 2019 elections, Congress Party President named Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the AICC general secretary for eastern Uttar Pradesh.

In the wake of the announcement, virtually the entire Union cabinet rushed to TV channels or ministers held pressers to declare how insignificant and how utterly non-threatening this appointment is. They also added with a snigger how essentially dynastic the Congress is.

The fact remains however that the formal induction of Priyanka Gandhi is a bold and frontal challenge from the new and youthful leadership in Congress to the divisive and misogynistic agenda being systematically implemented by the BJP and its leaders. And in a country where three quarters of the population is officially young, this could well be a game changer in the general elections in this crucial state.

Young voters respond to youthful, sparkling and fresh leaders who hold out hope. Old, sullen and bitter leaders too full of themselves and busy abusing rivals inspire neither confidence nor much hope. Priyanka, who has campaigned in Uttar Pradesh and has a natural charisma, is a crowd puller already and the party would hope that she rakes in the votes as well.

Priyanka Gandhi has often been described as another Indira Gandhi. Both have held privileged family seats in the political arena and witnessed historic changes as India shaped itself into a vibrant democracy. Like Indira Gandhi, her granddaughter too first witnessed history and has been drawn into making history. As children both Indira and Priyanka grew up with much pain. Both lost a dear parent at a young age. They were unsuspecting spectators of ugly and politically motivated attacks on the family.

Such a childhood makes one fiercely protective of one’s remaining family. So, Indira Gandhi, contrary to the lies spread about her, was no power hungry tyrant. When she was thirty, she refused an offer from the then Chief Minister of UP (Govind Ballabh Pant) to contest the assembly elections, saying simply that she had young children to look after. She rejected similar offers again and again during the elections in 1952, 1957 and 1962.

But history, as those who have actually studied it know, has its own designs. Shastri ji’s sudden death in Tashkent propelled Indira Gandhi to become the Prime Ministers of India. Priyanka too, after watching four general elections from close quarters as campaigner, has now been called upon to shoulder organisational responsibilities. She too had spurned earlier overtures to contest elections on the same grounds that Indira Gandhi had cited. She was a mother with young children to attend to. But destiny had different designs.

There is no reason to believe that Priyanka Gandhi will not have a baptism by fire. BJP leaders and Prime Minister Modi have ceaselessly abused the Gandhi family over the last decade and a half, if not longer. They have never tired of mocking Indira Gandhi and her father, sniggering at Sonia Gandhi’s accent, ridiculing Rahul and Priyanka as privileged and pampered children of no particular consequence.

BJP leaders have also been busy discrediting the idea of a liberal democracy and disbanding institutions built in the last sixty years. As though that was not enough, they simultaneously pushed their own agenda that Peter Beinart once described as ‘Global Trumpism”. It was rooted in a huge rage at the emancipation of the Dalits, the minorities and women. The rise of these groups was seen as a threat to the Nation (read Hindu upper caste male dominance in Parliament, in the market place and within homes).

Indira Gandhi had validated female authority after centuries of women being dominated by men. She led a government with exceptional leaders and talented bureaucrats. Her businesslike leadership earned her the grudging admiration of both. She was said to be the only man in her cabinet and dubbed as authoritarian.

Until Indira, for centuries women in Indian politics had remained anonymous. And how many of the male politicians constantly swearing in the name of ‘Mataon & Beheno’, can name three generations of women in their own families?

After the initial sniggering died down, the Congress bade farewell to the bunch of old status-quoists and inducted young blood, the nation listened to a young Indira with respect and voted her back again and again as a bankable leader of the nation.

Priyanka will face a similar trial by fire. You can already see the claws being sharpened.

As a public person Priyanka herself, like her grandmother, speaks simply to the people. She has instinctively grasped that one must go back to the common people for validation. And validation will come if one can speak simply to India’s ordinary people, if one reaches out to them and mixes among them.

That people in UP are shaken and disoriented is obvious. They are off the tracks, looking for simple explanations about how they can get out of this tortuous situation where there is no money, nor jobs nor hope for agriculture. They do not want three dimensional portraits of leaders or holograms beaming at them and hear bombastic speeches.

One heard how Indira ji spoke. How Sonia spoke. How Smriti Irani and Sadhwi Prachi speak. And how Priyanka speaks. It is worth seeing how the Indian audiences listen to genuine women leaders. You had to see the crowd, especially the women, coming to Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi’s rallies--festive, excited, with fever in their eyes, and occasionally sorrow. But there was no hysteria like what one sees in the rallies addressed by the BJP or Sena leaders.

The rumour mills are active and churning out all kinds of half truths and blatant lies. Anything can still happen. A new conspiracy, sudden arrests, revolt within a Party…the possibilities are mind numbing.

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