Dynasty: Will Congress(I) ever learn?

So, finally someone in Congress(I) learned to say the word 'sychophancy'! I wonder why it took them so long when the whole country has been witnessing this phenomenon for god knows how long. Did it occur to Arjun Singh that India would end up as a laughing stock in the eyes of the world if indeed Rahul Gandhi was anointed Prime Minister? Of course, Arjun Singh's latest stunt is only an extreme case of sychophancy - don't fool yourself thinking that somehow the Congress party is changing course. Moderate forms of sychophancy are not just tolerated, but are required qualifications if you want to get anywhere within the party. I don't know how many would remember that Arjun Singh was perhaps the leader of the mischief-gang that also included N.D. Tiwari et al, when P.V. Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister.

P.V.Narasimha RaoToday everyone wants to claim credit for India's growth. I cannot understand why everyone refuses to give credit where it is due - to Mr. Rao. When he became the PM, India's economy, foreign exchange reserves, debt repayment position, etc., where in extremely bad shape. True, people like Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram were in Rao's cabinet, and they had the services of the likes of Montek Singh Ahluwalia. But still, with the collapse of the Soviet Union that had great ramifications for India's economic and strategic policies, India quietly and smoothly handled this period. In addition to the economic turnaround, India moved ever-so-close towards perfecting its nuclear option, setting the stage, so to speak, for the nuclear tests carried out by the chest-thumping BJP gang. If you think about it, bringing in Manmohan Singh, who was not even a politician, but an economist and former RBI Governor as finance minister (instead of one of his cronies) was a stroke of genius in itself. Manmohan Singh, on those rare moments when no one is looking, does give credit to Rao's leadership - he once said something along the lines of, "Mr. Rao was there, taking the heat for the economic course change, while I had the freedom and support to go about doing what was required". But still, to effect the kind of turnaround from such a precarious position must have taken enormous guts, risk-taking, leadership, and above all, a vision. And all this was done when Rao was heading a minority government, when even within the party, he was sought to be undermined by jackals such as Arjun Singh at every opportunity. Sonia Gandhi didn't help matters either - the widespread feeling in the party was that Narasimha Rao had somehow usurped what rightfully belonged to 'the family' and it was only a matter of time before he was gotten rid of. If it meant losing an election, so be it - I have to suspect that there were some in the party who must have been actually glad to lose the elections, thus paving the way for the return of 'the family'.

That Rao not only held tight, but did his job admirably under the circumstances is something yet to be recognized by most Indians. Sure, there were scandals, the infamous Babri Masjid demolition, etc. under his watch. And he paid for it with not just his job, but with his reputation and peace of mind, post-retirement. In one of the ironies of Indian politics, Rao was made to pay the price for bribing to get the votes needed for his government's survival, whereas the credit for whatever this government achieved has been virtually stolen by everybody else. It is most unfair that all Congresswallahs (and wallis?) completely ditched Narasimha Rao in his hour of legal troubles. It is unfair and ugly, in fact. If what they say about karma is true indeed, I don't think the Congress party has paid a sufficient price for the way it treated Narasimha Rao. After his death, the party's indifference towards him didn't change, even to pretend that he was one of them - at least that's the feeling I got from watching the funeral arrangements for P.V. Narasimha Rao.

It's ironic that I ended up writing about Narasimha Rao when in fact I had started out writing about this joker Arjun Singh. It's actually an insult to Rao's memory even to mention the other guy's name in the same sentence - but I hope he'll understand. Why do I care for Narasimha Rao after all these years, you ask? Well, I AM NOT from Andhra Pradesh, nor do I speak Telugu - no, that's not the reason. I just think that among the various politicians, he was one of those few who was ready to stop politicking and go to work once in government, whereas a whole bunch of other idiots couldn't get their act together even when they were made ministers. Somehow they seemed to think that Rao was fair-game, and if he could be PM, so could everyone else, until someone from the royal family came along, that is. So they kept making life hell for Rao and rather unceremoniously dumped him when the party lost in the elections. Not much has changed in the Congress 'culture' between then and now - that's so unfortunate. But the disease of sychophancy is too deep - I don't know how it can become a 'real' political party.

You can see a more detailed profile here (from where I lifted the photo of Rao as well - hope they don't mind). Wikipedia has a detailed profile as well. It is worth reading up on history once in a while - you can see in this profile, for example, that P.V.Narasimha Rao did his job admirably every time he was given a job - particularly during his years as foreign minister. The Congress party would have been better off with more people like him and with less sychophancy. Although it seems like an impossibility at the moment, I still want to ask the party men and women - can you even think of the Congress party without the dynastic rule? Are you even capable of working together when the party is not headed by someone from 'the family'? I have nothing against this family personally nor am I hung up over Sonia Gandhi's Italian ancestry, but just consider it to be an insult to the Indian polity that a national party like Congress can only be held together by one family at the helm. To be fair to the Congress party, dynastic politics is alive and well at the state-level, all over India. I guess we still have some ways to go before we can call ourselves a modern democracy.