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Why Won’t the Indians Accept Rahul Gandhi as Their Own Obama?


I think he (Rahul) is one of the most talented, able and insightful of the younger generation of politicians worldwide, but how he ends up in your politics again, that's for you, for him and for his party to decide. But I think he has got first class mind and great commitment to India.

That opinion of Tony Blair, given during a visit to Delhi in 2008 as an ex Prime Minister of the U.K, turned out to be as much intuitive as it was prophetic.

Four years on, Rahul Gandhi has proved his worth as a political leader in his own right and not just as the son of Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress Party. He has been favoured as a leader who can take the party to win the next election and foisted by a majority of the Party leaders to the position of the Vice President.

His insightful mind and commitment to his country could be glimpsed from the pathos of his acceptance speech which the Indian media has ascribed as the "Obama moment" of the party. His speech, revealing his personal anguish and hinting a lack of avarice for power, which he could have grabbed anytime he wanted, is seen as a rare one in the Indian politics.

Despite this, why is India, especially its youth, judging from the chatter on the social web and the Indian media, so sceptical and suspicious of the young Gandhi?

How Rahul Gandhi, Amul Baby of India Has Become the David Of Indian Politics.

All of a sudden, the story of David and Goliath has once again been enacted in Delhi, which 1.3 billion Indians proudly call the seat of their democracy.
It is believed that the original purpose of the story was to show the identity of David, the champion of the God of Israel, as the true king of Israel, who could kill Goliath, the representative of paganism with the help of God.
Rahul Gandhi, often ridiculed by his political opposition and the Indian press as "Amul (a brand of milk in India) Baby" for his un assuming and low key leadership, seems to have done nothing less by his openness and courageous stand against a piece of legislation which would have continued to protect criminals who get elected as representatives.
Rahul Gandhi has surprised India and the world with a few spontaneous but thunderous words dispelling all notions of lack of leadership and trouncing a the painstakingly created image of Narendra Modi of the BJP as a political Goliath and the only person worthy to be the prime minister of India.

Why Election 2012 Make Vladimir Putin Cry In Victory And Rahul Gandhi Smile In Defeat?


Putin's tears, which appeared as he announced hiselection victory as the new president of Russia, have become the but of several jokes. They have not certainly softened the cobble stones of the red square though they must have made his long gone mentor Lenin turn in his nearby mausoleum.
Honestly, Putin shouldn't have cried like a baby. Ex KGB agents do not shed tears after winning an election especially when it was rigged. The result of the Russian Presidential election was a foregone conclusion, and didn't matter for the rest of theworld, as evident from the reaction of world leaders and the poor coverage and attention it received as a non event. Around the world, Putin's tears are seen as nothing but crocodile tears.


Quick Poll

Do you think Putin's Tears Were For Real?

 
 
 
No one really knows why Putin burst in to tears and chocked for his words. There are several theories in circulation. But if they were indeed tears of national pride of the self appointed President of Russia, the fact that free and fair elections were held in a third world country should have brought a few drops of shame in the eyes of every patriotic and freedom loving Russian.
Well, if it is no longer politically correct to call India a third world country, it is all the more shameful for Russia to be democratically compared to another BRIC nation and placed in poor esteem.
Putin and other leaders who hate a free and fair democratic process have something to learn from Rahul Gandhi, the young leader of India, who has constantly shunned away from power his 160 year Congress party, which ruled India for most of the time after its Independence, wants him to take on.
If the election 2012 in Russia made Putin weep, despite his lack of intention to give up his iron grip on the lives of millions of Russians, the recent democratic elections in the largest state of India, Uttar Pradesh with a population of over 200 Million, brought smiles on the faces of millions of Indians proud about their democracy, especially of Rahul Gandhi, as he addressed a press conference to concede defeat and accept his share of responsibility.
In fact it should be Rahul Gandhi, who must be crying for the 'apparent' defeat and loss to his party in the recent elections! Though no one has a plausible explanation to the tears of Vladimir Putin, other than perhaps psychiatric explanations, there are plenty of reasons why Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party shouldn't be depressed at the outcome of the elections.
The hype and expectations built up around his campaign by the Indian media gave the impression that he is to be "blamed" for a loss he hasn't caused because in absolute terms he has managed to increase his party's vote share by 40%.

Though many observers agree that the hard work and efforts of Rahul Gandhi exposed and ousted the corrupt and inefficient government of Chief Minister Mayavati, the hard political reality on ground failed to turn the voter's discontent in to votes for his party.
Rahul Gandhi has been criticised, as an outsider campaigning in the state of UP couldn't effectively relate to the voters and couldn't be seen as one who is there to deliver on the promises.
Most of all, the Congress party, like its opponent BJP, failed to present a viable leadership and party structure to form a new state government the electorate could vote for, while a well established and regional Party, despite several corrupt and failed stints before, attracted a mass of negative votes.
However the main take away from the elections indicate that the conclusions from the electoral verdict were all logical, proving that the Indian electorate certainly has a mind and can apply it in casting its franchise.

- The dynamics of elections to the national parliament and the state assemblies are no longer the same and need to be played up on separately to gain election success.
- Much like the European Union, India is in fact a union of "federal" states, each with its own sense of independence, issues and politics of casts, religion and other factors of electoral balances.
- Diminished external threats and higher economic growth of the recent past has made "national" parties and their leadership less relevant to the state politics. 
- The "national" parties have failed to build the party structure and leadership to substitutes for the prominent leaders who migrated to a national leadership.
- Measures of the central government imposing quota for women in local governance has increased the active participation of women in politics and their influence in elections over issues which matter to them like corruption.

All of the above are indeed lessons, the largest democracy can be proud of and learn from and certainly make young leaders like Rahul Gandhi to deliberate on for evolving new strategies.
If Putin indeed believes he has the support he claims which brought tears to his eyes, he should be willing to hold a re-election free and fair for all to see. He can take a few lessons in real democracy from his BRIC partner.

Article first published as Why Did Election 2012 Make Vladimir Putin Cry In Victory and Rahul Gandhi Smile In Defeat? on Technorati.
Friday, March 09, 2012
Posted by Unknown

Can India’s Antony Be Its Next Dark Horse Prime Minister?


Let me say this, I barely know A.K Antony except that we both hail from ‘God’s Own Country’, the little piece of beautiful land on the tip of the Indian Peninsula, the marvellous beauty of which  is preserved by its  anti development politics.

Not a political analysts by any stretch of Imagination; for that matter not even someone who lives anymore in the country, there are no pretences of erudition either in this. As a common man whose eyes and ears are not shut to the abundance of information incessantly pouring on to the a screen in front of me, I simply exert my fundamental right to venture a wild guess of my own.

In fact It is Antony’s own words during a recent campaign which points to this inevitability.

Criticising the  Marxist Communist Party, his main political opposition in Kerala, Antony has predicted that the CPM will be forced to support the UPA , the ruling  alliance  to form the next government, as they did in 2004.

The CPM  has not only vehemently denied this, but is strongly harping on the wishful idea of a “Third Font”, a political salad bowl of nuts, leaves and weeds, hardly palatable to the Indian masses.

Indians are fed up such exotic diet, meted out to them by several coalitions who only unite to fight and wither away in the past, lacking common ideology, purpose or will to govern.

The current “Third Front” so far remains merely as a photo session, with raised and clutched hands of as many leaders of regional parties as the number of those who want to be the Prime Minister of India, which has become a ridiculous icon of the fast crumbling idea of the Union of India.

Nevertheless, manifestation of  a political Phobia against the Bharathiya Janata Party,  which has unite the scattered opposition in the past, is in its highest pitch this time, thanks to a brazen and aggressive campaign of BJP’s self appointed prime ministerial candidate Modi himself.

If this manifested in the previous two elections as a force to prevent the BJP, a party with a hidden Hindutwa agenda to push minorities to second class, this time it is working as a formidable force to prevent a dictatorial Modi from grabbing the Prime Ministerial chair of India.  

Abetted by such concerns within the country’s minorities and even within the BJP itself, various anti Modi campaigns  by various forces, especially by the newly formed Aam Admi Party of Arvind Kejeriwal, can end up with the Third Front  grabbing a significant number of parliamentary seats, despite various opinion polls predicting otherwise.

Moreover, the gap between the results of opinion polls and political reality in Indian parliamentary election (different from the state elections influenced by local and regional forces), could be wider, given the massive financial influence exerted on the Indian media ahead of this year’s election.

All these factors can add up to a situation quite similar to 2004, as being claimed by Antony, perhaps less rosier than what is hoped by Rahul Gandhi, his party’s vice president and its potential nominee for the position of the Prime Minister.

Given the extreme and publicised ambitions of each of the leaders of the Third Front to become the PM, it is unlikely that they can agree upon one, especially if the combined strength is likely to be less than that of the UPA.

It  will also be not entirely unrealistic to expect  the two lady Chief Ministers to keep themselves out of the front, certainly due to the presence of their arch enemies and in any case as none of their male counterparts will concede them the coveted position of the Prime Minister.

In such a scenario, the combined determination of  everyone to Keep Modi out of power, for the good of the nation and their own political survival can crystallise in to a support of Sonia Gandhi’s UPA in forming the next government.

Rahul Gandhi, the vice president of  the Congress Party is will be , at best a very reluctant Prime Minister, who will much prefer to be its ideologist and party builder till at least another election.

In any case, Rahul Gandhi, who has taken the brunt of the political rhetoric and criticism from each of the leaders of the Front, (Remember Amul Baby?) is not someone, the elderly Prime Ministerial aspirants of the front will accept without some heart burn and loss of face.

That is where A K Antony and his stature within the party and his consensus building talents will come to the aid of all Modi haters, perhaps as a silver lining on the dark clouds the next election threaten to bring over the great nation of India.  

If that happens, the leaders of the CPM which Antony NOW says will have no choice but to support the UPA,  will be more than happy to support him, even forgetting the party ideology.

Many of them, after all,  are his compatriots  from God’s Own Country.


Sunday, April 06, 2014
Posted by Unknown

Why is the thirty year return of Saturn sinister for some?

Saturn, the Vedic astrology says, is a planet which makes human beings pay up for their past and present Karma before they die. Keralite astrologers even believe that those who die on a Saturday would have attained the end of the rebirth cycle, which the Hindus believe is the route God has prescribed for living beings to attain salvation and eternal peace.

Does the cyclical return of Saturn after thirty years to its original position spell doom and gloom for at least some people? Is that why exactly thirty years after her tragic assassination, India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is mercilessly being assassinated again?

Isn't the attempt of the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi to wipe out her name and her ultimate scarifies for India, exactly on the thirtieth anniversary of her assassination, nothing less than another assassination of her, thirty years after her death? 

While he could have chosen another day for that, he chose the thirtieth anniversary of her tragic death for inflicting the political blow. Is it due to celestial compulsions?

Narendra Modi called the anti Sikh riots of Delhi, which ensued the cold blooded murder of Indira Gandhi to avenge her courage to put down the Sikh separatist who wanted to divide India, as the deepest strike of a knife on India’s unity.

His words are perhaps a deeper cut on the greatness of Indira Gandhi than those inflicted by hundreds of bullets shot by her own sikh body guards, which killed her.

It may be  a mere coincidence that Indira was assassinated on the birth day of Sardar Patel, but that the BJP and its leader had to wait thirty years to unashamedly raise the greatness of Sardar Patel, who died as a lifelong Congressman who really banned their party must have something to do with the celestial movements.

The question is why didn’t that happen earlier or later? Has it got something to do with Saturn, which is assumed to change its position in the coming days?

One can argue that astrology  doesn’t apply to dead souls. But Vedic astrology indeed concedes that a human life span could be as long as 120 years. If Indira Gandhi somehow survived the attempt on her life thirty years back and were alive today,  Narendra Modi will still try to obliterate her politically by whatever he can shout to the crowds, It is not difficult for even a school child to see that the state election for Punjab, in which BJP will contest alone is not that far away.

Thankfully, Vedic astrology doesn’t judge the Karma of human beings in isolation from the rest who will share the good and bad of yours. It weights and blends yours with those of your spouse, children, parents, close relations, dependants and friends.

For Rahul Gandhi at least, whose Grant Mother was assassinated when Saturn occupied its loftiest position with Burning Sun in company, in the house of Libra, thirty years back, the very same planets have occupied Libra again to witness the second assassination of his Grant Mother.

In fact Saturn was there for the past two years which has seen the worst spell of fortune for the whole family. Undoubtedly periods Saturn’s loftiest state is the worst time for the Gandhi family, judging from the events in thirty years and the tragedies and political losses.


Even though Indira Gandhi died during the dasa of Saturn, a period in life where you may have the severest of set back and toils, Saturn’s wrath and graces were more or less balanced for her. However the thirty year cyclical movement certainly meant disaster to Indira Gandhi and her kith and kin every time it visited his position of high strength, the house of Libra.

Did fighting Indian corruption rob Sonia Gandhi’s UPA of victory in the 2014 election?

Amid all that euphoria of the massive election victory of the BJP, when the whole world was impatiently watching the steps of its would be Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, what captured the attention of the media was a  bizarre thanks giving meeting organised by it.


Several senior leaders of the BJP who won the recent election assembled to felicitate Baba Ramdev, who was conspicuously absent from the meet and media glare, who helped them win the election by his  blessings, which were more mundane than divine.

However the party can neither acknowledge nor felicitate the sources of the massive funds behind its campaign so openly, though someday somehow favours will have to be returned. For now, one Indian, who set out to expose and prevent corruption in India is languishing in the Tiharjail.

Arvind Kejeriwal and his AAP were broke even before he found he had no money to bail himself out. He had acknowledged long time back that his party had no funds to take on the NDA and the UPA in the parliamentary election, a political reality glaring at him he refused to see before setting out on his mission.

Is India, the Land of Contradictions, Falling Apart In Its Own Flip Flops?

No, this isn't about the contradictions Rudyard Kipling found in pre colonial India which made his stories so vivid and won him a Nobel prize. Neither is this about the gargantuan gap between the Ambanis and the poor Dalit family Rahul Gandhi spent a night with.

It isn't even about the dismaying array of differences curious foreigners visiting India find difficult to comprehend and the nasty feeling of unease in their guts they go home with.

I am talking about the double standard a billion Indians practice day in and day out, which makes nothing an Indian says can be taken seriously by the rest of the world. Not even what its defence minister reads out in the parliament about the death of five Indian soldiers and then change to please millions of war mongers.

Were they terrorist in soldier's uniform or soldiers in terrorist garb who killed the Indians? Who cares?

In the rest of the world when people say yes, or yes I do, they mean exactly the same. In India you are never sure what they mean.

When the Government says they need foreign investment they don't really mean it, because for some reason, Mauritius becomes not a foreign country for India.

When the government says we won't tax foreign investment, it doesn't mean they can't go back several years and claim taxes on ambiguous corporate deals like the one Vodafoneengaged in.

When Government says Indian companies are free enterprise and they can trade their shares and capital in world market like other countries allow, they don't mean its CAG can deem such transactions as corruption like in the 2G saga.

No doubt, the Indian administration has acquired this art of contradiction and flip flop from its neighbour who can only lie whether it is about the presence of Osama Bin Laden or Davood Ibrahim or about anything else for that matter, a nation which the word has acknowledged with a motto 'We Will, We Will Only Lie'.

For India, a nation which declares 'Truth Will Prevail' on its currency, such a trait smacking of national dishonesty is indeed matter of shame.

In fact somehow there is always a disturbing disconnect between what any Indian says and what he or she means, which can be anything according to the circumstances.

This is not same as accusing all Indians of blatant lying but not owning up to a genetic makeup of a race which they should ward off with conviction and commitment to honour one's word. The least they can do is to think before they open their mouths before they put their feet in them.

Not a day, not a headline pass without a contradiction, retraction or denial. So much so that news is reported more like the first serve in tennis which is bound to be a 'let' than a 'fault' and the server gets a second chance to take a position depending on the reaction.

Day in and day out so called, leaders, celebrities, spokespersons and anyone the media will insanely pursue and compete to get a word out of for filling the above fold of their publications and news channels will blurt out something or other which is an affront to common man's intelligence.

So you can ignore headline news and wait for the denial like the media who are now a days even providing empty space or time slots to accommodate such lat minute pearls of wisdom from those who control the destiny of the nation.

If for any reason, the statement is not exciting enough, there is always the 'misquotes' which are also so conveniently denied by a later statement.

Another word which should be banished from the Indian English dictionary is the much bandied 'slam' which lets everyone blow up and complicate non issues and stuff one should ignore in to massive waste of time and resources.

The truth is that, lack of intelligence, ability to grasp the subject and do a contextual analysis and necessary historical checks, all fundamental requirement of journalistic profession, on the part of the reporters and editorial staff are conveniently ignored, even condoned for the sake of circulation and eye balls.

The result is creation of dangerous mass hysteria like the recent one which forced a change in well thought out government stance, taken in national interest, making India look ridiculous before the world.
Spoken words can't be taken back. When blurting out irresponsibly and irresponsible relaying and amplification of statements without context, like in the recent speeches of Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi can play with the emotions of a billion innocent Indians, the media is indeed toying with dangerous stuff more powerful than, at least a part of India's arsenal.

The question is who in India will own up to this shameful trend and do something to change it? Is it going to be the so called educated young or the media which tend to lay claim to parity with world media in quality and standards?


Sunday, August 11, 2013
Posted by Unknown

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