Leadership cannot be inherited. Very few have it.

The Congress is a party of no principles. Its sole purpose for existence is to somehow grab power, either through blatant bribery of the electorate, by distributing handouts of taxpayer money, or by forming a coalition with other parties and allowing them to loot the nation. This absence of principle or ideology has enabled the party to rule India for some 56 out of 67 years since independence, by being able to agree with every group of people, every demand or every opinion, however diverse. Since power was the only objective every Congress member worked only for his own interest, to accumulate as much wealth as possible and to pass on the mantle of entitlement to son or daughter in continuation of a new kind of feudal system. One would expect each satrap to try to dominate others in a bid to achieve the supreme position of prime minister but that would probably result in a quick disintegration of the party. Apart from brief periods when Lal Bahadur Shastri and Narasimha Rao were chiefs of the party the Nehru-Gandhi Family has been the center of power as the fiercely ambitious satraps realised that wealth came from being in power and power came from total prostration to the Family. The drubbing in the general election in May followed by near wipeouts in the recent assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra have suddenly made the Family seem irrelevant and increased the clamor for more involvement by the Family. Some want Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to take an active role in politics while others want Rahul Gandhi to lead the party out of the morass that it is in. But how? Running a country surrounded by hostile neighbors, with a population of 1.2 billion people and with 37 parties in the Lok Sabha is not the same as becoming king, as Prince William may become one day. Since we do not know him personally we have to assume that Rahul Gandhi is a nice chap with a dimple in his smile but what does he know of the everyday lives of the people? Does he have the work experience to manage a government? Claiming a legacy of sacrifice is troublesome. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi did not chose to sacrifice their lives for the nation, they were assassinated as a result of their policies - Operation Bluestar and Operation Pawan. What will be remembered as their legacies? The massacre of 1984, the Union Carbide tragedy or the Bofors cover up? Whoever is to lead the Congress must have a clear vision for the future with credible policies to achieve that vision. Promising more handouts while waiting for the BJP to falter will not work. The revolving door to power may have stopped.