Khurshid rebuts Guha’s argument that Gandhis should dissociate from Cong in party’s interest

New Delhi: One of the most senior Congress leaders has come out with a strong rebutteal of historian Ramchandra Guha’s argument that in the interests of their party and the country the Gandhis must immediately retire from politics and dissociate from the Congress Party, and said the party has complete faith in the Gandhis and Rahul Gandhi will lead them back to power and make an excellent prime minister.

In a 29-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire on Saturday, Khurshid, a former Foreign Minister and Law Minister and a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, said Ramachandra Guha is being “paternalistic”, and presuming to know what is in the best interest of Congress. Khurshid adds that Ramachandra Guha’s view will not matter at all to the vast majority of Congress members.

The senior Congress leader individually answered the main reasons cited by Ramachandra Guha for wanting the Gandhis to leave politics and the Congress party. First, he disputed the claim they do not have a coherent ideology and said the so-called evidence cited by Ramachandra Guha, that Sonia and Rahul are principled secularists on one day but promote soft Hindutva the next, ignores the fact secularism in India is not a clinical separation between church and state but equal treatment and equal respect for all religions. Salman Khurshid would not accept that Raul Gandhi’s presentation of himself as a janeu dhaari Brahmin or a Shiv bhakt amounted, in the present political circumstances, to soft Hindutva.

Khurshid also seemed to argue that the vacation Rahul Gandhi took was necessary to reinvigorate his campaigning. He would not accept that both Congress critics and allies (like the RJD) had pointed to this vacation when commenting on Congress’s poor performance. Please see this bit of the interview to fully understand the rather unusual point made by Salman Khurshid.

He also refused to accept Ramachandra Guha’s third reason for wanting the Gandhis to immediately leave politics i.e. that Congress under the dynastic control of the Gandhis cannot match up to or challenge with the BJP. He said several Indian political parties had families at the top and this was also true of several professions in India, particularly Bollywood and Cricket.

A fourth point made by Ramachandra Guha was that as long as descendants of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi lead Congress, the ruling regime can deflect criticism of its policies by pointing to earlier mistakes made by Congress governments under Nehru and Indira.Khurshid did not agree with this view.

Asked by how he responds to Ramachandra Guha’s point that Rahul Gandhi is the reason why talented leaders have left Congress, because he has blocked their political advancement, Salman Khurshid spoke in particular about Jyotiraditya Scindia. Calling Scindia a friend, he said Rahul Gandhi had enabled Scindia to rise to great heights in Congress and it’s not true that Scindia’s ambitions were in any way checked or blocked by Rahul Gandhi.

Towards the end of the interview Salman Khurshid forcefully and repeatedly asserted that Congressmen have faith in the Gandhis and believe that, if he is willing to take up the job again, Rahul Gandhi would be best suited to be Congress President. Salman Khurshid said Rahul Gandhi has the talent and capacity to lead Congress back to power. He also said Rahul Gandhi would make an excellent prime minister.
–INDIA NEWS STREAM