Rahul Gandhi to take over a more important role in the Congress ?

A few days back, Salman Khurshid gave an interview to the media where he talked essentially about how Rahul Gandhi was not stepping up to properly guide the party for the future, about how it was required for him to ensure that he did not just restrict himself to his youth Congress role, and how his not coming forward was hurting the party. There was a lot of media attention including the fact that the party had criticized him for his statement, but his closeness to the high command made this statement a bit surprising. He did not really change his stand, only stating that he had been misquoted, and that further discussions will happen inside the party. A few days later, he was again making more statements on behalf of the party, which indicated that there were no restrictions on him; at the time of his earlier statements, there were a few media reports that were more in the nature of this being a planned move to start the process of introducing Rahul Gandhi to greater prominence and more obvious party within the party.
There is no doubt about the power structure within the party, with Sonia Gandhi being the #1, and then Rahul Gandhi. Manmohan Singh does not really figure in a very powerful position, and if the support of Sonia Gandhi were to waver even a minute, many of his ministers would not even bother to listen to him. Even when Pranab Mukherji was following economic policies that were not approved by Manmohan, there was apparently nothing that the Prime Minister could do, but wait for Pranab Mukherji to leave his Finance Minister job.

Now, the chorus to get Rahul Gandhi in a more apparent power position within the party is growing, and is being encouraged by the party apparatus, with even Sonia Gandhi stating that it is for Rahul Gandhi to decide his position; after all, it is his party and he can decide to be what he wants, whether this be the party chief, a General Secretary or the Prime Minister; and no bothering about any processes to put him in the desired position, or more important, his ability for the position.
With the recent elections in Uttar Pradesh pointing to the failure of Rahul Gandhi to sway the masses, and the same in Bihar sometime back, there has been no real vindication of the claimed winnability factor for the heir apparent. For some time after the disastrous Uttar Pradesh elections, Rahul Gandhi was missing from the scene, apparently vacationing outside the country; but now the push to make him a leader within the party is again peaking and this pushing and prodding is likely to continue. There are more leaders within the party who are again talking about him being the Prime Minister, and a couple of media articles talk about Manmohan Singh being on his last years, with Rahul Gandhi set to be the Prime Ministerial candidate.
At the same time, projections talk about the Congress being at a historic low in the next elections, with very little urban support and even traditional votebanks getting wiped out. One wonders what magic Rahul Gandhi will be able to bring out in the Congress ..

The declaration by the khap in Uttar Pradesh and cowardice by politicians in reaction ..

Everybody agrees that rural India is very conservative; and there have so many cases in the recent past where panchayats in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh actually punished people who have broken their definition of moral rules and even killed many of these transgressors, or encouraged their family members to do so. Whenever such a news comes out, there is the usual hand-wringing where the media objects to these actions, and the government ministers and functionaries say something against the action of these unelected panchayats, but really don’t take any detailed action. Only when the crime has been huge is there enough action to cause a court case and prosecution. Even in this one, politicians who are dependent on these areas for support and for votes are afraid of going against these khap (caste) panchayats, and hence are muted or sometimes even speak up for these panchayats in some way or the other, or demand a go slow of action of against them.
In the last few days, there has been another case like this, where the crime is not so heinous, but this is like an enabling legislation (an enabling legislation is where a law which is passed is meant to allow certain further laws to be passed building on the passed legislation). The khap panchayat passed a diktat meant to restrict the few cases where local girls have run away (allegedly with some dalit youth); how do these girls manage to elope ? They come into contact with these youth when they either step out of the house, like going to the market or somewhere else, or they remain in contact with these youth through mobile phones; so the answer was a simple answer. Do not let these girls out of the home unescorted, do not let them use a mobile phone, and they should move out of the house only with their head covered, and those who have had love marriages should not be allowed to enter the villages, since their actions are a bad influence.

This diktat by the khap panchayat was criticized very heavily by the media and by women’s organizations. The sweeping restrictions put by the panchayat points out that if girls have a phone, they will do bad things; if they move out around without somebody to keep a watch on them, then they will meet young boys and could possibly have relationships with them. And this is not in the backward Taleban ruled areas of Afghanistan or Pakistan, this is 50 km from the national capital of one of the brightest developing countries in the world. Further, this in the constituency that is almost the family constituency of the national Airlines Minister, who is also educated in the United States.
And what do many politicians say ? The politicians from the constituency weasel out, scared of taking a stand that might lose them votes; the young Chief Minister of the state, coming to power with a thumping mandate refuses to comment on this. One would have expected the Chief Minister to take a much more forthright stand against the illegal authority of a caste based panchayat to introduce laws suppressing the freedom of a women. If this illegal stand taken by the khap panchayat is not opposed, this will not be the end of it; sooner or later, more draconian measures will be proposed to stop the younger generation from taking steps that are opposed by a section of people who feel that these offend their moral feelings; even if these have no problems from the perspective of the law of the land.