Interestingly, Rahul's ordinary supporters from the poor or middle class in Punjab had raised the issue in closed-door meetings. In those meetings many youngsters pointed out that the fundamental problem of Indian politics is that politicians take black money from vested interests and industrialists to fight the elections which are becoming costlier and costlier. Once they are elected they have to pay back to those vested interests who sponsored their candidature. The cycle of corruption thus goes on.
In spite of Rahul Gandhi's fresh presence, Election 2009 saw greater flow of money than before.
The Youth Congress plans are on and the drive for membership that was taken up in Gujarat, Punjab and Pondicherry will soon extend to Tamil Nadu. This exercise is important for Rahul Gandhi.
It seems that he is likely to complete the entire process of intra-party elections. Whatever little dynasty issues are left in public discourse will also be washed away and Congressmen will be able to dub him as a truly democratically elected leader of India's oldest party. This is the best possible arrangement the Congress can think of for the young Gandhi.
Inder Malhotra, Indira Gandhi's biographer and distinguished journalist told rediff.com, "In the Gandhi family they pretend they do not want power and power comes to them."
He recalled that after Lal Bahadur Shastri died in 1966, even while claiming power Indira Gandhi remained as dignified as today's Gandhi family members are. Morarji Desai stridently claimed the post of prime minister but Indira Gandhi kept dignified and silent. She coyly said, 'Let Congress president Kamraj decide.'
Malhotra says, "Indians value renunciation of power." So, power is coming back assuredly into the hands of the Gandhi family through this Lok Sabha election.
The Gandhis have in their backyard people to take care of the rough edges of a weak organisation so the beautiful picture that reaches voters through propaganda and through the Indian media is not marred.
US-based columnist Partha Banerjee recently wrote, 'The new-generation Indian PR-journalism, its projection of Rahul as the next prime minister (eerily reminiscent of the rise of his father) and complete suppression of issues did it for the Congress.'
If you talk about standards and morals related to elections, the Congress was not above-board. Like all other parties in the race the Congress too played the caste card in the distribution of tickets, as usual. They carried on with the vote-bank of secularism and vote-bank of communalism and casteism. On May 14 Digvijay Singh had called Amar Singh of the Samajwadi party and told him in Hindi, "Bhul chuk maaf karma (forgive our mistakes)."
It was a call from the Congress to pacify the SP after the last day of voting and before the results were out.
The Congress was not expecting these many seats so Digvijay called Amar Singh to apologise if anything wrong had been said during the campaign. On receiving the call Amar Singh complained, "Aapne to Jayaprada ko nanga kar diya (You have humiliated Jayaprada)." Digvijay replied coolly, "We Congressmen don't do such things. That's not in our nature. Why don't you keep your own flock under control? Why don't you handle your own party men better?"
The accusation was that SP leader Azam Khan, who campaigned against Jayaprada and released morphed images of the actress in Rampur, was clandestinely supported by the Congress.
In spite of these kind of allegations the Gandhi family and Dr Singh's hands remained clean. While it was left to Digvijay Singh, Ahmed Patel and other loyal leaders to handle the realpolitk, the Gandhis and Dr Singh adhered to pre-written speeches.
As we can see, the aristocracy of the Gandhis is underplayed but it is not abandoned; the media was fed stories that had a high saleable value.
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