Dear Rahul,
Congratulations on your first solo TV interview. I am, however, convinced that you weren't alone in that studio with the notoriously vicious Arnab Goswami. That he didn't yell at you in frustration, having failed to elicit relevant responses to the questions he must have chosen based on meticulous research, and broke into laughter only once, perhaps unconsciously, give credence to my belief that you had much more than your privileged battery of Z-category security escorting you. You were right when you said anyone who challenges the status quo is bound to be under threat!
You might have seemed digressive, even incoherent, but I'm sure that it was just a case of bits of your next electoral speech, which you probably learnt to read through the many recent sleepless nights, butting into your extempore exposition of your ideals and solutions to the problems that face the Congress, which you also believe are the problems that face this country.
I agree with you that the '84 riots are inherently different from those of 2002, and the differences are irrefutably obvious. 1984 happened in Delhi and had your party members instigating the mob to extirpate a community that was unfortunate enough to have had among its flock the men who had assassinated your beloved grandmother, who also happened to be the PM of India. A PM represents the entire nation, and therefore, killing her was akin to assaulting every Indian citizen. Your party members, in the manner of responsible representatives, were only acting out the ire of their respective constituencies. The laws that couldn't protect the PM were loathed and people only wanted vengeance and aggression in the throes of self-preservation. Your party members, being their leaders, only led them towards the fulfillment of their wants. Your government at the centre could have hardly hoped to embank the adrenaline rush of survival instinct and the fury of righteous anger. 2002, though, wasn't about avenging a supreme leader, but a minor scuffle between misguided ordinary folks of two communities that should have been contained. Who do they think they are to take laws into their own hands? It is for them, after all, that laws have been made and courts established. That Gujarat should ignore this basic difference and ineptly, albeit in a dereliction of duty largely deemed deliberate, facilitate a riot is indeed disgraceful. This patent lack of discretion is what makes the Gujarat riots undeniably unpardonable, though, as you say, loss of every innocent life is regrettable.
I must also applaud you for your recognition of the most malignant malaise of Indian democracy - the concentration of power in the hands of a few. But, fate, wicked as it is, has placed you at the focus of political power within your party, power you have no thirst for, aren't on a quest for, are not interested in. This power that has been thrust upon you by birth, to make matters worse, is not something you can wash your hands off of either. It is praiseworthy, of course, that you are trying to open the doors of your party - by prizing the padlocks of policy and severing the systemic securities - to women and youngsters who may someday prove eligible enough to take this burden of power off your hands, perhaps well before the day you can no longer clench your fist and power cannot but flake off your shaky hands. We shall hope, as we always have.
Your idea of dismantling dynastic rule by not siring your own progeny is an unmatched act of sacrifice that shall never be ridiculed as was the Mahatma's celibacy.
Your idea of having your candidates for constituencies chosen through primaries is quite refreshing. That your scourge is self-inflicted should surely soothe your sores.
That you took the initiative to get the RTI and Lokpal bills passed, and continue to push for those six unnamed bills in Parliament is commendable. This truly is selfless service. You, after all, don't need to be protected from the corruption that can't bother you! The attempt to sort out the PDS through Aadhaar is novel, too. Again, you deserve the plaudits for you hardly need to bother about the ration of rotten grains.
Finally, you have made me want to cast my vote, and cast it in favor of your party. While I have always eschewed electing the cause of my own crises, I am certain the Congress candidate will not win, and thus is dispelled the dilemma I faced in flexing my franchise.
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