The decision by an ailing Indian National Congress party chairperson Sonia Gandhi to ask her son Rahul Gandhi to help steer India’s ruling party in her absence could fast-track his long-anticipated succession to power, analysts say.
The scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty was named on Thursday to a four-member panel tasked with running the party’s daily affairs while his mother recovers from surgery for an undisclosed medical condition.
Although long billed as a prime minister-in-waiting, Rahul Gandhi, 41, has hitherto shunned high-profile Cabinet berths in favor of grassroots activism and building up the party’s youth wing.
However, his nomination to the temporary panel — despite not even being in the country — coupled with uncertainty over the seriousness of his mother’s condition has led many to believe his rise to the top has now begun in earnest.
“The whole plan of Sonia has always been that the scepter must be handed to the son,” political analyst Inder Malhotra said. “This regency could well be the beginning of transition.”
While 78-year-old Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is formally in charge of the government, Sonia Gandhi is widely seen as India’s most powerful politician, who calls the shots from her power-broking position as party leader.
Her appointment of Rahul “confirms him as the first among equals in Congress. It instills a sense of continuation,” said Rasheed Kidwai, a biographer of Sonia Gandhi.
Since independence in 1947, power in Congress has passed from Rahul Gandhi’s great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, to his grandmother Indira Gandhi, who was slain by Sikh bodyguards, and in tragedy-studded succession to his father, Rajiv, who was blown up by a Tamil suicide bomber.
Leadership now rests with Rajiv’s Italian-born widow and many Congress backers cannot imagine the party without a Gandhi at the helm.
“Sonia Gandhi gives Congress keys to Rahul,” an Indian Express newspaper headline said after the panel was announced.
Sonia has carefully managed her son’s career, giving him time to carry out his aim of learning politics “brick by brick,” but the track record of the partly US-educated politician has been lackluster.
He has rarely spoken in parliament debates and never dealt with such thorny issues as Pakistan or the economy, preferring to embrace populist causes including farmers’ land rights.
Singh, a Gandhi loyalist accused by the opposition of shutting his eyes to massive corruption, is often seen as keeping the prime minister’s seat warm for Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi has never declared outright he wants to lead India and has said becoming prime minister is not the only “job” in the world.
However, Congress billboards drill home the message of succession, showing the elderly Singh, beaming mother Sonia and in front, Rahul — poised to take the reins.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of