Congress Party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi walks in New Delhi. (RAVEENDRAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Outgoing Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is of little use to his Congress Party as it seeks to maintain a grip on power in elections later this year. His approval numbers are poor and the economy is stuck in reverse. So it is only natural that Congress activists are looking to a new generation of leadership to right the ship, whether that means repairing its image as corrupt and inept, or taking the fight to formidable challengers like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
But rather than offering himself up as savior, Rahul Gandhi — the Congress Party vice-president and scion widely assumed to be its premier-in-waiting should the vote go well — is hedging on what role, if any, he would serve in the next government, a nod to the threat posed by the BJP and other emerging contenders such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Gandhi might prefer to keep his head down and avoid being tarred a loser rather than attempt to salvage what may already be a lost election given the Singh government’s woes. In fact, he now wants his party to experiment with American-style primaries, where candidates for legislative seats are chosen directly by party voters rather than officials behind closed doors. That kind of change might help repair the image of Congress as a machine beholden to insider sentiment. Gandhi proposing it makes him seem less likely to claim the premier job himself, at least in this particular election, but, again, that isn’t a bad thing. Congress will likely need to spend some time in the political wilderness to get back to its previous state of glory, and the sooner it can begin the painful process of modernization, the better.
As for the primary process itself, the details are still murky, but any additional layer of democratic accountability should help weed out the most conspicuously corrupt pols while keeping leadership better attuned to activist sentiment. Even if Gandhi is not premier this time next year, he wants to be able to at least take pride in having begun the long, slow process of reinvention.
