Diwali Mubarak! As we pass through this amavasya, or a moonless night, to enter another year, let there be light and a restoration of dignity for all. This may sound like a supercilious statement but it is what India craves for at all levels of social activity. The degradation of all we stood for, believed in and represented as an ancient, intellectually sound civilization in its present avatar, is complete, and we can only hope for a rapid renewal of faith and legitimacy. Fortunately, approximately eighty per cent of the population is below the age of forty, young, middle-aged men and women, who are not carrying the baggage of those who were born before 1950. This new generation must begin to assert itself, make demands to bring the corrective into play, fight the ongoing political exploitation and carve out a fresh trajectory to take the nation forward, thereby compelling an inclusive and responsive governance. It is they who have to force the pace and ensure a ruthless cleansing.

Where is that clean, enlightened, practical, modern-minded and open-to-ideas, young and dynamic leader? Someone who represents the changing aspirations of a majority of Indians, reaching out across cultures, language, caste, class and faith, willing to run an inclusive, democratic ‘machine’ that absorbs all who choose to join? If you take stock of the potential leaders of that generation in the many national and regional political parties, there are few in their late thirties and early forties, who have managed to make their presence felt on the national stage.

Leading the way

Rahul Gandhi has begun to occupy that vacant space and design it in his inimitable way, with all the correct signs of quiet and serious concern, sending out clear signals about how he sees the problems that beset politics today and what the mechanisms should be that will change the slide into deep social anarchy. It comes as a great relief that he does not speak to the frivolous, paparazzi-type press at the drop of a hat. He is not playing to the gallery nor indulging in the stale rhetoric of his senior leaders. He speaks out firmly from institutional rostrums, from universities and schools, drawing in the young to debate and discussion. He listens, responds to, and represents the people. He works hard. He is setting a benchmark for the true political professional of today and of the future. There is an underlying disdain for the back-biting, hypocritical and predictably seedy Congressman type that has taken over the organization and needs to be weeded out.

He is clearly looking for different, clean and straightforward solutions to the nagging problems that have plagued his party over the last few decades, diluting its national impact and role. Will he initiate a positive alternative to the negative and divisive vote-bank politics that his party has perfected over the years? Will he find viable solutions to a volatile assertion of caste-based politics and bring on equality? Will he succeed in galvanizing modern India, regardless of age, caste, faith and economic differences? Has he the courage to dismantle the party edifice, crowded with the ‘dead, heavy weight’? Will he encourage dissension and debate within the party and ignore the ‘yes’ men? And, where are the ideological opponents and counterparts from his peer group?

Small wonder then that he is seen as the obvious future leader. Opponents can denounce the Nehru-Gandhi family, abuse them of perpetuating a dynasty, but the truth is that this clan is committed to Indian politics and has worked for it relentlessly. They fight elections, sometimes they win and sometimes they lose but that does not deter them. They have never abdicated their space in the public domain. India recognizes them, accepts their role in the national life, even when they do not support them politically.