The Indian National Congress has a legacy issue. All of seventy years of being and nothingness, as its main opponent never fails to remind all of us. It's actually another seventy years before that. The baggage is a huge one to carry. No wonder the party has pruned itself around the Gandhi-Nehru legacy. With lesser dramatis personae and supporting cast there to help us remember the script, as aides memoire. Just imagine...had the GOP not decided to name and rename most things after three former PMs from the prime family, they would have had to do a lucky draw every time such occasions arose. However, lazy ways of doing memory politics have a downside. Opponents tend to poach on your riches, left unattended in the backyard of party history. Like, Sardar Patel is gone, but he has acquired a new political party, posthumously. Madan Mohan Malaviya, Subhas Chandra Bose, Lal Bahadur Shastri et al have all switched camps. The list is long and eclectic. One can even look at these greats who grace our Indian history books can they even be contained within the hall of fame of one particular party? They belong to the nation, they have been influencers of national discourse through their actions and inactions. But Sheila Dikshit? She was more from a here and-now generation of Congress politicians. As long as she ruled over Delhi, which was 15 long years, Dikshit was popular, except for the last few months when Anna Hazare laid a siege over Delhi and a horrific gang rape swayed the conscience of the nation. Till then she was abhaya to all nirbhayas. Now that the Congress wants to disown her, lest the consecutive zeroes in Assembly polls land at the Gandhi siblings' doorstep, imagine a twist in the tale. She may re-emerge as an inspiration for AAP never mind those early days of high dudgeon! Or even the BJP, five years later! And P C Chacko may not be around in Delhi to be surprised.