NEW DELHI // Sonia Gandhi on Friday refused to bow to her struggling party’s pleas to nominate her son as its prime ministerial candidate in upcoming elections.
A day after she rejected a clamour within the Congress party to declare Rahul Gandhi as its choice for premier at polls due in May, Ms Gandhi told followers there was no going back on the decision.
“We took a decision on Rahul yesterday and that decision is final,” she said in a speech that was interrupted several times with shouts of “Rahul for PM!”
“We meet today to signal that Congress is ready and prepared for the battle ahead,” she told a party conclave in New Delhi.
“It will be a battle between competing ideologies, conflicting views of the history and a different vision for the future ... it will be a battle for India.”
After a decade in power, Congress is lagging well behind the Hindu-nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in opinion polls, with voters turned off by an economic slowdown and a string of corruption scandals.
prime minister Manmohan Singh is retiring after two terms and the party had been expected to nominate Mr Gandhi, 43, as its choice for premier at the conclave.
But the prospects were dashed when Ms Gandhi, the powerful party president and senior-most figure in the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, opposed the move at a meeting on Thursday night.
Mr Gandhi remains the party’s chief election strategist.
Analysts have said the BJP’s decision to project the divisive Narendra Modi as its choice for premier could limit its room for manoeuvre in post-election coalition negotiations — a trap that Sonia Gandhi is keen to avoid.
There has also been media speculation that Congress’s expected defeat will be so comprehensive that the Gandhi family fears it could kill off Mr Gandhi’s nascent political career.
But the clan’s star power remains high and many in the party see Mr Gandhi as their best hope, despite his well-documented reservations about following in the prime ministerial footsteps of his father, grandmother and great-grandfather.
* Agence France-Presse
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
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Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
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Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
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Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
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