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Has the wheel turned full circle, or was it mere political correctness? Either way it was the right message to the wrong audience. On a highly-publicised campaign-call to the family bastion of Rae Bareli, Priyanka Gandhi (Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi's daughter) told the fawning throng, "Don’t look at any politician as God. Never ever become a worshipper. Politics will improve only when you will understand that politicians are your servant" - an assertion in response to a woman shouting "Sonia (Gandhi) is God to us".
While Priyanka is widely perceived as having the 'spark' that enabled her grandmother to blaze a unique trail in the Indian political firmament, that remark must surely run counter to the laudatory "Indira is India" upon which Mrs Gandhi so visibly thrived. Priyanka had not cut her political teeth during the Emergency when the term chamcha acquired singular relevance in the context of the Congress’ culture, so she could be pardoned for uttering an uncomfortable truth.
Yet the truth remains that sycophancy in the party was not limited to Indira and Sanjay. Rajiv, generally seen as a 'good guy' before he quit the flight-deck for turbulent politics, also fell prey to the coterie that surprisingly propelled him to the PMO: Pranab Mukherjee was certainly surprised, if not deeply disappointed. A coterie that often misled the political greenhorn to its own skewed advantage. History repeats itself: Sonia, who supposedly reluctantly took over the party reins, is now seen as the fount of all political wisdom, while with no track record to show for it son Rahul has been catapulted to iconic status.
'Charisma' is how the acolytes would explain that, the cynics would prefer chamchagiri. While it would have been more than appropriate if Priyanka had thus addressed an AICC session, it would be most inappropriate to hope she would trigger a cultural revolution in the mother of all Indian political parties. To be fair, Sonia's party Congress has no monopoly on politician-worship. The filmstars who turned netas in the southern states also flourish in that regard, as does the power-pack of the Dalits in the north, or at least Uttar Pradesh. Vajpayee worked a certain charm for the BJP (Advani does not), Narendra Modi and good old Lalu have different brands of appeal. So does Navjot Singh Sidhu. Alas, the rationale of the Priyanka-plea will drown in the vote-rewarding but unbecoming electoral cacophony.
