The Indian media specially the Indian English media often refers Rahul Gandhi as the youth leader of the country. Each time I hear such statements, it wonders me. How can someone at the age of 39 be called as a youth leader! Isn’t it funny? Under what definition someone at the age of 39 be called as youth? Had he got married at the age of 20, he would have probably had a son or a daughter of age 18 or 19. What would have this media called them? Kids? Ok fine. For the moment, Let’s agree to media’s argument that Rahul at the age of 39 is a youth leader. Then, what happened to Agatha K Sangma, Jyotiraditya Scindia who, Sachin Pilot, Dushyant Singh who are younger to Rahul and who are doing very well in political field? Are they not Indians or are they not youth? Why don’t the media call them as youth? Can’t the media calculate their ages using simple calculations? Are they so poor in simple arithmetic? Probably their arithmetic logic is different. It’s because Rahul is from Gandhi family and he is from the congress party, they call him youth at the age of 39. I think that’s the only logic that they can apply to call him so. Else, no other logic in the world can help them say so. And the funniest part is that Rahul Gandhi himself calls as a Youth leader. I am not sure how he says so? I think he should keep meeting his classmates and batch mates every now and then to help him realize that he is no more a youth.
Here are some of the statements he has made which I would like to analyze to understand how matured Mr.Gandhi is.
During the Uttar Pradesh election campaign in 2007, Rahul Gandhi said that "if anyone from the Gandhi-Nehru family had been active in politics then, the Babri Masjid would not have fallen". What an arrogant statement? Isn’t it a statement that underestimates and insult the socio-political talent in this country? Does that mean that only Gandhi family has the capability and the eligibility to rule this country? Has Indian constitution laid down any special provision that Gandhis alone can capture Gaddi in this country? I am not sure if Mr.Gandhi is unaware of the Sikh Riots that his own party has initiated during his grandmother’s reign? Or is he conveniently and wantedly forgetting this fact? One must understand the fact that none of the non Gandhi family congress leaders, be it Patel or Lal Bahadur Shastri or P V Narsimha rao, neither of them are recognized and remembered by congress party for their contributions to their party and to this nation.
In another instance, Mr Gandhi says its congress party alone which can protect and preserve democracy in India and that he would continue the tradition. Isn’t it a big joke? Isn’t it congress which has misused article 356 more than 100 times to dismiss the democratically elected state governments formed by non congress parties? Isn’t it congress party which distributed cash in the house of Parliament to protect their Government? Isn't it his Grand mother who has thrown this country into a complete darkness by illegally imposing emergency? Should we assume that he is unaware of such kind of worst history of congress and making such kind of statements? Probably for him, preserving and protecting democracy in India means preserving and protecting congress party and their Governments in India either by hook or crook.
In his recent congress youth meetings, he said there are equal opportunities for youth in congress party. Isn’t a hypocritical statement? Can ever in congress party, a term called equal opportunity exist? Can a party that’s known for its hereditary politics talk about equal opportunity. Let’s assume for the moment what he said is true, then how the hell Rahul has become the head of Youth Congress as soon he entered politics? When there were so many youth leaders working for the party for years? Can someone ever in congress’s history other than Gandhis occupy the Presidnet position? In my view, Gandhis have no moral right to talk about equal opportunity in politics.
Recently when Kashmir started burning and when everyone is so worried about the tensions prevailing there and when almost all the leaders in the power and in opposition including the PM and the opposition leader are worried about the way state Government handled the situation and taken the decisions, Mr. Gandhi showered Omar with appreciation saying Omar is handling the situation very well. Isn’t it a testimony for Mr.Gandhi’s judgment skills? Isn’t it an indication of what will happen to this Nation if Mr Gandhi is made the PM?
In a meeting yesterday at Bhopal, Rahul Gandhi equated RSS and SIMI and also added that the only difference is that SIMI is a banned organization while RSS is not. Both question and answer lies in his statement. He himself says SIMI is banned and RSS is not. Then how the hell this Gandhi scion says RSS and SIMI are same? If RSS is a terrorist group, then doesn’t his Government ban RSS? Had he even attended RSS shaka to comment on RSS? Had he at least tried to know what happens in an RSS shaka to comment on RSS?
The swayamsevaks in their daily shakas sing the following verses in their daily prayer:
mahaa mangale punya bhoome twadarthe
patatwesha kaayo namaste namaste
which means that let our bodies be perished in the service of the motherland
param vaibhavamne tume tat swaraashtram
samrthaa bhavatwaashishaa tebhrusham
Which means “May our victorious organised power of action, by Thy Grace, be wholly capable of protecting our dharma and leading this nation of ours to the highest pinnacle of glory.”
Can such patriots be compared with terrorists? Can a Vajpayee and a SIMI terrorist be compared? Is Kalam and Kasab equal? By making such statements, Rahul only proves his immaturity and poor judgment skills. Now, it’s up to the nation to think if they want such a person to lead this great nation. They need to realize if they want a Real Gandhi and Gandhian principles or the duplicate Gandhis and their appeasement policies and their power politics.
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18 comments:
It always makes me wonder why, the Indian media which is very critical in nature, and is famous for thriving on negative issues, treats rahul gandhi as an exception. I never came across an article pointing fingers at him.
What Rahul spoke at the Press conference is quite intresting and strongly reflects an immature piece of talk just to showcase his old political writ. I think he should be under slow poisoning with pretension of gaining more and more Congress leadership thereto win some stupid agenda laid behind. Ofocurse Congress has never got an upper hand in talking right things in any context as itslef is being accussed of fundamentalizm for the last 5 decades.RSS and SIMI are nowhere comparable in any of the aspects infact Rahul proves insane while touching two contradictory things and speaking nonsense. An Anti Social element and a patriot is more like an opposite pole to the same substance (matter of fact). Ideally a political party in our country should start practice issuing Showcause notices even when a party personnel speaks or alleges intentional or argumentaory statements of anybody or anything distrubing national harmony and peace like this without proper evidence and thought process.
Good work Rakesh.
its not the "youth leader" title which bothers me but the adulation that the media gives ..also the so called youth leaders in the political system are songs/daughters/grandsons/granddaughters of old politicians who voluntary/involuntarily retired from politics ..what good would they bring to the society when they are grown in the corrupt ridden political families ...
Talking abt Rahul Gandhi is immaturish at best ..RSS is no way similar to simi ... but is RSS really great nationalist association which propagates nationalist agenda right now ?RSS would have formed with great ideas and everything but what is important is, is it really sticking to those ideas now .. it produced great leaders like Vajpayee but what abt now ? lets me leave this discussion for later.
i think congress has just enough money to buy out the main stream media.. and whatever gandhi's say, it is the law of the land.. in this so called democratic country where dynastic rule has been legally abandoned, and where freedom of press supposedly flourishes, the editors have no qualms in using the terms "First family of Indian politics", "GAndhi scion", future PM et c...
and its a self fulfilling prophecy..
the first qn is
how did sonia become AICC president
Rahul itself can be later explainex
i am just sick of congress's spineless votebank politics
worst... it calls itself aam admi ka party
and its stated officila response to inflation is
if we have good monsoons, inflation would be controlled/// next year, the high base effect would reign in inflation// and when finally 1 year passed and inflatiopn didn't abate, finance minister pressurizes RBI to not raise interest rates so that big corporate banks and real estate com[panies can grow businesses
heights of plutocracy, oligarchy and nepotism :)
Mr. Gandhi has the stuff to become a great leader, but also the necessity to entertain the masses with his speeches. Many of the statements that he makes are to appease the audiences who come to his speeches.
Talking about youth leader, one must note that the Tamilnadu youth leader Stalin has a son of age 32 :) I personally think that a youth leader must have crossed youth to control the aggression of youth with his maturity and experience. But maybe a little less than 40 years :)
A leader is not who entertains the masses/followers but guides and motivates them.
Our voters are very much drawn by the charisma of the leader rather than the leaders' necessary attributes.
Our country is divided by regionalism, religion and caste. People from a particular sect really want only their members to grow.
A NEHRU lineage overcomes these boundaries with utmost ease than any other quality of a leader, They feel and accept this family as their leaders. (Mindset of the masses)
U have quoted other young leaders, how many of them are as popular as Rahul Gandhi? How many of them are touring day and night refusing ministerial berths to work for the problems of the poor. I see news articles about Mr Gandhi touring some remote place or the other.
He wants to bring in youth into politics, if we study his entourage and his team you will have no qualms about it. He is leading youth and so the term YOUTH LEADER :).
I think educated as he is we need not tell him that he no more is a youth.
Regarding your point on others occupying the top leadership post in congress. There was no one Nehru-Gandhi to occupy these posts on several occasions but it was the congress which went back to this family.
Your points on his statements on babri masjid and RSS are just vote bank politics.
BY sikh riots do u mean anti sikh riots? If i assume its anti-sikh riots, they happened after Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
I fully agree with the point Emergency was the darkest point in India and congress was rightly thrown put of power after that.
I would say he is no Gandhi(Mahatma), by blood or by actions but better than the crop of blood sucking politicians who call themselves as leaders. He is infact a cruder version of his only ancestor NEHRU. As long as an inspirational leader is a distinct future, we have to adjust with the dummy Gandhi :)
@Rajiv..
Very well that he is touring a lot of them do and those who work sincerely dont need to.
The whole essence of the post is that the media has created so much hype even before anything has been done. Its just like Obama being awarded the Noble Peace Prize. I donno if wearing a Kurta qualifies him to be as Nehru but if you think he distinctive than other politician he needs to respect our history.
@rajeev: We accept he is educated. In reciprocity, he must at least start accepting reality. RSS have been serving this country for so long through various natural disasters, if nothing else. They have been swarajist civil police helping maintaining local order and protecting people prior to independence.
Just because he is educated, does not mean he can make such irresponsible comments and escape with it.
Regarding his tours around the country, it is clearly evident that you are following the media hype. The guy is trying to market Congress policies. Wherever, he goes he has z-category security, followed by a dozen ac vehicles.
The pictures u find him with the poor are for a minute or two.
U may say he need not do all this stuff and he is great compared to other leaders. But may be u do not know other leaders well, that by comparison this guy is looking so great to you. May be other guys are doing as much good, but are not getting the credit, or don;t have enough power to voice their opinion. After all, being the number 2 in Congress party has its perks.
The only solace one can find in accepting Rahul Gandhi as a youth leader is more educated people enter politics. Unfortunately, we do not need mere educated people, but we need politically enlightened and responsible people. Everyone has the capacity to understand what's going on these day. The only difference is the level of commitment. It is one thing to lead a company and another to lead a country. Apparently, Mr. Gandhi does not know the difference between the two.
Well being born Gandhi is no mistake of his, instead a boon for him, which he is using properly for building the nation.
He calls himself a youth leader doesn't considers himself to be youth, i hope u would find the difference between the two. For me, after marshaling youth into his politics(in large numbers) and standing for them, he is a youth leader.
Coming to his being elected as Youth Congress leader or whatever posts he or Sonia held, don't you think the whole of the party has faith in them and they also believe that they can keep the unit strong and the same reason they being in those posts? Well the reason assumption or belief lies in the cultural heritage of India and he/she is living up to their expectations which should be commended. Again it is not their fault that whole of the party has complete trust in them., let it be because they Gandhi tag!!
If u go by what swayam sewaks "write/sing/pray", then u should only go by what everyone else writes//, no matter what they do/speak... i hope u got the whole essence!!!
What would be the situation if Rahul had criticized Omar, more people outrage over the govt! and more unrest in the state.. you will have to make calculated public statements., whats going on inside b/w NC and INC is evident from Omar's reaction in assembly... so his statement only was helping people to calm down or whatever in positive sense building people's confidence in govt. which was the best thing to do at that time!!
What is ur definition of eqqual opportunity? Does it mean u i and rahul be treated the same? Or be treated proportional to their contribution! I'm afraid if u go with the first def!
There were a few mistakes of the past by congress, and he is trying to come out of it(though the stains of mud will never go), but you r still trying to push him into the same mud...
and yes rahul's comment about babri masjid were worse defaming the contributions of PVN Rao.,
---sandeep goud
People of a dry country built a dam. They never wanted to stop the river from flowing , only they were being cautious about drier times. Then came a period of opulence- enough rains and water was available on demand.The builders of the dam were now started to be called blasphemous by the high priests.How dare they stop a free flowing river. How dare they meddle with nature and it's freedom. People too nodded in confusion. Some were interested in being called devout and so imitated the priests.But deep down , everybody knows the reason why their country hadn't been dried to death. And a few will build dams, more and more of them. So that others are able talk of nature's freedom.So that people don't die of thirst.
The reason why Rahul Gandhi is called youth leader is because he can connect to the young generation though as you correctly pointed out is a generation old. A leader by definition doesn't need to be coming from the same group but should be able to guide/lead that group.
What an Interesting discussion going on.. I will provide my comments in a day or two. I was on vacation and couldnt connect to internet and therefore cudnt participate in the discussion.
Rajeev and Sandeep,
You have made few good and genuine observations. But I would definitely beg to difer with you on the following:
Equal opportunity doesnt mean u and i should be treated equally with Rahul Gandhi. But we all should be treated equally in proportional to our contribution. Now tell me what extra contribution has Gandhi made compared to another congress party youth leader who has been working for last 10 years earlier to rahul's entry to get him a General secretary position? Is this an equal opportunity? In my belief, Rahul Gandhi and his family have no right to talk about this concept of equal opprtunity.
Even when Mr. Omar spoke that Kashimr is not an integral part of India, how can Mr.Gandhi praise him? Why has Kashmri which was so peaceful few years is today burning? Isn't because of inefficient goivernance by Omar. Appreciating such a leader only exhibit poor judgement skills and poor politics of Rahul Gandhi.
He is a real Gandhi - for this is what Gandhi Family's true colour have been.
But unlike you, I am more disturbed about the circumstances where Rahul,Sonia and that night-watchman were expected to break their silences but they didn't.Today Mamta banerjee is openly in support of Maoists and is hell bent to destroy harmony in Bengal to get to the gaddi but nothing but silence from these dignitaries.
When Biharis were being beaten in Maharashtra,again these people said nothing and same is true for J&K now.
And now something about what he said.
He says that the center provided money to Bihar but the state govt. didn't utilize that.Does the center's responsibility ends after providing money? Shouldn't they make sure that it is put to use?Shouldn't these questions should be raised on a continuous basis instead of recollecting them at the election-time?
The sad part is that congress will improve from its disastrous tally of 9 to atleast 20 in Bihar and media and congress people will get another chance to glorify Yuvraaj for no success of his own.This will be happening because it will get those voters who don't want to vote for NDA and Lalu combine for reasons but political.
I'm one of them who wanted rahul or for that matter sonia(she became INC prez almost from nowhere) to lead the Congress, for a simple reason that I believe that they are the one who could keep the party as a unit and lead it in a proper direction., so was the feeling of many senior politicians or journalists, more importantly their party members!!
I donn see any more attributes required for one to be a leader., if you had quantifiable terms to become a leader, I doubt the world u r living in!!
One difference I observed frm Kashmir being better off before and thngs worsening these days is the rise of BJP in J&K, othrwise OMAR was no new to the terrain., I dont blame it on BJP now I defend OMAR but the difference I noticed is this.....
Sandeep Goud K
@Lalit
totally agree. and the funny part was Mr. Manmohan puppet Singh coming out and giving statements for a Bihar rally whereas he kept mum all through the CWG crisis.
The only direction congress is moving firmly is towards its hunger for power.. and its doing a great job. But it is putting the Nation's integrity at stake.
Sandeep - Following are few comments that I would like to make on your response.
1. We are in a democracy and not in an autocracy. But unfortunately congress is simply a dynastic party which you yourself agreed. If your argument is that someone is able to unite party then probably congress should agree that they are not democratic and they have no respect for internal democracy. Let them not talk about morals on democracy any more.
2. I don't agree with your point that leadership is all about uniting people. It's about uniting for a good purpose. Swami Vivekananda said Leader has to be a servant first. But Gandhis make everyone else a servant to become leader all of a sudden. There are numerous examples which we can point to prove this.
3. Regarding your analysis on Kashmir, If you see no other difference other than BJP rising in Kashmir, then I can't comment much other than saying that either you don't have a complete understanding of Kashmir problem or wantedly you are taking one side on this. Have you had a complete understanding or had you made an impartial statement, then probably you would have talked about the difference that is being seen in the way Kashmir is being dealt by Central and state Governments during Vajpayee regime and during the current UPA regime.
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