Why young blood is no-no

The Gandhis and the Bhuttos have for long been political brand names, their reputations built on ‘sacrifices.’ But, there is a seamy side to the legacy. Bilawal and Rahul are presented by their respective parties/families as their country’s young hope. They are young but not necessarily because of their age. They are young because they are programmed and what they say betrays their lack of maturity. The fact is that gerontocracy governs in both countries. Also, both have misplaced priorities

Succession is always troublesome. History is replete with instances of deceit and conspiracy, rebellions and bloodshed. The modern-day political successions carry new dimensions that history generally does not talk of. One of them, in a fast changing world, is the generational gap. It is evident in the way succession and possible transition is becoming problematic in two of the more prominent political families of India and Pakistan whose trajectories are fairly similar – so is their current state of defeat.

Rahul Gandhi ended his “leave of absence” when he returned after 59 days. Back in Parliament where his party needed him, he made three forceful speeches and has again gone on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas. It’s a shoot and scoot. Why he has chosen to go when parliament is in session and times are volatile politically remains unexplained. His second sojourn is not a secret mission and that has stopped all talk that his earlier mysterious absence had triggered. It was widely attributed to perceived differences with his mother and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on how to handle the organisation after it lost the elections last year.

Broadly, the younger lot wants the change and Rahul, while the older generation has been more comfortable with Sonia. That there seems little choice beyond the two is another matter. The last word may not come forth even if Rahul becomes the Congress president. Despite his three speeches, doubts about his ability to head the party and deliver are too deep to be ignored. On the day Rahul returned, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also met his father and Pakistan’s former President, Asif Ali Zardari, after keeping away from him for several months.

The speculation is the same – Bilawal’s disagreement with the way the senior Zardari runs the party. Since Bilawal was anointed while still a minor, totally lacking in experience, there was excessive influence of elders in the Zardari family and in the party. There are differences between Bilawal and his aunt Faryal Talpur (Zardari's sister) who controls most of party affairs and also is effectively running the government of PPP in Sindh province. So unhappy Bilawal has or had been that he kept away from the death anniversary of his mother, twice Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He had reportedly refused to meet his father when he went visiting him in London.

A Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) spokesman quoted Bilawal as saying: “There are no differences between myself and my father. I am committed to the party’s ideals and goals, and will work with him to reinvigorate the party and its message for a changing Pakistan. I will be on the party’s political frontline when the time is right.” He gave a further twist to Bilawal’s absence: “The current security environment in Pakistan is difficult for a Bhutto to openly operate, and it has been decided that Bilawal will be working at the overseas PPP chapter.”

Bilawal is now expected to “reach out” to the party workers from abroad. He has a ready example to emulate in Altaf Husain of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM). Operating from London for over two decades, he remote-controls the country’s fourth largest party. No such statement came forth from the Gandhi household or from the Congress. But the unease was palpable and those like Captain Amrinder Singh and Sheila Dikshit who wanted Sonia to continue were silenced by the younger lot like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Milind Deora. The silence, now, is convenient, but deafening.

The Gandhis and the Bhuttos have for long been political brand names, their reputations built on ‘sacrifices.’ Indira and Rajiv’s assassinations impacted politics for long. Z A Bhutto, who was hanged by his hand-picked general Ziaul Haq, remains a ‘shaheed.’ Both his sons, Murtaza and Shahnawaz, met with violent deaths. Benazir, the world’s first Muslim woman to become the Prime Minister, was assassinated in 2007. There is a seamy side to the legacy. Bilawal and Rahul are presented by their respective parties/families as their country’s young hope. They are young but not necessarily because of their age.

They are young because they are programmed and what they say betrays their lack of maturity. The fact is that gerontocracy governs in both countries, Even cricketing legend Imran Khan had to touch 60 before he began to be taken seriously in Pakistan. Incidentally, Bilawal, two decades younger to Rahul, considers the latter his idol. Hence, the comparison between their public performances and family pressures they have to bear becomes inevitable. There is another way of looking at the two. Both are hired by their respective families to carry out tasks that they are supposed to as part of the political legacy, whether or not they like it or have aptitude for.

Rahul’s decade-plus experience in public life, including his third Lok Sabha term, makes the gap between what he does and what is needed glaring. He was toying with building the Congress organisation all through the chaotic performance of his party’s government that he had refused to join. When he could have spoken against corruption, his priority was women’s empowerment. His placing the party above ministership may seem commendable, but many government decisions were nevertheless attributed to him. The rot in both the party and the government led to the electoral defeat.

Bilawal, too, seems to have misplaced priorities. To be fair, he did speak boldly against terrorism and sectarian violence – probably speaking for, and as, himself. But then, when he could have talked of peace and of building Pakistan’s economy, he addressed rallies in London and Karachi, declaring that he would not rest till he seized Kashmir from the Indian control. Unsurprisingly, both the Congress and the PPP are struggling opposition in their respective countries. In Rahul’s absence, Sonia played the “captain’s innings”, leading the party from the front into protests in Parliament and outside. She even led the entire opposition to the Rashtrapti Bhavan to protest against the Land Acquisition Bill. This only added to the chatter about Rahul’s absence.

There have been both speculation and demands that Priyanka should be inducted full time into political work. That has not happened. She remains confined to election campaign, only in the Lok Sabha constituencies the family represents. She was not seen, however, when Rahul was away. In Bilawal’s case, the father was accompanied by daughter, Bakhtwar, triggering speculation that she might be initiated into politics, ‘banishing’ Bilawal. Only time will tell if that happens. Both, the Congress and the PPP, it would seem, are Waiting for Godot.