While the new face of Rahul may not be compelling as yet to make a difference, it is definitely an interesting and significant development. It gives a new lift to the drooping shoulders of the Congress. There were many in the party who would have wanted him to be anointed the prime-ministerial candidate just as the Bharatiya Janata Party did with Narendra Modi. They argued that by not doing so, it would give a signal to the nation that the Congress had already conceded defeat and that it had no confidence in Rahul’s abilities.

Congress president and his mother Sonia Gandhi, however, wisely quelled such a demand and instead Rahul was made campaign committee chairman. While the elevation leaves no one in doubt who would be its next PM if ever the Congress wins, it deflects the blame from Rahul if the party faces a crushing defeat. That allows the scion of the Gandhi family a chance to live and fight another day. There is a perception though that the anger and spirit that Rahul demonstrated was just another role he was playing. That he was still not genuine but playacting. That the real Rahul still hadn’t stood up.

Sonia Gandhi, on the other hand, had shown no yo-yoing of emotions as she grew in stature. She rarely went overboard and when she spoke you knew that she genuinely cared for the underclass and acted on her convictions with a string of policies to help them. Over a period of time she had developed a coherent political persona that had led the Congress to two major electoral victories at the Centre.

Rahul needs to outline his core beliefs and convince us that he has the wherewithal to implement them. He has given glimpses of his thought process in recent months. He has spoken of his conviction that reforms must be a bottom-up process and that the grassroots institutions like the panchayats and pradhans need to be empowered as does his own party’s cadre. It is a good beginning but it’s not enough.

At the AICC session, Rahul spoke scornfully of how the other political parties had marketed themselves well and likened their campaigns to having sold combs to bald men. He stated, “Today we live in a world where packing and selling politics seems to replace the essence of real issues and real people.” Yet Rahul needs to learn that being a leader means having a compelling narrative of one’s own.

Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner in his book ‘Leading Minds: Anatomy of Leadership’ talks of how “leaders achieve their effectiveness chiefly through the stories they relate”. He believes that leaders must “embody their stories” by setting personal examples that inspire others. So a leader must not just be a creator but also a teller and a living embodiment of the stories he narrates. Maybe that’s one reason why Arvind Kejriwal’s campaign is such a great success.

Gardner puts Mahatma Gandhi in the category of a visionary leader, who “is not content to relate a current story or to reactivate a story drawn from a remote or recent past. This individual actually creates a new story, one not known to most individuals before, and achieves at least a measure of success in conveying his story effectively to others.”

Rahul Gandhi has to evolve his own narrative that would interest not just his party members but the nation. As Gardner put it, “A leader is an individual who significantly affects the thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors of a significant number of individuals.”

In the run-up to the General Election, Rahul must not be content in just showcasing the achievements of the 10 years of the Congress-led UPA government. Instead he must fashion an entirely new story that India believes he will be able to deliver on. Rahul talked of how the next election “is not just another turn in the history of India, another election to be won or lost. This is a turning point in our nation’s journey.” It is also a turning point for Rahul, and destiny beckons.

raj@tribuneindia.com