Former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit might have been relegated to behind the scenes action now, but she keeps popping into the news. The latest reason for her name to come up, is her comment on Rahul Gandhi in a recent interview. Sheila Dikshit was asked why the Congress is sinking in spite of Rahul Gandhi campaigning vigorously. In her answer, she said:
….And please remember Rahul is still not mature, his age does not allow him to be mature. He is what… in his forties. Please give him time.
So Sheila Dikshit feels 46-year-old Rahul Gandhi is still not mature, although there have been many efforts by media to declare that Rahul has “come of age“. On the other hand, we have Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, who is just a month older than Rahul Gandhi, but has matured much faster, enabling him to lead BJP to a resounding success in the recently concluded Maharashtra Civic elections.
But Sheila Dikshit’s realisation that Rahul Gandhi has not matured is actually quite a recent development. Her opinion on Rahul Gandhi was quite different a few months ago. On 7th November 2016, in another interview, Dikshit had remarked that Rahul Gandhi had “emerged as a mature leader”:
Suddenly he has emerged as a mature leader, somebody who takes up issues which belong to the common people….. his thinking is very very good.
Of course the above statement came when Sheila Dikshit was still the Congress’s CM candidate in Uttar Pradesh. Subsequently, once Congress allied with the Samajwadi Party, she was dropped like a hot potato.
Also, this statement of Rahul being a mature leader, was before this same mature leader Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue of the Sahara Birla diaries, alleging corruption on BJP. Rahul had not realised that the diaries, if considered as gospel truth (which the courts did not), also implicated his own UP CM face Sheila Dikshit, as she was also mentioned in the diaries. Dikshit had then junked the diaries as “hear-say” but the Congress left her to fight on her own.
Thus, as of today, in Sheila Dikshit’s books, Rahul Gandhi is a person who has not matured. Finally she seems to agree with what BJP leaders have been saying for so long. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said this in 2015:
In early 2016, even the Prime Minister of India had realised that some people do not mature even as they grow older:
Now that Sheila Dikshit has gained enlightenment on the status of Rahul Gandhi’s maturity, one has to see if she gains any more enlightenment about the Congress as a whole.
