We say we are a great democracy. They say India is a great democracy. Are we? We have the history of having been ruled by kings and their descendents. Were we a democracy then? Our governance at the top remains same; to be ruled by the descendents in a particular family remains our fate even after 64 years of having declared ourselves a democratic republic. The pride we take in servility becomes too glaring when none other than Rahul Gandhi is projected as the next Prime Minister of India by the seasoned and eminent leaders of the largest political party of the country, Indian National Congress or simply Congress.
What is so special or so great about Rahul Gandhi that he should be projected as the Prime Minister in waiting? Is he a great orator? Is he a great thinker? Is he exceptionally talented? Has he got exceptional organizing capabilities? Is he an exceptionally gifted leader? Does he possess an overall personality to stand out in comparison to all other leaders and eminent personalities? Answer to all above and any other such question will be a loud ‘no’. On the contrary, of late whenever he has conducted himself publicly, more often he has given the impression of being a moron, specially while reading out that borrowed idea on Lokpal issue from a text written by someone else during zero hour in the Loksabha in late August, 2011. Then why should he be projected as the next Prime Minister of such a vast, populous and challenging a country as India?
Rahul Gandhi as a congressman has a peculiar worthiness which no one else (except his sister) has or can have. He was born as a son of Rajiv Gandhi who was born to one Indira Gandhi who was daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru who had become the first Prime Minister of India. In ancient and medieval times, when kings ruled, their sons, the rajkumars, were groomed to be kings and normally took over from their fathers or after father’s death. They could be capable or couldn’t be capable but none other than them would be the next king. The loyal and servile congress leaders are doing their best not only in grooming and protecting Rahul Gandhi but also in projecting him as the next prime minister of India inspite of his inherent failings. They will do their best in attributing anything good (of late there has not been much) to the vision and leadership of Rahul Gandhi and any failure to other forces. Having born in India, it is my fate to be ruled by leaders who excel each other in sycophancy and for whom sycophancy of a particular family is the greatest virtue for being the leaders in the forefront and with power.
Congress leaders do it on purpose and to serve their self-interest. Understandable. Towards that end they all accept that they have to be less capable than the members of a particular family such that they must be ruled by that family. If they are happy considering themselves as asses why should I complain? But I do wonder about the rest of the country, the billion plus, specially the educated and the intelligentsia among them, who call themselves a great democracy and yet allow themselves to be ruled by a particular family. The uneducated ones may deserve pardon in this regard. But when a large section of the intelligentsia, specially editors, political commentators, the socially elevated, the dignitaries, the film-makers, the writers et-all fall over each other in promoting the crown prince as the next prime minister of India either overtly or covertly, to me education loses all its virtue.
I feel I am a normal person. It therefore beats me how a large section among the intelligentsia of this vast country could promote or even accept Rahul Gandhi as the future prime minister. How do they face their spouses and children with this servile mentality? What does life mean to them? What do liberty and freedom mean to them? Is to be materially well-off the ultimate in life? Is a sense of servility not a curse? I am apolitical and appreciate the capability of congress leaders. But it pains to find that capability not being put to right use. It pains to find even the best among them competing with each other in the art of sycophancy. My life and experiences so far have clearly shown me that I was born in a slave country and present indications tell me that I shall die in a slave country. But I shall continue to yearn that I die in a really free country, free from feudalistic mentality. How my countrymen respond to my yearning, time alone will tell. I doubt if they would bother about an unknown Indian?
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