By IANS,
Washington: The next general election in India could see Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi pitted against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a US report says, albeit indirectly.
A report on India by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), a bipartisan and independent research wing of the US Congress, sees Modi as Bharatiya Janata Party’s likely candidated for prime ministership.
“…among the party’s likely candidates for the prime ministership in future elections is Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has overseen impressive development successes in his state…,” it states.
The report is of the opinion that Rahul Gandhi is the Congress heir apparent.
“As party chief and UPA (United Progressive Alliance) chair, (Sonia) Gandhi is seen to wield considerable influence over thecoalition’s policy making process. Her foreign origins have presented an obstacle and likely were a major factor in her surprising 2004 decision to decline the prime ministership…her son, Rahul, is widely seen as the most likely heir to Congress leadership,” the report states.
The US report does not say in so many words that it is going to be Rahul Gandhi against Narendra Modi.
The report notes that most of India’s 15 prime ministers have come from the country’s Hindi-speaking northern regions and all but two have been upper-caste Hindus.
“…a surprise Congress resurgence under party president Sonia Gandhi in the 2004 elections brought to power a new left-leaning coalition government led by former finance minister and Oxford-educated economist Manmohan Singh, a Sikh and India’s first-ever non-Hindu prime minister.”
Prime Minister Singh oversees the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ruling coalition that has now marked more than seven years in power, “far exceeding the expectations of some early observers”.
Contending that Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi have “remained fairly popular national figures”, the report adds that both have seen their favorability suffer with major corruption scandals breaking since late 2010.
“Singh himself, though still generally admired as an honest and intelligent figure, has been unable to succeed in pushing through much of the UPA’s domestic agenda, which focuses on development and uplift for India’s hundreds of millions of poor citizens.”
On the BJP, the report says that with the rise of Hindu nationalism, the BJP rapidly increased its parliamentary strength during the 1980s.
“At present, the BJP president is Nitin Gadkari, a former Maharashtran official known for his avid support of privatization. Although still in some disorder in 2011, there are signs that the BJP hasmade changes necessary to be a formidable challenger in the scheduled 2014 polls.”
“Yet among the party’s likely candidates for the prime ministership in future elections is Narendra Modi, who has overseen impressive developmentsuccesses in his state, but who is also dogged by controversy over his alleged complicity in lethal anti-Muslim rioting there in 2002 (Modi has in the past been denied a US visa under anAmerican law barring entry for foreign government officials found to be complicit in severeviolations of religious freedom).”