Aditya Sinha: Will the real Indira please stand up?

Priyanka Gandhi andNarendra ModiThere is talk after the BJPs triumph in the UP Assembly election of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the new Indira Gandhi This is of course nonsense Indira broke Pakistan into two pieces and all that Modi has broken in two is the Samajwadi Party The similarity visible on the horizon is the moulding of regime into something sinister Indira Gandhi put India under Emergency rule and Modi says despite a Supreme Court order that you are going to need Aadhaar if you want to pay taxes or drive a car Anybody with an iota of netsavvy will tell you that Aadhaar is surveillancecreep So Ill grant this in their antilibertarian proclivities Indira and Modi are indeed similarYet there is someone else who people say resembles Indira Gandhi Those in the know and also those that do a lot of wishful thinking an activity that characterises the Congress party after the humiliating drubbing it received in UP say that this person looks like Indira even in the way that she wears her sari that she has Indiras forceful manner of speech that she has Indiras silent cunning and ruthlessnessThis person is her granddaughter Priyanka Gandhi VadraTherefore when people talk about no opposition to Modi even former JampK chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted of how no panIndia leader seemed to exist and that the opposition should now focus not on 2019 but on 2024 they appear to be overlooking the obvious battle Modi vs Priyanka or in other words Indira vs IndiraYou may wonder why Priyanka didnt join the UP battle in earnest if shes the one destined to bring about Modis Waterloo For one thing the labour of division in the family for the UP contest was that her brother Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi would be the public face of the partys campaign while she managed the back office Unfortunately she was faced with a personal crisis in February Her 16yearold son Raihan a student at Doon School was badly hit in the eye by a cricket ball His parents flew him down to Hyderabad for treatment at the LV Prasad Eye Hospital but it turns out that his retina was detached by the injury he has likely lost the vision in that eyeIt appeared that the stars were badly aligned for Priyanka Besides the UP decimation her mother Congress chief Sonia Gandhis health deteriorated Sonia was earlier treated for cancer and it had gone into remission It has lately reappeared Rahul escorted her back from a medical visit abroad just after the UP results were announced In any case the Congress only won seven seats in the UP Assembly less than the seats won by BJP ally Apna Dal and less than even the number of BJP aspirants for the chief ministership that ultimately went to Gorakhpurs sitting MP Yogi Adityanath The rout was roundly blamed on Rahuls flaccid leadership even staunch family loyalists like Digvijay Singh were quoted saying they would welcome Priyankas fulltime entry into politics Obviously no Congress politician can say Please Rahul go but when they say Please Priyanka come it essentially means the same thingWhat is likely to happen is that before the end of this year Rahul and Priyanka will switch roles she will become the public face of the party and he will take charge of the back office Perhaps that will suit him given his attempts during the UPA years at recruitment drives and fixing the organisation though its obvious he found the rot in the party machine was far too deep to be fixed True much will remain unchanged such as the first familys fetish for secrecy privacy and mystique the Congress doesnt seem to even have proper internal communication forget about transparency Yet it is also true that the Congress party is nothing without the dynastyFor the sake of a viable Opposition the sooner Priyanka steps up the better It is nonsense to keep her mothballed till the 2019 parliamentary election As the UP election demonstrated the entire opposition must unite as one if it wants to give serious battle to the BJP For instance it is now clear that the BJPs next big target is West Bengal and Mamata Banerjee With CPM leader Sitaram Yechury fading into the background it will be up to Priyanka to ensure that a Mahagathbandhan missing in UP successful in Bihar is in placeEither shes upto the job or she isnt There are those who worry that Modi and his cronies will go after her husband Robert Vadra Let them It will only help her politically Hopefully she will counter every Modi punch thats thrown Then well know which is the Indiraavatar and which the pseudoIndiraAditya Sinhas crime novel The CEO Who Lost His Head is available now He tweets autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom