The jury is out, and the decision has come along the lines predicted. A day after Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, and presumably also of the ruling Congress, made what is being made out to be a definitive, coming-into-his speech at New Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, Congress leaders are already daydreaming of the future, while the opposition leaers are attacking him from all quarters, for advocating interests of the baba-log and confusing it to mean the ‘aam admi’.

Amid posters as imaginative as "Rahul as next PM" and "future of the nation", and some sporting Gandhi caps saying “Main hoon Rahul”, a take-off on the India Against Corruption’s hugely successful “Main hoon Anna” caps, the Amethi MP went on the offensive on Sunday. “I have come to realise that the biggest problem we face today is that the system, more so the political system, is closed for the aam admi,” he said. “It keeps on hitting and putting stumbling blocks against aam admi (but) the Congress will take the onus of changing that system and opening it up for the aam admi.”

While it sounded more like a protagonist’s lengthy sermon in a Bollywood flick, blaming every problem staring at everyone and her granny and nanny on that obtuse and obfuscating word called “system”, Gandhi didn’t offer much solution in how to tackle or bulldoze past that system. That’s a pity since his party has been in power for the last eight years, his co-speaker at the rally, Manmohan Singh has been the prime minister for as many years, and the other leader, his mother Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the ruling coalition for those years.

“It keeps on hitting and putting stumbling blocks against aam admi,” he said. Bang on. So what did the party and the government do all these years, and in the decades since independence, when it has been in power for all but a decade at most? It’s not enough for a leader, even a young Turk way into his 40s now, to be seen as throwing up a problem, and not ways and means to get past it. That is for the followers to pose, and wait for the leader to address

“The Congress will take the onus of changing that system and opening it up for the aam admi,” he thundered during his 20-minute speech as the skyline remained grey. Bang on, again. But, at the cost of sounding repetitive, what was the young Gandhi, not a novice in politics any longer, and the Congress doing all these years?

And as pointed out in an article in Firstpost.com today, doesn’t all this harangue about the aam admi sound a bit rich, barely a week after ‘khaas’ persons like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora, Sachin Pilot, Jitin Prasada and the rest of ‘Team Rahul’ — all scions of political families — were taken, retained or elevated in the Manmohan Cabinet?

Gandhi also had a question: if the Congress could support Vajpayee’s NDA government on issues of national importance, such as the Kargil war, why can’t the opposition back the Manmohan government on FDI in retail sector? All hell, of course, broke loose with that. While senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi reacted sharply, saying “Did they (Congress) oblige the NDA by supporting us in Kargil war?”, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut ridiculed him saying Rahul is both a bachcha (novice) and kachcha (juvenile) khiladi in politics. “If Rahul does not understand the difference between Kargil and FDI in retail, he has no right to be in politics,” Raut said.

So what exactly was import of the young Gandhi’s thundering message to the nation? While not many were able to deduce it, Congress leaders had, by Monday morning, presumably seen, heard and deciphered enough to see the future. It’s spelt R, A, H, U and L, they nearly stated.

Two samples (from an ANI report):

Rajiv Shukla: “At the Ramlila Maidan, he spoke at length about how he is committed to the country being taken forward. His speech clearly showed his qualities as a leader.”

Jyotiraditya Scindia: "Rahulji's speech was very inspiring. His message to the youth is that they should be at the forefront in times of change."

While it’s always good to know an important message like that, one can be certain the men carrying those pro-Rahul banners and sporting the “main bhi Rahul” caps would have been better off had they heard and deciphered the same from the man himself.