Dear Mr Rahul, please step down !

Rejeesh Rajan
Aug 24, 2017 · 7 min read

I really feel bad to have to tell you this, but I feel at least someone must come forward and tell this to you openly. Most people in your Congress party have already started to say this behind your back, but they don’t have enough guts to say this openly as they fear the risk of being ousted from the party.

Don’t you feel its time for you to quit politics altogether and take up some other career option ? In fact for the past 5 years I have been observing you have been leading Congress party to more and more greater depths of defeat in every election. Your party currently has power in only 2 or 3 states in India and is currently facing the risk of being wiped out from power in entire India eventually, in a few years time. In fact BJP has a target to achieve Congress Vimukth Bharat in about 10 years, but I feel you are making things more easier for BJP. In fact I fear if you are at the helm of party affairs, then BJP can easily achieve this target in less than 5 years. Don’t you feel you need to own responsibility and resign from the party leadership altogether ? There are many other capable leaders in the Congress party under you who are capable of leading the party. Oommen Chandy, Shashi Tharoor, Siddaramaiah, Captain Amarinder Singh are few such names of capable persons that suddenly strike my mind when I think about this subject. Don’t you feel you need to resign and make way for persons under you who are more capable of leading the party ?

Since I too am a common man, I think I can give you at least an approximate picture of the current psyche of the average Indian voter today which would be accurate at least to a certain extent. I know many people who are displeased with the performance of current Central Govt. But still when these people go out to vote, the moment they see your photo in Congress election poster or election manifesto, they decide otherwise and go ahead to vote for BJP. No wonder Congress is facing humiliating defeats in each and every election, the recent debacle in Uttar Pradesh being a good example. I don’t think the situation is going to change even if your sister replaces you as a leader of Congress party. I mean the current mindset of the average Indian voter is this — No one wants a person from the Nehru clan to lead Congress party anymore, this includes even regular voters of Congress party.

Let me ask you — What is wrong if a person who does not belong to Nehru family lead the Congress party ? Lal Bahadur Shastri, P V Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh, all these Congress people did not belong to Nehru clan and still have successfully led the Congress party and also the nation as prime ministers previously. There is no written/unwritten law in Congress party that only the Nehru clan has the authority to lead the Congress party by birth right. If this has happened in the past, then why not now ?

I don’t know whether you are using Whatsapp or Facebook, but lot of jokes are circulating nowadays in social media making fun of you and your Mom. Sardarji jokes are a thing of the past. Nowadays Rahul jokes and social media trolls making fun of you is the latest trend. Even though I’m not a fan of you, still when I read some of these jokes, even I feel these jokes have gone a bit too far in ridiculing you. In fact if you ever happen to read some of these jokes, I fear you may even contemplate about committing suicide.

I also wish to highlight a recent incident which happened in my personal life. I visited a nearby house where a baby was born. The parents were busy thinking about giving a name for their newborn son. When I suggested the name Rahul, the parents got so furious, I had to apologize instantly and I left the scene soon! You might think that I’m exaggerating facts, but I am just trying to convey you the current mindset of the average Indian today, especially the Indian youth. Parents might even consider to give the name Idiot to their son, but never the name Rahul ! I also have been observing a recent trend in Bollywood movies. Perhaps you might remember the Shah Rukh Khan romantic Hindi movies of the 90s. In most of them the hero would have the name either Raj or Rahul. Not anymore now. Nowadays the hero in Hindi movies will have many different names but never the name Rahul !

I don’t think nor do I believe that you are a fool as some of these jokes that circulate in social media claim you to be. I just feel that you are in the wrong profession. I also feel that you were forced into joining politics against your wishes. For 10 years, Manmohan Singh ruled this nation; you could have joined the cabinet and taken up any suitable ministerial portfolio. But you shrugged away from responsibility. Had you been a minister at that time, you could have proven your leadership capability to the Indian people but instead, you blew up a golden opportunity. Even now you are reluctant to take up the post of Congress party president. Whenever there is talk among party leaders asking you to become the Congress president, you suddenly pack up your bags and disappear to some foreign land for at least 2–3 months. God knows what you are doing over there.

Nor am I a fan of you nor I am a fan of Congress party. But still I’m saying this to you only because of my love for this country. During my childhood days, I grew up adoring the Congress party and its eminent leaders like Karunakaran, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. This party fought for the freedom of our great nation. I don’t want to see this party crumble down and eventually become history. But I fear, if you continue to lead Congress, very soon after 10–15 years, I will have to recite bedtime stories to my grandchildren like this — ‘Once upon a time, there was a party in India called Congress, it was ruled by Nehru family…’ etc etc.

Why I am saying all this is because, for a democracy to function effectively, apart from the ruling party, there should be a party to function as an effective opposition as well. Take the case of US and UK which have been successful democracies for lot of decades. In these countries, the ruling party as well as the opposition are more or less equally matched and are capable of toppling each other in the next election. So quite naturally, the ruling party does some good things for the people, not because of its idealism, but it is forced to do so; because of the fear that it will be defeated in the next election, if it does not rise up to the expectation of its voters.

Currently, only the Congress has a presence in almost all the states of India, at least in the opposition. If you take the case of other opposition parties in parliament, you can easily observe, most of them are regional parties having presence in just one or two states. Quite obviously these parties don’t have enough strength and influence among voters to gain advantage over the ruling party in next elections. Only the Congress party has a pan Indian presence to take over the ruling party in the next election. But unfortunately, you are dragging your party to an inevitable destruction.

If you go through history you can observe that in many countries the democratic system is quite ineffective. Take the case of Pakistan for example; it has been under military rule for more than 2 decades. Also take the case of Venezuela; though being a democracy, the governing system there is more or less authoritarian due to lack of an effective opposition. Also if you take the case of despotic leaders like Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein, you can examine a common factor. These leaders were elected to power through a democratic process. But later on they gained authoritarian advantage and overthrew their country’s democratic system and ruled their nation with an iron hand. And all this happened because of a lack of a good opposition party to oppose the ruling government.

I’m not saying that the current central government will become authoritarian by nature and in future will overthrew the current democratic system. Our democratic system and constitution is definitely very strong and will be able to withstand all such kind of pressures both from within and from outside. But still, there is a remote possibility, hence it is always better to take precautionary measures to prevent any such thing happening.

Thereby, as a parting note I wish to say — Dear Mr Rahul, this is a humble request from my side. Please step down and make way for other capable leaders in your party. This is only a suggestion; but perhaps you could quit politics altogether and choose some other career option. Maybe you could start an Italian restaurant in Delhi by taking help from your Mom’s relatives in Italy. Or maybe you can join the real estate business with your brother in law. These are just suggestions; whatever you do in future it is up to you to make the decision. Its already too late and all these years you have been doing nothing but create severe collateral damage and dig the grave of a famous party that fought for the freedom of our great nation. Kindly refrain from continuing this act any further. Please quit politics all together, not because I said so, but for the sake of the nation. This is the biggest patriotic act that you can do in your life. I sincerely wish to see Congress party make a great comeback from the depths that it has fallen to, be a good opposition in parliament and thereby ensure that our great democracy will continue to flourish for even more decades and continue to set an example for other countries to follow.

Jai Hind !

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Rejeesh Rajan

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