April 23, 2008 - The youth in India are all proud of Rahul Gandhi because he represents the dynamic youth force of our country. He is tipped as future Prime Minister of India and so can he be after the upcoming elections or thereafter. The future of India is linked with him and vice versa. All sounds good with an air of positive tone.

But realities sound different. His so-called "Discovery of India" does not look original, though efforts are highly appreciable; the approach is honest with new life and enthusiasm. It sounds pretty much like the efforts of Columbus and Vasco-da-gama who wanted to discover India five hundred years ago.

Why does Rahul Gandhi want to discover his country? We appreciate his timing because he has started his campaign a year before polls and when his party's sycophants and flatterers are tipping him as "PM in waiting", it does give a clear signal that the motto of “Discovery of India” is probably to uplift him to the exalted position of PM after the elections and there is nothing wrong, being a political strategy? 

But another question arises whether it is selfish or national motto with which Rahul is working? The countrymen also think what has been there in all his years before? Why now a plan to understand our own country, and what’s the necessity? 

Ok, Rahul Gandhi won’t have started it now but it's better to be late than never. Rahul Gandhi has visited the tribals in Orissa, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Can Rahul Gandhi tell the nations what exactly their problems are? 

It's not National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, (NREGA), un-employment, water or food. But land. These tribal and downtrodden sections of the society depend on land and their livelihood is exclusively based on land. They have no rights on the land, which they have been worshipping for years. The lands are in the control of colonial laws that forbid these tribals to own land. 

I suggest Rahul Gandhi to go to Jhabua District in Madhya Pradesh. The Bhil tribes are living on denuded lands and have not been benefited by the so called NREGA. Thereafter, he should visit Gudalur District in Tamil Nadu which is located near Karnataka and the adjoining place, where he visited as a part of his" Discovery of India "trip. The Irulas tribes are living like refugees in their own country and have not discovered so far whether they are citizens of our country like us? 

I have just mentioned few examples. They are many more places to discover and you can if you become the Prime Minister. 

Back to politics, Rahul Gandhi can ask his fellow Congress party members, on how many states, the Congress is still in power? In bigger states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar there is no trace of the Congress. In states like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu it's out of power for years. 

It has some presence in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. It's is in power in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir, besides some states in North-Eastern India, thanks mainly to the allies.

Above all, Rahul Gandhi can ask how many MPs represent the Congress alone in Lok Sabha? The numbers have shrunken from the days of four-fifth majority his father enjoyed, the three-fourth majority his grand-mother enjoyed and so the wafer-thin majority enjoyed by Narashima Rao. 

Politically suggesting Rahul Gandhi to trace the reasons why the numbers and the presence of the Congress party have shrunken? The answer is apparent and simple but bitter to know. 

However, it is perfect to think of the coalition partners with Congress, who are psychologically more in power than the Congress party, the question marks is therefore alarming, whether the people have lost faith in Congress or people have lost faith in the entire political system of our country?   

To redeem that faith Rahul Gandhi needs to understand the country first and not to invent or discover the country, India is very much there, nothing is unknown inside the interior of some states and the level of our country’s poverty, it is the open pages of our lives how behind we are in our own land? Don’t see Metro cities, even in metros, you’ll find the people living much below the poverty line.

A week back a popular weekly magazine published the names of the 60 greatest Indians. I was surprised to find the names of Gandhis missing and more so they deserved. The names are Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

Probably both Rahul and Priyanka can learn a lesson. 

Sonia Gandhi though for all her efforts, has failed to inspire a nation with full marks for her efforts to keep the Congress party intact for nearly a decade.  

Rajiv Gandhi though was incarnated and crowned as the "Prime Minister of India" by a four-fifth majority failed to take right steps at the right time in all his five years as PM. No doubt. The surname Gandhi helped him in becoming the PM but failed to give him a place in glittering history books of future generation.

In many ways it was a burden than an asset.

Another name that was there on the list and which rightly needs to be was A.B. Vajpayee. He has a place in history. But for what he deserves a place. Not for all the efforts he took to make India an economic, political and nuclear super-power or the un-declared war he won in Kargil, or for the peace efforts that he made with Pakistan, or for making former United States President Bill Clinton visit India just 18 months after the President imposed severe sanction.

But to make the dreams of an ordinary Indian citizen become true. Vajpayee climbed his political ladder from ordinary destination and became the Prime Minister of India. Above all the real reason for his greatness is poorly documented. 

The urgency that Vajpayee showed to conduct the nuclear tests in his first 13-days government is amazing. He wanted desperately to make the dreams of one billion come true. He was in a haste and hurry. But he had to retreat and waited for couple of years till May 11, 1998 to conduct the tests.

Both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra can learn a thing or two from the living Gandhi, A B Vajpayee.  

(The writer is presently studying journalism in New Zealand and can be contacted in his email id mohanbalaji20032004@yahoo.co.in )