It might come as bad news for the Congress Party but this seems to be the general view. Rahul Gandhi has given more televised press conferences in the past week than in his entire political career and the consensus is that he has a sulky quality that is not attractive. In the words of one observer, “He looks like he is about to storm off in a sulk followed by a couple of ayahs.”

Unlike his sister, Rahul-baba has difficulties with the native tongue. He finds it hard to form a sentence that is not filled with English words that the ‘aam aadmi’ cannot possibly understand. When he tried explaining why he invited the British Foreign Secretary to spend the night in a village hut he said he wanted to ‘showcase’ not India’s poverty but the ‘shakti’ of India’s poor. Tch, tch, tch. Along with some Hindi lessons he needs to learn not to patronise people who have no choice but to be poor. It is not about ‘shakti’ but about survival.

How does it matter? The Chairman of Indian National Congress private limited has decided that it will be her son and not her daughter who will be the next Managing Director. Besides, dynastic democracy is now an epidemic. Everyone from the lowliest village official to the regional satrap has seen that a career in politics is the quickest way to build a family business. So a seat in the Lok Sabha is now a fiefdom to be passed down in the family and nearly all our political parties are now private limited companies.

... contd.