Apropos Zero Worship (March 19), you quote Pune University professor Suhas Palshikar as saying, “It was beyond one man to rebuild the Congress in UP on the eve of a poll”. But Rahul has been trying to rebuild the Congress in UP for more than two years now. Just face it—he failed, even in his own constituency.
Rupjyoti Bhagawati, Pune
With due apologies to Ernest Hemingway:
The son also rises, the son also sets,
And hastens to the place from which he rose. One generation goes, another comes, And so it goes on forever.
Gullapalli V.S., on e-mail
As long as Rahul has Digvijay Singh, Salman Khurshid and Kapil Sibal as mentors, the agenda will focus more on the minorities and governance by handouts than development.
S. Madhekar, on e-mail
Thank God, Rahul failed. Else we’d have had fawning headlines like ‘Rahul the Messiah’ and ‘Rahul the Future of India’.
S.S. Nagaraj, Bangalore
Rahul Gandhi is naive, and that’s what stands exposed.
Karavadi Raghava Rao, Vijayawada
That Rahul stuck his neck out and slogged only increases his respectability.
Kumar, Bangalore
The assembly poll results only show that people are disgusted with the Gandhi family’s governance by proxy and power without responsibility.
J.S. Acharya, Hyderabad
The Nehru-Gandhi family has not allowed any independent leaders to rise, killing the party in the process. If the recent election results indicate the end of dynastic rule, this will hopefully change.
Vithal, on e-mail
It would have been better had Rahul started small and focused on a few constituencies like Amethi, Rae Bareli and others around there. It would have given him the confidence and the experience to take on bigger fights.
Venkatesh G. Iyer, Chennai
The failure of Rahul and his team to revive the Congress in UP shows why it is important to build grassroots leaders and strengthen the party organisation at the state, district, taluka and village level. A surname won’t fetch votes.
Pramod Srivastava, Delhi
Rahul stands completely exposed for his well-meaning, but ineffective agenda. The best thing about the outcome though is that we won’t have to suffer Digvijay’s dangerous and relentless bunkum anymore.
S. Bengani, on e-mail
Rahul is an example of how sycophants and the media combine to create “gold” out of hot air.
G. Natrajan, Hyderabad
A fall from the sky is sure to cause serious injury. Rahul worked hard, but could not establish contact with the people. The big bosses of his party did not know how to go about campaigning in UP, so they let Rahul Baba do what he wanted. And he revelled in missteps, one after the other. Very soon, the Congress may become a historical monument.
M.K. Somanatha Panicker, Manappuram, Kerala
I am neither a fan of the Congress or dynastic politics; nor do I have any love for Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brand of politics. But I have a feeling Akhilesh Yadav will do for Uttar Pradesh what Nitish Kumar has done for Bihar.
Pramod, Phoenix, US
