It seems apparent that the main issue in the next general elections would be about who can bring benefits of the ongoing economic reforms to the poorest of the poor people of India. And that is where the young Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, comes in.

Having declared that the “last aam aadami in the queue” and India’s eager youth are his constituency, Rahul is now reorganising his party to fulfill the dreams of his father, Rajiv Gandhi, whose political journey was cut short by assassins.

I can never forget the dream I saw in the latter’s eyes. The year was 1985, and Rajiv Gandhi had been prime minister for less than a year. We — America’s famous syndicated columnist Jack Anderson, his producer Barbara Newman and I, among a few others — were sitting in his office, talking to him while our cameraman was quietly recording the conversation for our documentary, “Rajiv’s India”, for the US TV channel PBS. We had to make the interview very informal and the recording almost invisible in order to put at ease the newly elected prime minister, who did not like to give on-camera interviews.

As we discussed India and how he was “baptised by fire” after his mother’s assassination, Jack suddenly asked Rajiv whether he feels his shoulders are broad and strong enough to carry the burden of such a large country with so many problems. Doesn’t he feel a tremendous stress?

Rajiv’s face suddenly lit up with his signature disarming smile. He said, “I believe in the Bhagwad Gita, which says just keep on doing what you think is right without being overly concerned about the consequences for yourself.”

Asked about the terror threats to his life, he paused and said with moist eyes his only worry was that his children, Rahul and Priyanka, “cannot lead a normal life”.

Almost 28 years later, I was pleasantly surprised when Rahul Gandhi also said he believes in the Bhagwad Gita and its philosophy of ‘nishkaam sewa’ (selfless service). He said, "If I succeed in changing the system, well and good. Else, I will leave it to some other people to do it.”

It is clear that Rahul Gandhi’s ‘sanskars’ are solid. When he says becoming the prime minister is not his top priority, he means it. He did not say he does not want to become the prime minister, but only that it is not his top priority and that the party comes first. This was in contrast with the Bharatiya Janata Party, where every leader has been seen to be clamouring for the country’s top executive post. This includes Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who has as bad an image and a label stuck to him as the Sajjan Kumars and Jagdish Tytlers of the Congress.

Rahul’s reluctance comes from both his father and mother. When he said the PM’s post is not his top priority, he meant that he is not running after the post and wants to earn it by working for the party first — making the Congress strong and then accepting it gracefully, if the party wants it. I will call this a “renunciation approach” with a touch of magnanimity.

I believe Rahul has inherited this quality from his mother. For years after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, Sonia Gandhi kept on rejecting the party leadership until one day all senior politicians who were fighting over it forced her to become the Congress chief. Some of them genuinely felt that she can strengthen the party; others simply wanted her so that their rivals can’t get it.

The timing of Rahul Gandhi’s remarks that his top priority is the party and not the post was also a master political stroke. He made the remark just a day after the whole country had seen on TV channels how the BJP leaders lacked the grace that comes with the “renunciation approach”. They were seen playing subtle political games to either push Modi as the candidate for the prime minister’s post or push him down by hinting that Sushma Swaraj deserves it more since she reminds people of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the best prime minister the BJP and India has had so far.

So at a time when cracks are appearing in the main opposition party’s unity, Rahul Gandhi is trying to improve the unity within his party by making it more democratic and giving more power to the middle ranks. "I am trying to break the cartel which controls all powers,” he said. And he was honest enough to say that the high command culture was started in the 1970s when "my grandmother was under severe assault".

The young Congress vice-president, it seems, is following his father’s footsteps. But at the same time he doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to implement the change overnight. With his hard work and interaction with the grassroots for the past nine years, perhaps Rahul Gandhi realises more than his father did how murky and ruthless Indian politics can be.

And perhaps he also realises that once he is able to democratise the party and empower the neglected ranks in the Congress, he will automatically become their natural choice for leading them in Parliament.