Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen believes that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has “significantly gained maturity” over the years. In the backdrop of Congress’ improved performance in the Lok Sabha elections, Professor Sen said that the true test of Gandhi’s growth would be his ability to lead the Opposition in Parliament.
Rahul Gandhi is the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha.
Sen recounted how, as a student at Trinity College in Cambridge, Gandhi was uncertain about his future, as politics didn’t particularly appeal to him back then.
“I think he (Rahul) is a much more mature person (now). I knew him as a young man during his days at Trinity College… the college where I studied and later became its Master. He (Rahul) visited me at that time and he came across as someone who was unclear about what he wanted to do. Politics didn’t seem to appeal to him then,” Sen told news agency PTI at his ancestral home in Bolpur in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
The Bharat Ratna awardee said that the former Congress president may have faced challenges in his early political career, but he has evolved over the years.
Praising his recent performance as “extraordinarily good”, Sen said, “Then he (Rahul) forayed into politics and I think initially he had some difficulty finding his feet. But his recent performance has been quite extraordinarily good and I am very admiring of that. Of course, you can’t be fighting elections based on your qualities alone, it also depends on what the country is like.”
So does he see Rahul Gandhi as India’s next Prime Minister, an amused Sen said that such predictions are tricky.
“How people become prime ministers is very difficult to catch. If somebody asked me when I was a student in Delhi, who among my fellow students was least likely to become a prime minister, I would have named Manmohan Singh since he did not seem to take any interest in politics. But then he went on to become a prime minister and, I think, an excellent one at that. So, it’s difficult to predict these things,” Sen said.
The veteran economist credits the “Bharat Jodo Yatra” for not only shaping Gandhi as a national leader but also enriching the country’s political landscape.
“Rahul has done a good job. I think the yatra was good both for India and for him. And I think he has shown remarkable improvement in this ability to articulate, especially his thoughts on politics, much more clearly than he could in the past.
Sen observed that the most notable improvement in Rahul’s leadership is his deep understanding of India’s complex political landscape. This, he believes, will benefit both the Congress party and the country, especially in his role as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
“When he came to Trinity, he was possibly trying to be a development expert and we talked about what he should read and so on. He was very eloquent there, but in politics, not really. But now he is very articulate in matters of politics,” he said.
Gandhi has a much important role to play in Parliament, especially in tackling pressing issues like inequality and sectarianism in India, he said.
“The most important issue is how he leads the Opposition in a country which has seen a great increase in inequality and sectarianism, particularly with respect to the majority community exercising overarching dominance over minorities like Muslims, Christians, and others. That’s his primary role, and I think he’s handling it well,” Sen said.
