Rahul Gandhi- 'to be or not to be'

INDIA: India's political crown prince Rahul Gandhi is showing little inclination to fill the boots of his illustrious forebears, to the increasing alarm of Congress party stalwarts, analysts say.

Two-and-a-half years after being elected as a Congress MP, the photogenic heir to the famed Gandhi-Nehru dynasty, which has given India three prime ministers, seems to have cold feet about taking up the leadership torch.

"There seems to be a real diffidence - somewhere he appears to be scared, lacking confidence," said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.

For months there have been media reports that his mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, would name Rahul to a major post such as party general secretary as a prelude to him perhaps becoming a candidate for prime minister.

But the party now says the soft-spoken, clean-cut Rahul, 36, is still making up his mind about whether to heed his dynastic calling. "Rahul Gandhi has to decide whether he wants to take up the responsibility," party spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi told reporters.

"He's becoming like Hamlet - 'to be or not to be'," quipped a Congress MP, who did not wish to be named.

His Italian-born mother, who celebrated her 60th birthday on the weekend, was persuaded by the Congress party to become party leader after the assassination of her husband Rajiv in 1991.

Sonia, who overcame political stage fright and stumbling Hindi to rebuild Congress and lead it out of the wilderness to power in 2004, habitually replies "it is up to him to decide" when asked about Rahul's future.

The party faces crucial elections in India's most populous and politically pivotal state of Uttar Pradesh early next year.

Hopes had been high that Rahul, whose constituency of Amethi lies in Uttar Pradesh, would work to revive the party's moribund fortunes in the region ahead of the state elections, as well as national polls due in 2009.

Last month, Ashok Gehlot, a Congress leader in charge of Uttar Pradesh, said the party could not afford any further delay in giving Rahul a senior role to give the party "much-needed momentum".

"He should have been criss-crossing the state," said political author Satish Jacob.

Rahul, a former banker, has made only few stumbling speeches in parliament since his election and has said he wanted to learn about politics "brick by brick".

While his mother routinely visits victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks, critics say Rahul has been conspicuous by his absence in a country where people set extremely high store by such appearances.

Earlier this month, Rahul visited his Amethi constituency with his mother, but did nothing to dispel questions about his future. He referred reporters' queries about his future to his mother, saying: "My boss (Sonia) is here, only she can say". But Sonia also brushed off questions.

Ever since India's independence in 1947, power has threaded from one generation of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to the next, from the nation's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to his daughter Indira Gandhi and later his grandson Rajiv Gandhi.

The family announced in 2004 it had decided Rahul should officially enter politics, even though his younger sister Priyanka, 35, who resembles her strong-featured grandmother Indira, is widely seen as a more gifted politician.

Priyanka, a charismatic speaker with an easy ability to connect with voters, has pushed her bachelor brother forward while she focuses on raising two young children. he is being held (by the party) in reserve," said Rangarajan.

Such is the family's aura, many Congress supporters cannot conceive of a future without a Gandhi in charge, commentators say, even though intellectuals decry the need for continuation of the political dynasty, calling it out-of-sync with India's new emerging economic superpower image.

"There are no other powerful political Congress figures (on the scene). That was the vacuum that Rahul was supposed to fill," said Rangarajan.

Rahul is mobbed like a movie star when he appears in public - even if he says nothing. Last autumn, hundreds of Congress youth activists had his name tattooed on their forearms to show their belief that he was the "supreme" leader of the party who would decide the destiny of the nation.

"There is little doubt that the glue that holds the party together is the Gandhi family," said T.N. Ninan, editor of the Business Standard.

NEW DELHI, Friday, AFP