PM office waiting for Rahul Gandhi !

By. Dr Jitendra Singh

While the Prime Minister's press conference marking completion of UPA II government's first year in office was a distinct indicator of Manmohan Singh having evolved into a politician from a mere economist, Mr Singh's most diplomatic responses were in reply to questions relating to his own future in Prime Minister's office. ‘‘I will continue because I have tasks to complete’’, asserted Mr Manmohan Singh but hastened to add, ‘‘if the party is in favour of young leadership, I shall welcome that’’. To top it, Mr Singh also went ahead to praise what he believed to be Rahul Gandhi's ‘‘high’’ calibre.
In simple terms, in other words, suffice it would to conclude that Mr Manmohan Singh is in no mood to quit as PM but this is subject only to the choice of timing chosen by mother Sonia Gandhi to push in son Rahul Gandhi in the name of handing over the office to a young leadership.
Around 1960 when the question ‘‘After Nehru who?’’ was being fiercely debated, Frank Moraes, eminent journalist and former editor Indian Express had written that it was possibly not compatible with Jawaharlal Nehru's natural disposition that he would impose daughter Indira as his heir-apparent. And yet, in his lifetime itself, Nehru was accused in certain quarters for tacitly grooming Indira to take up the big job after him. But, it was actually in the early 1970s and more so after the imposition of Emergency in 1975 that Indira Gandhi threw aside all semblance of democratic propriety and, without any embarrassment, rather crudely imposed son Sanjay on the Indian polity in the name of passing on the mantle of power to youth.
Following Sanjay's tragic death, Indira Gandhi found nothing wrong in pushing forth her other son Rajiv notwithstanding latter's initial hesitation to enter politics. This infact had at that time prompted the observation in certain quarters that Indira Gandhi was a more committed ‘‘mother’’ than a Prime Minister.
What is even more ironic, is that what was seen to be an anomaly when Indira Gandhi practised it soon became the rule of the game in Indian politics. Some of those politicians and political parties which had earlier denounced Indira Gandhi's tendency to promote her family in politics later on went on to themselves cultivate sons, daughters and other kin to take over the party mantle.
So, this is it ! The Indian polity for the last atleast three decades is known for this familiar though monotonous thesis of passing on the mantle to the progeny in the name of empowering the country's youth. Incidentally, the youth who take over are invariably from one of the known political clans, be it Nehru-Gandhis or Karunanidhis or Badals or Abdullahs. As a sequel to such a transition on each occasion, the new young incubment finds it convenient to consolidate his position in party and hierarchy by surrounding himself with a new set of young henchmen in the name of giving priority to the aspirations of country's youth. This inadvertantly also paves the way for free play of ‘‘money power’’ in politics. And thus, rest of the sequence of events remains the same and so also same remains the plight of country's youth whether it be a young Prime minister or a young Chief Minister taking over either in 1980s or in 2010.
It is, therefore, in a nutshell, the crudest political fraud played each time on the country's youth in the name of country's youth. The common youth of India is meanwhile left with his unenviable fate being lamented precisely by those who are responsible for his fate as Umapathy sums up the predicament with poetic remorse ‘‘......Mere Sogwaaron Mein Aaj Mera Qaatil Hai !’’