The Congress simply cannot shed its sycophancy when it comes to the Gandhi name. Confusion reigns in the party about which Gandhi’s name the National Food Security Bill would bear, after it is passed in Parliament. A massive namkaran ceremony with huge fanfare is being planned to celebrate the bill, meant to be the party’s proposed trump card in the next general elections.
The scheme, a pet project of Congress president Sonia Gandhi was to be named after her late husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Now a challenger has risen from the past within family history to lay claim to the name—Indira Gandhi. It is learnt that a section of Congress leaders, reportedly close to Priyanka Gandhi, are in favour of naming the Food Security Scheme after the assassinated Gandhi matriarch. They argue that the Food Security Bill is also about women’s empowerment, and legally considers the eldest woman in the clan as the head of the family; and hence it is only natural that the scheme is named after Indira Gandhi.
According to a food ministry official, those in favour of Indira’s name insist that it has better resonance with rural and women voters than her son’s. “No final decision regarding the naming has been taken,” he said.