Does the Congress party need the Gandhis or the Gandhis, the party?

The Congress will be like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland: it vanished slowly till only its smile was left.

So one more Congress chintan shivir and more Congress stalwart, Kapil Sibal, quits the party. Last week, it was Sunil Jhakar. 

Thus, once again we see how politics can be full of ironies. You can have a leader without a party or you can have a party without a leader. 

The Congress is a perfect example of the latter, namely, a great party without a leader. The descendants of Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and the wife of Rajiv Gandhi are totally useless as vote-getters. Yet they continue as the party’s supreme bosses, a three-person politburo, if you like.