The Gandhis have served both the Congress and India. But it has been 12 years since the 2014 verdict, and the returns have been diminishing.
It is time for them to step aside, let the party find its own footing, and allow someone else to make the hard calls.
That is what the Congress needs. And frankly, it is what India needs too, points out Harishchandra.
IMAGE: Congress MPs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi at the swearing-in of the V D Satheesan government in Kerala, May 18, 2026. Photograph: AICC/ANI Photo
Key Points
- There cannot be two centres of power. The Gandhis' continued presence renders every other Congress leader symbolic.
- Officially, Mallikarjun Kharge is Congress president. Nobody believes he actually calls the shots. Real decisions flow from Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and increasingly Priyanka Gandhi.
- Since 2014, the Gandhis have been in effective control and have little to show for it.
Less than six months ago, I wrote a column arguing that Rahul Gandhi should step aside. That was after the party's disastrous showing in the Bihar elections.
At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, it is time to replay the same line: Rahul Gandhi needs to take responsibility and go.
Congress leaders often claim that the Gandhis are the glue holding the party together. If true, that is more alarming than reassuring -- a party that lives by a leader dies when the leader fails.
The BJP faces the same structural risk in a post-Modi era, but that is a column for another day.
What is immediate is watching the Congress embarrass itself again. The party has swiftly dropped its longtime ally DMK to back the newcomer TVK in Tamil Nadu.
Parties must adapt -- that is fair. But if the DMK had failed the Congress so badly, why wait until after the election to walk away? The timing makes the move look purely opportunistic.
In Kerala, the Congress took a long time to appoint V D Satheesan as CM. It was considering annointing K C Venugopal, who is close to Rahul Gandhi -- which is precisely the problem. History suggests this pattern would have carried a steep price.
However it seems the leadership has learnt its lesson and finally picked Satheesan.
After the 2018 state elections, the Congress leadership chose Kamal Nath over Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh, and Ashok Gehlot over Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan -- both baffling decisions.
In Madhya Pradesh, Scindia defected to the BJP within two years, the government collapsed, and the Congress never recovered.
In Rajasthan, Pilot was made deputy CM and then stripped of the post; the party was routed in 2023. Different states, same pattern.
IMAGE: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi during the discussions to choose Kerala's chief minister. Photograph: AICC/ANI Photo
Officially, Mallikarjun Kharge is Congress president. Nobody believes he actually calls the shots. Real decisions flow from Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and increasingly Priyanka Gandhi.
Kharge's role as nominal head serves one purpose: It gives the Gandhis cover to deflect blame while claiming credit for any success.
That this cover comes at the expense of a Dalit leader is not lost on Dalit voters -- it is one reason many of them have drifted to the BJP.
The Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh partnership once worked well, delivering Congress-led governments from 2004 to 2014. But that era is over.
Since 2014, the Gandhis have been in effective control and have little to show for it.
The Congress today has no compelling ideas, no bold initiatives, and no coherent ideology remotely capable of challenging the BJP.
What Rahul Gandhi Lacks
As I said before: Rahul Gandhi is, by all accounts, a decent human being. But decency is not a qualification for leadership. Leaders need vision, nerve, and ruthlessness.
Above all, they need to win more than they lose. Narendra Modi was called ungrateful for discarding the BJP's old guard. But the decision worked. That is the bottom line.
What the Congress needs is a genuine overhaul: Open elections for a new leader, followed by a complete free hand to make whatever decisions that leader deems necessary.
This is where the Kaikeyi principle becomes relevant.
In the Ramayana, Kaikeyi is the villain -- the second wife of King Dashratha who, in a moment of indulgence, was granted two wishes.
She used them to make her son Bharat king, and to exile Lord Rama to the forest for 14 years.
The first wish is easy to understand; any mother would want her son to prosper.
It is the second that earned Kaikeyi her reputation for cruelty -- and why, to this day, no girl is named after her.
Yet, viewed strategically, Kaikeyi had a point. She understood that if Rama remained in Ayodhya after Bharat's coronation, he would become an alternate power centre.
The people would bring their grievances to Rama, and Bharat would reign in name only.
Gandhi Presence Limits Congress Renewal
This is a cardinal rule of politics: There cannot be two centres of power. The Gandhis' continued presence renders every other Congress leader symbolic.
Their authority crowds out the decisiveness the party desperately needs -- because no one else can act freely while they loom in the background.
The Gandhis have served both the Congress and India. But it has been 12 years since the 2014 verdict, and the returns have been diminishing.
It is time for them to step aside, let the party find its own footing, and allow someone else to make the hard calls.
That is what the Congress needs. And frankly, it is what India needs too.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff