Budget session begins but Rahul Gandhi goes on leave

Rahul Gandhi’s absence has shocked political circles who say it is unthinkable for a political party to not have its vice-president present in Parliament to stand up and raise his voice against the government’s more than a dozen controversial policies in its less than nine-month rule.

The Budget session of Parliament, to present the Modi government’s first full-fledged budget, commenced on Monday with expectations rife that the Opposition will try its best to put it on the mat.

But even before a single word could be uttered, the Opposition ranks were left rudderless with Rahul Gandhi shocking Congressmen by his decision to go on leave to “reflect on recent events.”

This can only come as good news for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is expected to come under enormous political pressure, for the first time since he assumed office nine months ago, following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s debacle in the Delhi election. The controversial land acquisition ordinance has united all the anti-Modi forces, with even pro-BJP affiliates like the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh ranged joining in. There cannot be a better opportunity for the Congress to show that it is capable of reviving and exhibiting some resilience for the sake of its core constituency.

It is at such a critical juncture that Rahul Gandhi has opted to go on leave, and the excuse given sounds filmi, to put it mildly. If Rahul has indeed asked for leave from his mother Sonia Gandhi, who is party president, "to prepare for a leadership conclave in April”, it means that the heir-apparent is incapable of multi-tasking, a necessary skill for a leader to possess.

The 44-year-old Rahul Gandhi, heir to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, invariably features on ‘most eligible politicians’ rankings, and rumours of his impending marriage have been doing the rounds since a decade or so. But, a source in his inner circle claims, this time things look serious, and that he is likely to marry his girlfriend -- a non-Indian Hindu – this summer. The girlfriend is a former journalist turned social worker. She is quite articulate when she talks on serious topics like the environment, women’s issues and human rights.

However, some Congressmen who are backing Rahul solidly and want him to take over as party president as soon as possible, claim, using cautious words, that Rahul has not made up his mind about marriage, and that she is still waiting for his nod. It’s not yet known if this is one more South Delhi style rumour or if Rahul does mean business and plans to settle down and on the side also please his party-men too with a ‘settled family life’.

Be that as it may, Rahul’s absence has shocked political circles who say it is unthinkable for a political party to not have its vice-president present in Parliament to stand up and raise his voice against the government’s more than a dozen controversial policies in its less than nine-month rule.

For the record, the Congress party told the media today: “Rahul has been granted leave of absence for a few weeks after which he will return and resume his active participation in the affairs of the Congress party." This sounds weird in view of the fact that he has been impatient to become party president as early as April.

The lack of any logic in taking leave at a most inappropriate time suggests that Rahul Gandhi is battling some major personal demons, for which he needs both time and space – and urgently at that.