Voting for a foisted leadership

11th May, 2006.

It is pathetic that Indians should vote for the Congress that has foisted upon them a Sonia Gandhi. The Nehru family has brought upon India its longest running tragedy in the form of Kashmir, which Nehru failed to handle properly when problems first arose there. The Congress, once a party of titans, was reduced to one of satraps by the time Nehru handed it over to his daughter. Indians, instead of seeing what he had reduced the party to and prepared a worse future for it, readily became dazzled by the Nehru charisma. And today his legacy has passed on to a foreigner. Still Indians have not learned.

Congress will ask for Sonia’s leadership. Of course, she will not take the prime-ministership from Manmohan now. She will wait for him to complete the 5-year term and make him nominate her for the next term. Or would she be on the lookout of an opportune moment to call for elections even before the 5-year term ends? She has to have her allies intact with her and also attempt to take allies away from the BJP. She may even ‘sponsor’ a third front to take away BJP’s allies. When all that job is done, she will be ready to call for elections. Or would something come up meanwhile that could give the BJP a come-back opportunity which could force Sonia to call for elections even before she is fully prepared for it, lest the BJP consolidates even further? Nothing is ever predictable about electorate's moods.