This isn’t one of those illogical suggestions even if it does skirt the boundaries of decency and good taste. After all, what really are the differences between ‘Raul’ and Wills.
There’s always a chance that the British would not take kindly to the offer of trading the heir to their throne for the heir to our throne. They would probably tell us to try trading Robert Vadra for Asif Ali Zardari instead, or, less complicatedly, go jump in the irradiated Sea of Japan. But hang on; this isn’t one of those illogical suggestions even if it does skirt the boundaries of decency and good taste. After all, what really are the differences between ‘Raul’ and Wills.
For instance, there are those who think Queen Elizabeth (who rules her realm through Prime Minister David Cameron) clings to her throne only because she doesn’t want to pass it on to Prince Charles, and that she would rather see Prince William inherit the Crown after her. Similarly, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, who rules her realm through Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, would much rather see her son Rahul (in Chinese terminology, the princeling) take the reins of India.
Both young men have had some form of training for the job: Prince William by enrolling in the Royal Air Force and even participating in a rescue mission in Afghanistan; Rahul Gandhi by making three trips to Tamil Nadu to help revive his party to its early-1960s heyday. Despite Prince William’s efforts, however, the British appear to be losing in Afghanistan. Similarly, despite Rahul’s efforts in the recent TN assembly elections the Congress may win only six (of the 63 it wrangled from the DMK), which would make it the second successive electoral disaster for the princeling after Bihar.
Both youngsters — at 41 years Rahul is as much a youngster as a Bollywood superstar — have also demonstrated their dedication to social causes. The Prince follows in his mother’s footsteps and is involved on the HIV/AIDS front as well as charities in Africa. The princeling spends an occasional night in a Dalit hut, getting to know “the other India” and burnishing his pro-poor credentials, before flying off on holiday to some exotic foreign locale.
The big difference between the two is the fact that one of them wed on Friday. Since the Queen and Prince Charles appear in robust health (and don’t forget that the Queen Mother died at 101), the first boy that Kate Middleton births might end up the next King of England. Perhaps that’s why Rahul isn’t getting married; perhaps he fears his mum will pass on the mantle to his firstborn rather than to him.
Actually, it’s apparent that Rahul is as keen to roll up his sleeves and enter electoral battle as he is keen to roll up his sleeves and enter matrimony. The one state in the current assembly elections where he should have made a difference was TN; his party was expecting him to replicate the miracle of UP’s 22 parliamentary seats in 2009. Instead, he replicated the debacle of Bihar, 2010. The reason: he simply did not lead the party from the front in TN, despite the fact that his colleagues beseeched him to do so.
It could be that like those American politicians who ultimately backed out from contesting the presidency, Rahul does not have the “fire in the belly” to fight what would be the toughest battle that there is: for ruling the nation. It could also be that he does not want to do the hard work; that he wants to be handed, on a platter, the top job. (Well, it came on a platter to our current PM).
Whatever be the case, many in our political class are betting that Rahul is not going to be running to be PM in 2014, when the next parliamentary elections are due. His natural reluctance has probably been compounded by the country’s growing revulsion to the mind-boggling corruption of late. (To think that nearly 25 years ago, the Rs 64 crore Bofors kickback shocked us; today the 2G scam kickbacks are estimated at around Rs25,000 crore; who can imagine the quantum of kickback in a scam 25 years from now?) Rahul’s reluctance and the general political confusion mean that Manmohan Singh will by default last out the rest of this parliament as PM. What the Congress party’s elders are now doing is positioning themselves to be PM after the next elections, for let’s face it: is the BJP or the Left in any shape to build an alternative to a probable UPA-III?
That would probably be the most compelling reason for a swap between the prince and the princeling: while England can afford to wait for the next monarch, you have to wonder whether India can afford to wait for its royals to stay away from the hot seat. The longer they stay away, the longer India remains in the paralysis, drift and confusion that you see around you today.
The writer is the Editor-in-Chief, DNA, based in Mumbai
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