Readers’ comments: Ramachandra Guha ignores the hostility of India’s institutions to the Opposition

Thank you for this excellent, perceptive article. Ramachandra Guha is absolutely right in stating that it’s the Gandhis who help keep the present administration in power, albeit as an unintended negative consequence (How the Gandhi family has helped Modi consolidate power). And Priyanka Gandhi can’t be the answer.

The continuous harping on the “dynast” note from the ruling party is more targeted at the Congress rank and file and aspiring leaders to demotivate them rather than the public. The hidden message being “you have no future in Congress if you are not a G by blood or marriage”.

However, I would like to highlight another point in the Gandhi family’s approach to nurturing next generation leadership that is conspicuously absent. All young or relatively young leaders – they are few and far between in the present-day Congress – are systematically ignored or sidelined, like Sachin Pilot, Adhir Chowdhury and others.

It seems the Gandhi matriarch and siblings are scared of their throne being usurped if someone else comes into in the limelight. And the BJP is playing this to the hilt through subtle messaging to demotivate the younger crop of potential leaders who could do the final legwork for any Congress victory in the hustings.

The rest of the Opposition...

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