The announcement of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh (East) on 23rd January 2019 created quite a stir in the media and political pundits touted this move by the Congress President to be a game changer. The Congress celebrated the moment with much fanfare and party workers rejoiced and distributed sweets for the “incarnation” of Smt. Indira Gandhi had descended to save the soul of what remains of the Indian National Congress. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was formally inducted into the party on 6th February 2019, the same day her husband, Robert Vadra, was summoned to the office of the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi.
Some political experts have hailed her as the next big thing in Indian politics and have argued that she would be a force to reckon with in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. However, contrary to what most people believe, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has not been able to make any dent in the political fortunes of the Congress as yet. All the leading new channels and pre-poll surveys have shown that Congress will end up on the losing side in the upcoming elections. Further, she has not been able to muster much crowd in the so-called “mass” rallies that she has addressed so far. Her boat ride to Assi Ghat in Varanasi was a damp squib. Her new found religiosity and fondness for Hinduism also seems to be a hoax. The argument that Priyanka Vadra has left the cozy comfort of her home to “serve the country” has not found too many takers. Her inclusion in the closed-door meeting to decide the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan after the state elections in December 2018 was also looked upon with suspicion. The comparison with Indira Gandhi has also not yielded any result. After all, for the well-informed Indian, Indira Gandhi was nothing but a tyrant who believed in the theory of “my way or the highway.” People have not forgotten the Emergency of 1975, neither have they forgotten the massacre of the Sikhs on the streets of Delhi in 1984.
The scams and scandals of the Congress regime are still fresh in people’s minds. Robert Vadra, the famed land mafia cum industrialist is well-known for his thuggery across the country, and Mrs. Vadra cannot, after all, disassociate herself from her infamous husband. The arrogance of the man was such that his personal bodyguards used to keep the lift waiting, sometimes for over half an hour at the India Habitat Centre where Mr. Vadra would go for his gym sessions. His expensive cars used to be parked in no parking zones and everyone is aware of the immunity he enjoyed at all the airports. In Indian politics, it is very difficult to wipe out a tarnished image. Priyanka Vadra may claim to be “Bharat ki Beti” but she can’t possibly deny her family’s and her party’s involvement with fraudsters like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. The Congress has tried to brush off some muck from their back by blaming the BJP for its supposed involvement with the Ambanis and a few other industrialists, but does that give a clean chit to the Congress?
No matter how Congress attempts to set the narrative, it is and shall always be answerable for all the wrongs, and Priyanka Vadra cannot turn the tables in favour of the Congress. She is neither a mass leader nor can ever be moulded into one. Her two and a half steps into Amethi or Rae Bareilly just before the elections and the gimmickry of visiting Ayodhya won’t help the Congress either, at least not in the 2019 elections.
The era of personality cults is passé, the youth of this country want development, they want employment, and they want the nation to be safe, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra doesn’t seem to be remotely doing anything to assure generation next that their vote to the Congress would yield better returns. India doesn’t want another Indira Gandhi, India wants freedom from the shackles of poverty and illiteracy. The New India doesn’t believe in “Garibi Hatao,” it doesn’t believe in fake pre-poll promises, it believes in resurrecting itself and becoming the most powerful democracy in the world, and Priyanka Vadra doesn’t fit in the equation.