Waiting isa strange phenomenon. It is an interlude where one is caught in the middle of arite of passage and one knows one has not arrived. Waiting demands patience. Itteaches you the art of listening. It demands the craft of silence. Waitingcreates an umbilical sense. You are dependent on those around you. You are noteven your own self as even your self is projected into the future.
Waiting in politics gets even more acute because each event is alearning period. Prolonged waiting can eat into a person, emphasizing hiseccentricity, his impatience. Prince Charles was a casualty of waiting. Waitingin youth creates expectancy. Waiting put Charles into the amber of monarchy.
The dynasties of the democracy are more used to speed. The demandsof politics as an art form are different. You need more events as you wait, butthese events are such that it must create a presence of the future. Whoevercrafted Rahul Gandhi’s period of waiting is a master of the art of politics.Rahul retained the freshness of a prince in waiting, and yet changed, watchingand learning the rules of the game. In that sense, history has been gentler toprince Rahul rather than to Prince Charles.
Think of him when he first came. He was a postcard, a diminutive child, next tohis legendary grandmother. Then he is the boy-scout, obtaining a tourist’sguide to politics. Harvard adds to the bluechip ancestry. You need an aura, anambience of caring and wisdom. This Rahul had. All he had to do was to sitbehind his mother and leave the rest to the audience.
The audience loved Rahul. He had the right table manners for politics. He didthe right things. He looked noble, even human. He became the listener. He usesinterludes to talk to the right people. He is respectful and intelligent. Goodlooking but not handsome. The sandpaper beard gives him the anticipations ofruggedness. He moves quickly, never overstays his time, but always conveys thesense of the next time. Every visit creates excitement, curiosity andanticipation. As a prince in waiting, he knows his limits and stays within it.He is a potential leader but he is in no hurry.
His body language conveys the sense of thelearning process. He is relaxed, not afraid to ask questions. He knows thatwalking alone can make you look singular. I don’t know whether he keeps a diarybut he reminds me of a squirrel storing nuggets of knowledge. You sense a depthto him. Experts spout the usual clichés that he has grown.
Time suddenly quickens. It is time for cameoroles. One can no longer be the Golden Boy. You have to display the mettle of aman. The anticipation of arrival now begins.
By now, his body language is more defined. The boy scout inwaiting is more decisive. He has found his sense of language. He is not goingto speak the idiom of caste though it might be the real dialect of electoralpolitics. His is an empathy for the poor, the tribe, the injustice over land,the anxiety of the distressed in disaster. Poverty and vulnerability need voiceand he begins articulating it. From a public listener he is now a public voice.He gains credibility.
Things are speeding up. The pupal stage is over. The freshness now conveys thetan of politics. He has to get his timing right so that his national entriesare seen neither as secondary nor intrusive.
One is worried about pre-emptive movesthough. The media, the new hysteric, has announced his arrival a thousandtimes. But this I feel, is different. A man has matured. He has still a longway to go and knows it. But politics has found new players, actors who can talkthe language of delivery without being blind to justice. One sees them in thecorporate world in Nandan Nilekani and Arun Maira. One witnesses equivalence inpolitics in Jairam Ramesh and Salman Khursheed. One has been waiting for asynergy that puts all this together. Maybe Rahul as leader can do it. He hasbeen a listener, a lightning rod, a voice. The time for leadership is now.
It is time for Rahul to be more public ingovernance. It is time for more debate but if the best of civil society and thebest of corporate India hybridise, maybe democracy would once again become moreenjoyable, tolerant, even decent. If Rahul can move towards this vision andprovide the catalytics of leadership, he will no longer be a politician in waiting.
Time is right. The idea of the BJP is in shambles and the left is waiting forthe next master text.
To achieve this future, Rahul has to avoid the endemic disease ofthe Congress sycophancy. The challenge is now. If he delays, he will become avictim of a post mature politics and remain a thing of beauty and a toyforever.
