If Rahul is Congress, Who Is Priyanka Vadra? Next PM?

    Congress personified: Muslim cap,Christian cross, Hindu sacred thread,                    Rudraksha garland. If unfit, Priyanka can inherit the throne

THE ONE THING common between the ruling BJP-led NDA and the Congress party which may lead the ‘Mahagut(ter)bandhan’ to power in the next Lok Sabha polls is the loud-mouthed ‘loose cannons’ making silly, inappropriate statements.

The only difference, however, is that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained dignity by not making  such comments Congress President Rahul Gandhi, himself leads the pack in calling him a thief.  Other sycophants joined him to call Modi a ‘chaiwala‘ (tea seller), ‘unpadh gawar’ (illiterate, uncouth  and ‘neech aadmi’ (low class man).

There are many fringe elements in the BJP who know that Modi depends on their votes to stay in power and so use no restraint in making silly statements. So it was no surprise that many NDA leaders chose to comment on Rahul appointing his own sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the party’s General Secretary in charge of East Uttar Pradesh.

While one BJP leader commented about Priyanka’s beauty being not enough to get votes and others about the party being dynastic, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the appointment was an admission that Rahul himself failed as a political leader and needed another family member to help him out,

Sumitra, who entered politics as a novice housewife who defeated a flamboyant Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister P. C. Sethi in Indore in the 1980s, is a very sober, mature, person. What she said was just what political analysts have always been saying, even before Rahul inherited the party presidentship from his mother who inherited it from her husband who inherited it from his mother who …

The commentators speculated about Priyanka being brought in when Rahul gave ample evidence of immaturity and earned the epithet ‘Pappu’. Her entry into politics was no ‘plunge’. She was always the hidden trump card.

And even an idiot knows that the trump card is always thrown in when the other cards in the pack are weak and defeat appears imminent. Another factor that silenced the parties, all of them started to oppose the Congress, was that ALL of them were themselves dynastic.

Had they not been disparate to cobble an anti-BJP front ‘mahagut(ter)bandhan’ to garner the Muslim votes, which BJP had  already alienated due to its  Hindutuva image, the parties now backing the Congress would have criticized her entry.

The Congress either is not confident of fooling Muslims or does not want to lose the Hindu vote entirely.  So Rahul, Feroze’s grandson and son of an Italian  Catholic, declared himself a  ‘janevudhari’  Brahmin (without a sacred-thread ceremony) and put up posters  declaring Priyanka an incarnation of  Durga, the Hindu goddess. Of course that is secular, as is the caste-based choice of  its candidates.

So these developments reminded me of a blog I had put out last July, which I reproduce here.  It said —

              RAHUL IS CONGRESS, INDIRA WAS INDIA

Rahul Gandhi’s tweet saying “I am Congress” might have reminded many of his grandmother Indira Gandhi’s Emergency-days campaign (by her sycophants, apparently at her instance), that “Indira is India”.  (I have heard Dev Kant Baruah, the then Congress President, say it in the Central Hall of Parliament. It  is another mater that he was later thrown out of the party).

That no individual is indispensable, that the party is above the leader and that the nation is above party is what any sane person would agree with.

And yet, in most developing countries individuals have been using their power to make it seem that they alone mattered more than everything. Once in power,  all tend to retain power for all time by hook or crook (often by the latter).

The tendency to be lifetime rulers, common in tribal African nations, seems to have spread now to China and Russia, reminiscent of ancient kingdoms ruled by autocratic kings.

Congressmen, obviously, believe that Indira Gandhi can be succeeded only by Rajiv though he had no political background, Rajiv by Sonia though a foreigner, inexperienced and unwilling and Sonia by son Rahul though he was unfit and more of a comic figure.

In fact a senior Congress leader Mani (neech aadmi)Shankar (chai wala) Iyer declared there could only be two persons considered for party Presidentship – the mother or the son. Despite overt wooing of Muslim vote banks, the grandson of Feroze was declared to be a “Janevudhari” Brahmin (wearing sacred thread) though no thread ceremony (Upanayan) was held. He even invented a gotra.

Had Rahul refused (as his mother Sonia did) the sycophants would have unhesitatingly opted for his sister Priyanka and if she thought going to beauty parlours was more important than the strenuous job of being PM, they would have found great talents in her children. If they too preferred playing to the hard job of PM, Congressmen would not hesitate to enthrone the family’s dog which they would find  miraculous and far superior to any of their own selves.

Even those who believed in the dynastic rule of kings would not have been such great believers in dynasty. All because every one of them belongs to some caste and are bound by caste rivalries, while the Indira dynasty had to no caste as Nehru’s daughter Indira married Feroze, either a Parsi or, as some say, a Muslim.

And these casteists, who demand reservations for Dalit (low caste) Christians and Muslims (who claim to be casteless), call Bharatiya Janata Party communal!

All parties with dynastic leaders now join hands with the Congress. But all want the throne.

If Indira is India and Rahul is Congress, what is Priyanka? The next PM?

 

 

Rahul is Congress, Indira was India

Congress personified

RAHUL GANDHI’S TWEET saying “I am Congress” might have reminded many of his grandmother Indira Ganhi’s Emergency-days campaign (by her sycophants, apparently at her instance), that “Indira is India”.

That no individual is indispensible, the party is above the leader and the nation above party is what any sane person would agree with.

And yet, in most developing countries individuals have been using their power to make it seem that they alone mattered more than everything. Once in power they tend to retain power for all time by hook or crook (often by the latter).

The tendency to be liftetime rulers, common in tribal African nations, seems to have spread now to China and Russia, reminiscent of ancient kingdoms ruled by autocratic kings

Congressmen, obviously, believe that Indira Gandhi can be succeeded only by Rajiv though he had no political background, Rajiv by Sonia though a foreigner, not experienced and unwilling and Sonia by son Rahul though he was unfit and more of a comic figure.

In fact a senior Congress leader Mani (neech admi) Shankar (uchai wala) Iyer deckared there could only be two persons considered for party Presidentship – the mother is the son. Despite overt wooing of Muslim vote banks, the grandson of Feroze was deckared to be a “Janevudhari” Brahmin (wearing sacred thread) though no thread ceremony (Upanayan) was held.

Had Rahul refused the sycophants would have unhesitatingly opted for his sister Priyanka and if she thought going to beauty parlours was more important than the strenuous job of being PM, they would have found great talents in her son or daughter. If they too preferred playing to the hard job of PM, Congressmen would not hesitate to enthrone the family’s dog which, miraculously, they would find far superior to any of their own selves.

Even those who believed in the dynastic rule of kings would not have been such great believers in dynasty. All because every one of them belong to some caste and are bound by caste rivalries while the Indira dynasty had to no caste as Nehru’s daughter Indira married Feroze, either a Parsi or, as some say, a Muslim.

And these casteists, who demand reservations for Dalit (low caste) Christians and Muslims (who claim to be casteless), call Bhariya Janata Party communal!

All parties with dynastic leaders now join hands with the Congress.

(Written on phone in Georgia, USA)

The Crime Of Getting Caught

Anti-BJP poster
Kerala poster equates BJP campaigners with rapists

WHENEVER A CRIME report appears in a newspaper or is shown on news channel, the most common reaction of almost everyone is, “So one got caught. How many more may have committed big crimes without getting caught?”

Given the present state of policing and justice delivery in the country, the punishment is for getting caught andnot for committing a crime. The police may deliberately

Continue reading The Crime Of Getting Caught

Five-Star Jails For Politicians

Behind Bars
V.K. Shashikala  ruling from her new Secretariat

GOING TO JAIL FOR TAKING PART in the struggle against British rule was a  status symbol in the early days of India’s Independence. Many got pensions as ‘freedom-fighters’  for that  (though some politicians could have manipulated to show that their jail terms for crimes were for participation in the ‘Satyagraha’- peaceful civil disobedience.)

During decades of Congress rule corruption and highhandedness of the ruling class was so rampant that one felt most of them deserved  to be jailed.  Few were prosecuted  Continue reading Five-Star Jails For Politicians

‘Ideology’ of Caste and Dynasty

images
BJP’s Dalit candidate Ram Nath Kovind

MEIRA KUMAR, THE CONGRESS CANDIDATE FOR the upcoming President of India election says her nomination by the Opposition “united” against the ruling National Democratic Alliance was a ‘matter of ideology and giving it a communal or caste colour was unfortunate.

If you don’t take it as the joke of the decade, you may ask:What is the ideology involved?

The NDA announced its candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit (belonging to oppressed and downtrodden castes) first. Till then the “united” opposition was speaking in different voices. THEN it announced the name of Meira Kumar whose qualification is the daughter of Jagjivan Ram, for decades the face of the Dalits in the Congress.

Meira Kumar

 

Both caste and dynasty qualifications fulfilled.

Earlier the “united” opposition toyed with the idea of putting up Dr. M.S.Swaminathan, an eminent scientist and father of India;s green revolution. A victim of North-South politics when he was director general of    the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (popular as Pusa Institute) from 1972 to 1979,  he became the Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (1982–88) which is located in  Philippines by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN  as India, the rightful claimant as the major rice-producing country, did not show interest and pursue the matter.

Continue reading ‘Ideology’ of Caste and Dynasty

A Member’s Letter to RWA President

To The President
Residents’ Welfare Association,
False Prestige Apartments

Sir,

This is to bring to your notice a serious wrong done to me, an eminent member of a prominent caste to which some kings belonged, by the security men of the apartment

You know that I am a member of the Managing Committee of the Residents’ Welfare Association, a post I condescendingly accepted though I am an eminent member of a prominent caste to which some kings belonged.

On 23rd of this month I went from my sixth-floor flat to the terrace garden on atop the 14th floor to attend a program organised by the RWA. When I reached there I found that all the front-row seats were occupied. I had to stand for full two minutes till someone in the second row vacated a seat for me.

Though I am an eminent member of a prominent caste to which some kings belonged,     a nine-year-old boy sat in front of me in the first row making me sit with others like a common man. He did not get up, prostrate before me and offer me the seat.

I am a very peaceful and soft-spoken person. The 13 dogs in the apartment buildings always respect me by wagging their tails whenever I pass by. That is enough proof of my being an extremely good, mature and understanding person.

All these dogs know that I had beaten up only three security men, one plumber and two electricians in the last two years when they did not bow down to touch my feet, though I am an eminent member of a prominent caste to which kings belonged. It is known that I am a good man.

RWA
Imagine sitting in a basket and being pulled up to my flat

So I caught the boy who sat so disrespectfully in front me, an eminent member of a prominent caste to which some kings belonged and very courteously and peacefully thrashed him. When I wanted to throw him down from the 14th floor some people restrained me, holding my hands though they belonged to lower castes and asked the security men to remove me from the meeting.

Please tell me what wrong have I done? Should those low caste men touch me and prevent me, a member of the managing committee of the RWA and an eminent member of a prominent caste to which some kings belonged, from throwing down a boy who did not vacate the seat for me and made me sit with common people?

Now the security and other residents of the flats do not allow me to enter the lift to go to my fifth floor apartment. After being forced to take the stairs to the fifth floor seven times, I had to get some brethren from my prominent caste to install a pulley on the flat’s balcony and pull up by rope a basket in which I sit. It is risky and I shudder to think of the rope snapping midway.

Residents of the flat are totally wrong in treating me the this way knowing that I am an eminent member of a prominent caste to which some kings belonged and also a RWA managing committee member. They allege I tried to kill the boy. Is it possible, as I was not carrying any arms? I only wanted to strangle the boy and throw him down peacefully and with all respect. In fact a journalist who was writing against me was carrying a sharp, pointed, instrument with which I could have been stabbed – a fountain pen.

I feel that I have done nothing wrong. It is our culture, from anicent times, that an eminent member of a prominent caste to which some kings belonged are always greeted by people prostrating before him and touching his feet. So the residents owe me an apology.

It is very difficult to sit in a basket and be pulled up to fifth floor by a pulley, for which I have to feed and pay several concerned fellow-brethren from my prominent caste. Mid-air and feeling the discomfort of the basket on my rear, as I was being pulled up, I could relate to another person, also in mid-air (on an air plane), who was not given due respect and the right seat.

I hereby demand that security agency of the apartments be told to not only allow me to use the lift, but also ensure that no common people share it with me, an eminent member of a prominent caste to which some kings belonged.

After all I am an RWA managing committee member and not a common man.

Yours sincerely

RWA Managing Committee member

An Oasis Without Water

India, many feel, is an oasis in the desert of failed democracies.

The img-20170208-wa0023world has too many dictatorships, starving nations where the ‘ruler’ spends millions on his birthday, ‘elected’ leaders who refuse to step down as their term ends, countries with fake elections controlled by army and religious hatred for neighbour or  contestants who declare they would accept an electoral verdict only if they win!

Is it really an oasis or just a mirage where most parties are ruled by dynasties? A party whose members wag their tails at dynastic bosses calls others ‘dogs’ and thinks one family won the freedom for the country all others who died for it were fools. And that too just because it took on the name of the group of people who fought for Independence and  Continue reading An Oasis Without Water