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Once every few years, popular historian Ramchandra Guha emerges to warn us that the malaises that plague the Congress party, and the nation itself, cannot be cured without the immediate exit of the Gandhi family from politics. If the contents of his latest column and interview create a sense of déjà vu, it is because they are indistinguishable in essence from what he has written in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2019 and 2022. 

The thrust of Guha’s argument through the years remains both consistent and flawed. In a Schrodinger’s cat-like construct, he requires us to believe that the Gandhis are politically ineffectual and yet take up so much political space that they block any real alternative to Narendra Modi from emerging. By merely existing, the Gandhis therefore aid the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The question of why this mythical alternative, that in Guha’s imagination can triumph over a religiously radicalised Hindu voter base and the massive political barriers created by the BJP’s electoral funds, institutional capture, and punitive use of enforcement agencies, cannot simply overcome the Gandhis as well, is left unanswered. 

It is an interesting characterisation that reveals more about the centrality of the Gandhi family to Guha’s imagination than the electorate. In Guha’s writing, the Gandhis loom like hereditary monarchs. Their supporters, whom he dismisses as incapable of anything beyond sycophancy, can only be set free and set to the task of properly opposing the BJP when the Gandhis formally abdicate the imaginary throne he sets them on.  

In the electorate however, the Gandhis occupy no such protected perch. Few national politicians have been mocked and derided quite as much in the public discourse as Rahul Gandhi. To his credit, he has not shied away from the punches. He has now spent 22 years continuously as an elected member of parliament. His role as the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha is not inherited. He occupies it as the leader of the single largest political party in the opposition. For many young members of the Congress, he is respected for the same reason that he aggrieves Guha –........

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