Call it wishful thinking, but Rahul Gandhi's real political innings begins now only.
The hints are spread over the four-page resignation letter he publicised on Wednesday.
Rahul and the Congress party he headed was not a match for the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah juggernaut in the LS polls. But Rahul, if he's anything, remains a man of his word.
Ever since Rahul's decision to quit as Congress president, holding himself accountable for the rout the party suffered in the Lok Sabha polls, critics and sceptics kept painting it as a scripted Congress drama at the end of which Rahul would recall his resignation under pressure. That was not to be.
Rahul's firm decision to quit has left the Congress clueless.
It's hunting in the dark to pick Rahul's successor.
The party seems to have no leader of stature to take over as its president. Be it Sushilkumar Shinde, Mallikarjun Kharge or Ashok Gehlot, none of these veterans commands a pan-India appeal the Congress badly needs at this juncture. Rahul's resignation thus means two things -- it's either the demise of the Congress or the opportunity for a new beginning.
Those foreseeing its demise cite many reasons, key among them being the lack of a strong leadership.
And the reasons for a probable resurrection is Rahul himself.
With his decision to quit, which was superbly articulated in the resignation letter, Rahul has done something unimaginable in the history of the Congress.
In his letter, he repeatedly spoke about accountability, something that has been eluding the grand old party for long.
Rahul has literally jolted a complacent leadership that had been clinging on to a fool's paradise.
They cherished the thought that they can bask under the omnipotent Nehru-Gandhi dynasty forever.
Rahul has made it clear that the new president should be someone from outside his family, thus closing doors for his mother Sonia Gandhi returning to the top post despite her ill-health.
He also virtually shut that option for Congressmen to pressurise his sister Priyanka Gandhi to take up the responsibility.
If Rahul is leaving politics forever, and in the process severing his family's ties with the party, that could well be the end of the Congress. It would only be a matter of time for the organisation to split into several splinter groups under the leaderships of regional satraps.
What if Rahul has another plan, a grand one?
“Rebuilding the party requires hard decisions and numerous people will have to be made accountable for the failure of 2019. It would be unjust to hold others accountable but ignore my own responsibility as President of the party,” Rahul says in the letter.
Going by the words, 'rebuilding' seems to be a concern of his. If he is serious about it, then his resignation is only a first step. With the extreme step, he seems to be putting high pressure on the party top brass, or basically the old guard, to fall in line and make way for fresh blood.
His decision to step down simply means that he doesn't find any meaning in working along with the long-existing and toothless leadership.
“I personally fought the Prime Minister, the RSS and the institutions they have captured with all my being. I fought because I love India. And I fought to defend the ideals India was built upon. At times, I stood completely alone and am extremely proud of it,” he wrote.
Notably, Rahul's resignation letter has a strong political and ideological overtone.
He names the RSS and the BJP and says that his fight against the ideology woven around the Sangh doesn't end here.
Remember, nobody from the Congress had spoken at length and in depth about the ideological importance of fighting the RSS during the Lok Sabha race.
Rahul says he will remain an ordinary member of the party from now on.
But it's an impossibility given the importance his family has in the history of the party.
Everybody knows he would be an 'extraordinary' member of the party who would anytime enjoy the clout and power to take crucial calls.
At the same time, by staying away from the formalities of power, Rahul can make a dent in the rivals' claims of the Congress being a family party.
Whoever would be the Congress president, Rahul is likely to rebuild the party in his own terms.
Weeding out the old guard, which utterly failed to foresee and fight the rise of the extreme right, and infusing fresh blood in various platforms of the party could be among the steps he envisages.
Rahul had bowed to the pressure of the old guard while appointing the chief ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh last year.
Now, his plan could be that he is no more willing to be an instrument in the hands of the 'veterans' whose age-old measures and methods could not save the party.
Read along with this, the efforts of Priyanka Gandhi in reclaiming the party's long-lost past in Uttar Pradesh.
It must be noted that even when Rahul stood firm on his decision to quit, Priyanka took no time to dismantle the district committees of the party in UP where it lost badly.
Priyanka also lauded his brother's decision saying “few have the courage that he does”.
It seems the siblings are on the same page about the present and the future of the party.
“The Indian nation must unite to reclaim and resuscitate our institutions. The instrument of this resuscitation will be the Congress party. To achieve this important task, the Congress Party must radically transform itself,” Rahul wrote in his letter.
With this, Rahul has kick-started the 'radical transformation' within the party leaving little options for old-guard to topple it.
It remains to be seen how he drives it forward.
Political binocular: The Congress will be fighting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.
