THE ANGER GAMES

It's not easy to frame a generational conflict that bears no clear, fixed ties of affiliation.

- Kaushik Deka

But the Congress can be said to be loosely split between two halves with a distinct difference of approach-call it the gap between those eager for change and those content to let things hum along with minimum fuss. The assorted members of both sides exhibit this gap even beyond the specific pulls of groupism. The letter that senior party leader Ajay Maken wrote to new party president Mallikarjun Kharge on November 8 is a case in point. Leaked to the media a week later, the letter had a miffed Maken expressing unwillingness to continue as AICC in-charge of Rajasthan.

He did not have any moral authority to stay on in that role, he wrote, because there had been no closure on a piece of drama that had played out on September 25 in Jaipur.

This relates to the time when the high command had picked Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot as its candidate for Congress president. Gehlot had come on board but was unwilling to let his bete noire Sachin Pilot replace him as CM. Wanting to have his cake and eat it too, Gehlot played along with the high command's orders to summon a CLP meeting on September 25 in which party MLAs would pass a one-line resolution authorising then Congress president Sonia Gandhi to choose the next CM. But behind the scenes, three Gehlot loyalists—state parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal, chief whip Mahesh Joshi and Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) chairman