Is Congress party leadership a mere nepotism or a legacy ?

Guest writer

On 80th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, our guest writer takes a detailed look on Congress party just being blamed for nepotism, but how many don’t admire the leadership legacy of the Gandhi family .

At 52 years of age, Priyanka Gandhi is not yet an MP candidate, she works for the party as General Secretary. Rahul Gandhi is a 5-time MP, was not even a Minister during the 10 years of the UPA Government, he was General Secretary in charge of the Youth Congress, NSUI, later AICC President and worked for the party relentlessly. Yet Rahul Gandhi is blamed for being the torch bearer of dynasty politics, history says that children entered electoral politics post-death of their parent, the same is true for the Nehru-Gandhi family, and many others including Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Sindia, Naveen Patnaik, Jagan Reddy too.

This year as India celebrated the 80th birth anniversary of one of the brilliant minds, visionary, father of digital India and ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the congress men and women must ask themselves if they have done justice to his legacy and vision. Rajiv Gandhi identified talented young men and women from all walks of life and within the party and gave them opportunities, he had a vision to make congress party more grassroot and more inclusive. He spoke for the women who are 50% of the population and wanted them to be the voice from panchayat to parliament.

But in the recent times ,The men who have been the direct beneficiaries of Rajiv Gandhi’s visionary politics are not only doing injustice to his legacy but are dismantling his inclusive vision of making political system accessible to ordinary people and are replacing it with brazen family politics. Also, the laziness of the power hungry to work in the grassroot has given rise to the manipulating money bags thereby creating shortcut to power without hard work, ideology, or merit. Recent Lok Shaba elections shocked many and exposed how powerful people systematically destroyed the rise of any other leadership within their regions. When questions were asked about family members getting Lok Sabha tickets, the only reply was that there were no better alternates on winnability criteria, but no one asked why the alternate leadership was not allowed to grow all these years. Now in most districts the political families even for the next generation can dictate and manipulate who gets the tickets for local bodies and assembly elections, based on their political convenience .

History has always proven that natural justice will prevail, powerful will be challenged and eventually the system will go on a reset mode. Since politics is the engine of change, India always expects better from the oldest party that was built and is represented by masses.

(This article is written by Kavitha Reddy , General Secretary of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee )