What did Rahul Gandhi tell party workers in Gujarat?

The impression that party workers got led to Sonia Gandhi defending her son's stance

In Rajkot, a PTI report confirmed what workers have been fearing: that winning the 2014 election is not a priority for Rahul Gandhi. Quoting Jamnagar MP Vikram Madam, the report said Gandhi is supposed to have told workers: "We should not worry about the 2014 elections... it is not a do-or-die situation, after the 2014 general election there would be no doubt about the party's existence, as the Congress is a permanent political party."

To me that sounds a lot like: 'don't worry if we lose the election': absolutely not what Congress workers want to hear, especially in Gujarat.

Presumably others too got the same impression because shortly thereafter, Sonia Gandhi denied he had ever spoken to anyone and said what Rahul had actually said was: we will win not just the 2014 but also the 2017 (assembly) elections.

Frankly, that sounds a bit thin. A Tamil Nadu Congress worker who asked around in Delhi said the general impression was it would be great if the Congress won the general election but a defeat would be good for the party – it would help the young vice president purge it of unwanted, old parasites living off the Congress for decades and instal transparent, democratic systems. This may well be true. But older Congressmen are concerned that if the Congress just steps aside and lets the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) come into government, it will be impossible to dislodge it for the next 20 years. The lower reaches of the government would be permeated entirely by BJP-leaning elements. The response to this would be that the reasonable elements among the minorities would have to also yield space for the hardliners and the Congress would then be completely marginalised – not just as a political force but also as an intermediary in social conciliation.

The fact is there is a profound silent change transforming the Congress party even as we speak. Rahul Gandhi is bringing it about and he knows this. It is hard for us on the outside to quantify this or trace the contours of it. But in the past, a Milind Deora could not have commented publicly on the party line. A Meenakshi Natarajan would not have been the opening speaker in a debate on the land acquisition bill. And a veteran like SM Krishna would not have commented somewhat bitterly (when he was let go from the Union Cabinet) that the times are changing and they belong to young people.

On the other hand, in the Congress as in other political parties, what counts is an electoral victory. Rahul Gandhi hasn't had too many of those. But that matters as well. His supporters would say that that is a project in the making. Don't be too sure of that. If it doesn't happen, it may be hard for him to stay the course: those who make a revolution half-way dig their grave because the forces of counter-revolution, having seen the spectre of defeat, reorganise themselves to become doubly strong.