Watching space Rahul

Congress party's score of 99 in the Lok Sabha elections has vaporised three painful questions dogging Rahul Gandhi for two decades. His record so far deserves a closer look

- SHEKHAR GUPTA

As Rahul Gandhi heads for the first full session of the third Narendra Modi government, he can take comfort in the fact that three painful questions dogging him for two decades have vaporised.

First, does the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or should it take the Congress seriously? Second, does it - or should it take Rahul Gandhi seriously? And third, can you bring back to life a party as nearly dead as the Congress?

The answers to all three came by the afternoon of counting day, June 4. Not only must the BJP take the Congress and Rahul seriously, his party also sees a realistic route to power in 2029. At the very least, it has sprung back to life and is back in the fight. You will see it through the monsoon session beginning next Monday.

This session will have the added tadka (seasoning) of the Union Budget as well. The difference a rejuvenated Congress makes will also be evident in how the rest of the Opposition conducts itself. Read the op-ed that Trinamool MP Derek O'Brien wrote in The Indian Express this Friday.

He opens his argument by asking who benefits more from parliamentary adjournments now. The obvious implication is that it's the Treasury benches.

When the Opposition was in a hopeless minority, outshouted, outnumbered and further squashed by the chair, adjournments and walkouts were desperate escape measures. Now, they'd rather be on the wrestling mat or in the akhara if that sounds more apt- and wrestle.

His party, the Trinamool Congress, has done brilliantly by itself in West Bengal. Would they, however, be so upbeat if the Congress had not come back to life this time? No opposition alliance can be credible without a strong core. That's the expectation the Congress had been failing to meet so far. Now, this has changed.