Congress demise can make India a one-party state and that's not encouraging

It's possible that India has space for just one national idea: Once it was the Congress' fuzzy, syncretic inclusiveness; now it is Modi's Hindu nationalism

In most democracies, a politician who has just led his or her party to a crushing defeat steps aside. In the world's largest democracy, however, parties are often structured around individuals or families. If they go, so does the party.

That's one reason why it is so surprising that Rahul Gandhi quit as president of the Indian National Congress party after it was humiliated, for the second time in as many nationwide elections, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. Gandhi's mother, father, grandmother, great-grandfather and great-great grandfather were all Congress presidents. For almost half a century, the Congress has