Though a lot of vews and counterveiws are being aired about BJP being reduced to just 3 seats in the Delhi Assembly, strangely there is not much noise being made about the total debacle of Congress. Even within the Congress.. And that is strange because the last CM Delhi had was a Congress Woman and she ruled for 3  terms. At one point she was quite  popular too, specially among the youth. Yet no one questions the defeat, because everyone was sort of expecting it already.

The question to ask at this stage therefore is not just what has gone so drastically wrong with India’s oldest political party,  but what they are doing about it?

Though the outward rumblings are quite faint yet, – except for some sudden storms like Jayanti Natarajan’s resignation from the party itself announced at a press conference in Chennai, there is said to be considerable internal turbulence. More portenous is the fact that as this turbulence is happening, there is no Captain manning the craft.

Sonia Gandhi has all but relinquished her stewartship of the party. One obvious proof of this is her total silence on the Delhi defeat. And there is no one else being even the Night watchman. It is generally assumed that very soon Rahul Gandhi will be elevated to President from the Vice president he is at the moment. But are party sartraps in a mood to accept this eventuality? Doubts are surfacing about whether the man himself is ready or willing to shoulder the burden.And if willing, how capable?

In quick succession in the last two years Congressmen have lost Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Goa and then nose dived in the general elections and been all but decimated in Parliament too. The one state it could always depend on, Maharashtra , turned out to be a very humiliating defeat too despite the presence of some heavy weights and veterans and allies like the wily Sharad Pawar. Similar waterloos have occured in Haryana, ,Jharkhand and J&K too. And now the total annihilation in Delhi. How long can the party bury its head Ostrich like in sand and not aknowledge that if anyone is to be held responsible it should be the Gandhi family scion? Such questions, uncomfortable though they are, are being asked more and more openly now. The party’s response like having a post mostem report by loyalist Antony commissioned but results not shared – even internally, is not throwing any light on the situation.

Obviously, by now it is not just the old guard who are fearing their ouster if Rahul rules, but even the young leadership who sees a gloomy future for itself under him.

The parade is on. Everyone is waiting with baited breath to see who will be the first one to point out –

“Hey! the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes!”