In 1959, Indira Gandhi was elected as the president of the Indian National Congress. It marked her entry into politics as an all-India figure. Yet, she did not contest any Lok Sabha seat during the 1962 general elections. Her father, Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, was said to be opposed to her getting a Congress ticket to contest a Lok Sabha seat. But after Nehru’s death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri, the prime minister at that time, inducted Indira Gandhi into the Cabinet as the minister for information and broadcasting.
The rest, as they say, is history. She became the prime minister after Shastri’s death in 1966 and held that position till 1984, excluding a short period of two years, nine months and a few days when the Janata Party ruled the country between March 1977 and January 1980.
The point to be noted here is that Indira Gandhi, from the date of her taking over as Congress president, took five years to occupy a ministerial berth at the Centre. That journey could have been faster if Nehru had not come in the way. It is also true that Shastri’s death in 1966 expedited Indira Gandhi’s elevation to the post of the prime minister. Whatever may have been the reasons, the fact is that Indira Gandhi needed just seven years of experience in active politics before becoming the prime minister.
Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, took less time to achieve that feat. Rajiv Gandhi joined politics in 1980 after his brother Sanjay was killed in an air crash. A year later, in 1981, he contested the Lok Sabha seat in Amethi and became a Member of Parliament. Soon thereafter, Rajiv Gandhi was elevated within the Congress. He became the president of the youth wing of the party, Youth Congress.
It was clear that Indira Gandhi was grooming her son to be her successor, confirming that dynastic rule in politics was here to stay. Indeed, Rajiv Gandhi’s apprenticeship started as soon as he became a Member of Parliament. If Indira Gandhi had her way, she would have initially inducted Rajiv Gandhi into her Cabinet as a minister so that he could gain valuable experience in administration before he could succeed her in South Block. But destiny had something else in store for the son. The mother’s assassination in 1984 led to the sudden elevation of Rajiv Gandhi as the prime minister, a post he held till December 1989.
Compared to his mother, Rajiv Gandhi took only one year to become a Member of Parliament and another three years to become the prime minister. Note that Indira Gandhi took five years to become a minister and seven years to become the prime minister. Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister at age 40, while his mother was 49 years old when she became the prime minister. For both of them, though, accidents played a crucial role in their respective political journeys. If Rajiv Gandhi took a shorter time to become the prime minister, it is largely because of Indira Gandhi’s sudden death in 1984.
What about Rahul Gandhi? He joined active politics when he was 34 years old. That was in 2004, when he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi. Rajiv Gandhi joined politics when he was 37 years old and Indira Gandhi became the Congress president when she was 42, although she had become a member of the party much earlier. In September 2007, Rahul Gandhi became a general secretary of Congress and has since been involved with party work carrying on his shoulders different responsibilities. An important point to be noted here is that he has already spent about five years in active politics, but he has neither become a minister in the government nor is he being projected as the next prime minister after the ongoing elections.
A five-year apprenticeship in politics (which is likely to be extended by another five years under normal circumstances) may well be regarded as an inordinately long training or grooming period. What implications does it have for Rahul Gandhi or the Congress? There are certain advantages if a politician, whatever his lineage, is groomed for the top job through different administrative roles and responsibilities in stages. Indira Gandhi had that advantage, which Rajiv Gandhi did not enjoy. Rahul Gandhi had the option — of becoming a minister in the United Progressive Alliance government, but the young man apparently declined the offer, a decision that he might rue later.
That perhaps was a wrong move. But seen from a different perspective, the relatively long wait for Rahul Gandhi is only allowing him to get a better view of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the system before eventually leading the government. Being around for a long time and then taking charge of a situation poses fewer problems and challenges to leadership than a short apprenticeship leading to a position of responsibility. That is what India Inc teaches you and that is how leadership issues in family-controlled companies in India are generally tackled. Should steering the government or the Congress party be any different from running a company?