The sight of Rahul Gandhi moving around swiftly in his SUV in Lutyens's Delhi, playing a crucial role in resolving the crisis created by Anna Hazare's fast for the Jan Lokpal Bill, is a new one for many Congress leaders.
After returning from the United States, where his mother and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is under treatment for an undisclosed ailment, Gandhi has been working behind-the-scenes. He has been working round-the-clock to break the deadlock over Hazare's fast.
On Friday morning, Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Incidentally, he had also met the PM at 1.30 am on Thursday.
After the PM's speech in Parliament over the issue on Thursday, the Congress has stabilised a bit, but the Bharatiya Janata Party has moved swiftly to support Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill more vigorously.
Late on Thursday night, BJP leader Arun Jaitley, after holding a meeting with Hazare's aides, stated that keeping in mind the provision of the Constitution, the party supports the bill.
The Congress perceives this new-found admiration of Hazare by the BJP as an expected move by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Rahul Gandhi's immediate challenge is to clear the mess created by the hard line taken by Home Minister P Chidambaram and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal after April.
Like his mother, Gandhi has been active in finding ways out of the imbroglio by connecting with alternative forces like social activist Aruna Roy and others.
Right now, he is the decision-maker behind many of the party's moves after Chidambaram's failure to handle the situation. But he is being criticised for largely keeping mum on the issue, other than merely expressing concern over it.
In the Congress Parliamentary Committee meeting on Thursday, Congressmen gave a patient hearing to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He explained the government's position over the issue and also reminded them that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government too didn't do anything about the Lokpal Bill.
Congress leaders expressed frustration over the government's slow reaction even while the agitation in support of Hazare was building up.
They also took on Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni for her "failure" to rein in television channels which, they claimed, "is hurting them more than Hazare".
Dr Singh and Rahul Gandhi have got clear messages from this meeting. Gandhi is keeping his mother informed about the latest developments.
The Hazare movement will end soon but it has become an excuse to get Gandhi at the centre of a real political crisis that was complex enough to fail even the veterans.
