A Shameless Polemic Against the Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty

hossp and tears about labor

hossp, pls understand where the middle class here comes from. Most of the folks on chowk are very middle class, and that means children of white-collared berurocrats, public sector employees etc. They got a stable home enviroment during Nehru-Gandhi congress rule via the Kendria Vidyalayas, IITs, and other colleges, but always saw themeselves as having earned it though struggle. They also saw the unionized labor as lazy, unproductive, politically hyperactive and earning more than their parents due to bonus and overtime, and have little sympathy for it. So while you will see them grateful to Nehru for creating jobs for their parents via the public sector employment, they have no sympathy with any of the working masses. OTOH they are believer in the trickle down effect, where they want policies to further grow the middle class and consumption, and labor will take care of itself thru trickle down. They have had enough of lal-bawta (the favorite red-flag of the unions) politics, which promises entitlement.

Re India Shining ad campaign : Apparently an organisation named `Peoples Union of Unemployed Youth` or st. filed a PIL, so the Delhi HC asked the government to name the amount spent. Law Minister Jaitley said `only 48 crore` out of allocation of 100 crore.

I remember those Rediffusion ads. Around about that time, the opposition parties also published ads. One of them said, `Do you want a midnight phone call from Delhi to dismiss your State govt, if not then donot vote Congress, vote XXX party`. Very compelling argument, I thought.

I think Narasimha Rao(and VP Singh`s stint as Finance Minister under R Gandhi) have been the turning point for Indian politics. In his time, there was a total lack of charishma or dynastic name which allowed them to take public support for granted. The Congress needs to ditch Nehruvian economics unashamedly, they need to ditch Gandhi era tokenism unashamedly, and they need to espouse Nehruvian inclusion unashamedly. The BJP is trying to be Congress-lite in this respect, and its hypocrisy in this regard can be easily exposed if Congress sheds its own.

Hossp:

#16 is a good post. Let me address some point and we can go from there...

``Pakistanis hate BJP, so All Indian on this board support BJP.``

Not true. Relations with Pakistan were bad in the 80s as well. BJP won two seats in 1984 elections.

``But I wanna discuss India with my friends on this board. Can we discuss that without my being bashed by Indians? ``

I speak for myself. Yes, we can...no problems at all.

Other then that, there is a strong sense of emotionalism in the rejection of Sonia Gandhi amongst the middle class. This is due to a combination of race as well as a systematic erosion of second rung leadership in the party.

The Indian Middle class is frustrated because they do want a national mainstream party as an alternative to BJP. After all, if there is no opposition what is to stop BJP from becoming Congress.

It used to be said that Congress wins because of TINA (there is no alternative) Situation has changed becasue BJP is wining because of TINA.

There used to be leaders like Rajesh Pilot and Madhav Rao Scindia who had national appeal. Both died (car crash and chopper crash) within a year. The emotional rejection that you see here is not of the Congress Party per se but of the remnants of the Gandhi family.

You also say that Indians are defining themselves in negative. Not true. The Indian middle class has aspirations. The BJP, rightly or wrongly, is showing a door for these aspirations. Be it foreign policy or disinvestment, there are individuals who have their own identity. Jaswant Singh, Shourie etc are individuals that exist in the public mind. Their achievements and/or failures reflect off of them thereby dispersing the perception of one individual being solely in charge.

In contrast, the Congress has nothing except Sonia Gandhi. Last year there was talk of Manmohan Singh being the candidate for PM. There was positive response from middle class. But the Sonia coterie nipped the idea in the bud. What u are seeing here is not anti-Congressism but anti-Gandhi Familyism. And since a second rung leadership was never allowed to emerge since the time of Indira Gandhi, rightly or wrongly it is the family that is blamed for all that Congress does wrong.

Democracy is what we want. To that end we want to parties offering varying programs but sharing the consensus of a democratic united India. The Narasimha Rao gov`t of Congress did a halfway decent job of running the country. And yet he was sabotaged and cases lodged against him. By who? Not the BJP. Not any other opposition. Congressites loyal to Gandhi family.

Well, I would like you to tgive your perspective of the issues in the democratic process that you think are important.

Hossp:

#16 is a good post. Let me address some point and we can go from there...

``Pakistanis hate BJP, so All Indian on this board support BJP.``

Not true. Relations with Pakistan were bad in the 80s as well. BJP won two seats in 1984 elections.

``But I wanna discuss India with my friends on this board. Can we discuss that without my being bashed by Indians? ``

I speak for myself. Yes, we can...no problems at all.

Other then that, there is a strong sense of emotionalism in the rejection of Sonia Gandhi amongst the middle class. This is due to a combination of race as well as a systematic erosion of second rung leadership in the party.

The Indian Middle class is frustrated because they do want a national mainstream party as an alternative to BJP. After all, if there is no opposition what is to stop BJP from becoming Congress.

It used to be said that Congress wins because of TINA (there is no alternative) Situation has changed becasue BJP is wining because of TINA.

There used to be leaders like Rajesh Pilot and Madhav Rao Scindia who had national appeal. Both died (car crash and chopper crash) within a year. The emotional rejection that you see here is not of the Congress Party per se but of the remnants of the Gandhi family.

You also say that Indians are defining themselves in negative. Not true. The Indian middle class has aspirations. The BJP, rightly or wrongly, is showing a door for these aspirations. Be it foreign policy or disinvestment, there are individuals who have their own identity. Jaswant Singh, Shourie etc are individuals that exist in the public mind. Their achievements and/or failures reflect off of them thereby dispersing the perception of one individual being solely in charge.

In contrast, the Congress has nothing except Sonia Gandhi. Last year there was talk of Manmohan Singh being the candidate for PM. There was positive response from middle class. But the Sonia coterie nipped the idea in the bud. What u are seeing here is not anti-Congressism but anti-Gandhi Familyism. And since a second rung leadership was never allowed to emerge since the time of Indira Gandhi, rightly or wrongly it is the family that is blamed for all that Congress does wrong.

Democracy is what we want. To that end we want to parties offering varying programs but sharing the consensus of a democratic united India. The Narasimha Rao gov`t of Congress did a halfway decent job of running the country. And yet he was sabotaged and cases lodged against him. By who? Not the BJP. Not any other opposition. Congressites loyal to Gandhi family.

Well, I would like you to tgive your perspective of the issues in the democratic process that you think are important.

``There is no need for Pakis to get too excited about all this. You guys have hardly seen any democrazy in your country, so i am amazed you should be giving a sermon on chowk.
``

This is the most patronising post I have ever read. I would love to see the reaction of an Indian when he he is lectured by a white guy on how corruption was so much less during the British raj.

Indians hardly see any consideration of human riughts in their country. Hence they should not lecture anyone about it. Indian society has been divided into caste for millenia, hence they should not be talking about egalitarianism. What kind of silly attitude is this.

It is said about India that it is an open society with a closed mind. Sridhar certainly personifies this.

re:#16 by hossp
There is no need for Pakis to get too excited about all this. You guys have hardly seen any democrazy in your country, so i am amazed you should be giving a sermon on chowk.

In India, politics is very complex. Votes are cast on caste lines. Personality cult is still strong. But what is happening in the last few years is that this kind of politics is being replaced by ``bread and butter`` politics. This had been an issue in the past too but BJP has brought economy center stage. Because BJP has benefitted the economy immensely and because it draws support from the middle class, it is so popular in India. India`s middle class is estemated to be around 400 million at least and is increasing every year.

Congress is like a dying elephant. It will take time to die. There is nothing much to be excited about Congress. I used to be a congress supporter during Rajiv Gandhi time and even voted for the party once (and the only time before emigrating). It is no more a secular party it used to be. Its economic policies have brought large scale corruption and economic stagnation during much of the time it ruled India. Is it then surprising that most educated Indians do not prefer Congress?
Most Indians on Chowk are educated and professionals. You will not find them support congress. Even though i have been a strong critic of BJP for its role in Gujarat carnage and its dilution of secularism, i see BJP making amends. It is wooing the muslim voter, which is a good thing. I hope this election puts to rest the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty`s charisma, so that congressmen can look towards other alternatives.
Sridhar

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# 12, # 8:

I don`t think we can say with certainty that South led the decoupling of India`s destiny with Congress. TamilNadu is definitely the first one to move decisively away from Congress led governments. But I think on a national scale, the JP led Janata movement of 70`s contributed enormously towards this.

Even now, Congress is powerful in the other three states (AP,Karnataka and Kerala) and is a viable alternative to the regional parties,

-Avkrishna

hossp

I am expressing my anger with the Congress party for fukking up and giving the BJP a free pass to power. It needs to sort itself out and rid itself of the influence of the family. We can talk about child slavery and foreign policy still, but in a democracy the politicians need to be able to take robust criticism, which is what this is.

nazarhayatkhan

I will quote this paragraph from my article to give you my take on it...read it and let me know what you think:

~~This is the spirit that is making India anew: a spirit of opportunity, hard work, an ethic of capitalism in which the creative gales of destruction wipe away the anachronistic practices that hold back the individual from his pursuit of his due. The Congress-Gandhi nexus is completely out of step with the profound changes that are taking hold of the younger generation in India, a confident generation that has no time for the old arrogance of assumed power. In the coming generations this paradigm will repudiate the arrogance of assumptive rule. It is a high irony that this change has come about under the aegis of a political movement that takes as its inspiration the idea that India should be one. ***It is the pluralism and tolerance this spirit engenders that will make India strong and could blunt the excesses of religious nationalism.***~~

soundmeister and halur_rasho

Good Points

I have noticed how anti Congress many middle class Indians are. The old logic of India being divided into pro congresss and anti congress votes now seems to have been replaced with pro BJP and anti BJP votes. The Congress being a personality cult is not surprising, after all isn`t that why people like Sharad Pawar left it in the first place?

I think the Congresses electoral failure is due to something else though, it`s more due to the Congress Party sounding like a BJP lite rather than having any distinctive difference.

Secular Indians need to find their own Howard Dean :)

Romair # 2 ``(and from what I heard, Ras Siddiqi has already agreed to be Bilawal`s campaign manager, when Bilawal reaches puberty....) ``

ROTFL :-O .... Ooh thats mean..

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``The arrogance of the Gandhi-Congress mafia has stunted Indian democracy and by mangling the development of the Congress party it has meant that the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party does not have a credible opposition to keep it on its toes.``

This is undeniable. The BJP is making full use of this opposition ineptness, as it would naturally. Why has Sonia not protested strongly the waste of 400 crores of MY money (and yours) on that bullsh1t India Shining campaign. What does that phrase mean anyway ``India Shining``- it`s not even grammatical. Can you belive one of the ads actually took credit for a million fold (or so) increase in INTERNET penetration in their 50 years of Cong- versus- 5 years of BJP spiel? And apart from a couple of letters in The Hindu and one in ToI, not a peep was heard about it.

But then again the Congress was the one who started all this, with their 1989 Rediffusion-designed national ad campaign (forget the details, was too young then). Of course this doesn`t make what the Beej is doing now right, and memories are short in the political world.

``I believe that the rise of the BJP was not only due to the rabble rousing rhetoric of the Hindu nationalism that it propounded, but also because it offered a full alternative to the decrepit arrogance of the Congress Party led by the Gandhi family caucus ...``

I suggested this once on chowk and got bashed up for being a ``fundoo``, ``hindutvawadi``, ``moron``, among other things. So I`m keeping my peace now... :)))