Rahul Gandhi’s Buzz: Indian Scion Offers Many Metaphors, But Few Solutions

[Time]

After Rahul Gandhi concluded his widely watched speech to India Inc. yesterday, an unlikely word was left hanging in the air: "beehive." It was the political scion's first major address to business leaders in what promises to be a long and grueling re-election campaign for India's ruling Congress Party. As the newly appointed party veep and potentially the next Prime Minister of India, Gandhi talked about a lot of things during his hour-plus speech on Thursday, but the thing that stuck was an odd moment during the question and answer period when he sought to replace the popular symbol of India as a lumbering pachyderm with something new. "We're not an elephant. We're a beehive," he said emphatically, before posing the question to the audience: "Which is more powerful, an elephant or a beehive?" Cue the awkward pause. Seen by many as a coming out of sorts for the 42-year-old political heir, yesterday's speech to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was a rare moment for Gandhi to step away from his usual audience of rural constituents and party faithful and try to convince a new crowd that, come national elections scheduled for 2014, Congress deserves another four years in office. It's not an easy sell, particularly to the business folk who are disillusioned with the current government. Quarterly growth hit a decade-low on Congress' latest watch. Investment and manufacturing fell, while inflation has gone up and the deficit has widened. Did he succeed at making the case? Those that managed to follow the intertwined metaphorical narratives he wove through the speech may have been impressed by a young(ish) politician who, whatever his own political ambitions, clearly believes in his party's longstanding commitment to improve the lot of India's hundreds of millions of poor. He was, at moments, an engaging and passionate speaker, particularly when talking about how the nation's political infrastructure is failing the local-level politicians charged with implementing some of the country's most crucial laws. That's all interesting. But let's get back to the fact that this was

Via: TIME GlobalSpin