Rahul Gandhi Wants Inner-Party Democracy

I had written an essay about a month ago about how India’s political parties don’t have the kind of internal democracy that the American parties demonstrate with such spectacular drama. Well, guess who agrees with me. The Times of India reports:

This is as candid as an Indian politician can ever get. According to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, there is no internal democracy in the Congress party, which is led by his mother, Sonia Gandhi. And the high command era has to end.

“India is a democratic country, but there is practically no internal democracy in any party, be it the Congress, BJP or any other,” Rahul said on Monday at the end of his four-day visit to Orissa.

Part of me wants to be cynical about this, and I could easily make a quip about the source of Rahul Gandhi’s power in his party and end the post there. But the fact remains that any change in the system can only come from an insider within it who benefits from the status quo, and Gandhi is perfectly positioned to push that change. If he didn’t intend that, why would he make such a statement? It doesn’t win him any brownie points from anyone. Perhaps there is hope.

Also read:

The Nehru-Gandhi legacy of shame
Dear Rahul Gandhi