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Manmohan re-enacting Barooah?
Thursday October 14 2004 00:00 IST
S Gurumurthy
"Brothers and sisters today I have come to beg to you to strengthen the hands of Soniaji". This is not how Priyanka, Sonia's own daughter, begged. Not how Rahul, Sonia's own son, begged. As they would want to be leaders in their own right they would perhaps not demean themselves. The man who begged like that was the Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh.
This is how he begged the voters at Akola in Maharashtra on Monday. This would match the traditional courtiers of the Nehru-Indira-Rajiv family like, the hundreds who hang around Sonia in Rae Bareili or Amethi constituency.
Manmohan did not beg the voters to support the Congress Party. Is it because, in his view, it is not the Congress Party which made him the Prime Minister? And so he did not owe any gratitude to the party. The Prime Minister did not beg them to strengthen India. Is it because, in his understanding, it is not the Indian people who made him the Prime Minister? And so he owed no gratitude to the nation. By begging the voter like he has done he concedes that it was Sonia who made him the Prime Minister. And that he is indebted to her. Otherwise how could he have become the Prime Minister of India? So personal gratitude, which guides Dr Singh as the Prime Minister, has now been publicly demonstrated.
But why now? It is only the other day that Dr Manmohan Singh had stunned the nation saying that there was one Prime Minister and he was that single one. He repeated it later. The English media had begun putting him on the cover and on the front pages repeatedly and declared 'See here. Manmohan emerges from shadows as the Prime Minister in his own right'. Who would that have disturbed or dwarfed? Not an Atal Behari Vajpayee. Not an Advani. It would have disturbed only one soul. Sonia, widely perceived as the Super Prime Minister, the SPM. Dr. Singh's declaration meant that she was no SPM. How could she take kindly to her own creation declaring himself 'swayambhu', the only Prime Minister, in his own right, implying she was nobody? Wise counsel seems to have prevailed on Dr Singh to accept the reality -- the reality of his being the creation of Sonia -- in public at an appropriate time. The result is the begging act at Akola.
But, how could the Prime Minister of India beg the people to vote to strengthen an individual, which Sonia after all is? If he were addressing the people as Prime Minister, he should be begging the voters of Maharashtra to strengthen the nation. If he were addressing the people as the Prime Minister belonging to the Congress Party he would be begging them to support the Party which supports the government at the Centre. Why should he beg them to support Sonia? There is no rationale except that it is Dr. Singh's public acknowledgment that she is his maker and he her product?
Dr Singh's begging act brings in memories of shameful days of emergency in 1975 the nation would detest recalling. That was the time when Dr Singh was in World Bank and most of the leaders of India were in jail, courtesy Indira Gandhi. Dev Kant Barooah, the Congress Party president then, shamelessly used to declare 'India is Indira and Indira is India". Later even Indira, normally happy in the company of courtiers, felt shy of such extreme sycophancy. Here is something much worse happening. The only answer Dr Singh can give for begging the people to strengthen Sonia, not India, is that strengthening her is as good as strengthening India. That is Sonia is India and India is Sonia. Are we seeing a new Barooah in the making? Yes with a difference that makes it worse. Barooah was just a Congress Party president, voicing the party's views at best. But Dr Singh is the Prime Minister speaking for the nation. Barooah shamed the Congress party then. But on Monday Dr Singh has shamed the nation itself.
Writer's email: comment@gurumurthy.net
27 Oct 2004
Thursday October 14 2004 00:00 IST
S Gurumurthy
"Brothers and sisters today I have come to beg to you to strengthen the hands of Soniaji". This is not how Priyanka, Sonia's own daughter, begged. Not how Rahul, Sonia's own son, begged. As they would want to be leaders in their own right they would perhaps not demean themselves. The man who begged like that was the Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh.
This is how he begged the voters at Akola in Maharashtra on Monday. This would match the traditional courtiers of the Nehru-Indira-Rajiv family like, the hundreds who hang around Sonia in Rae Bareili or Amethi constituency.
Manmohan did not beg the voters to support the Congress Party. Is it because, in his view, it is not the Congress Party which made him the Prime Minister? And so he did not owe any gratitude to the party. The Prime Minister did not beg them to strengthen India. Is it because, in his understanding, it is not the Indian people who made him the Prime Minister? And so he owed no gratitude to the nation. By begging the voter like he has done he concedes that it was Sonia who made him the Prime Minister. And that he is indebted to her. Otherwise how could he have become the Prime Minister of India? So personal gratitude, which guides Dr Singh as the Prime Minister, has now been publicly demonstrated.
But why now? It is only the other day that Dr Manmohan Singh had stunned the nation saying that there was one Prime Minister and he was that single one. He repeated it later. The English media had begun putting him on the cover and on the front pages repeatedly and declared 'See here. Manmohan emerges from shadows as the Prime Minister in his own right'. Who would that have disturbed or dwarfed? Not an Atal Behari Vajpayee. Not an Advani. It would have disturbed only one soul. Sonia, widely perceived as the Super Prime Minister, the SPM. Dr. Singh's declaration meant that she was no SPM. How could she take kindly to her own creation declaring himself 'swayambhu', the only Prime Minister, in his own right, implying she was nobody? Wise counsel seems to have prevailed on Dr Singh to accept the reality -- the reality of his being the creation of Sonia -- in public at an appropriate time. The result is the begging act at Akola.
But, how could the Prime Minister of India beg the people to vote to strengthen an individual, which Sonia after all is? If he were addressing the people as Prime Minister, he should be begging the voters of Maharashtra to strengthen the nation. If he were addressing the people as the Prime Minister belonging to the Congress Party he would be begging them to support the Party which supports the government at the Centre. Why should he beg them to support Sonia? There is no rationale except that it is Dr. Singh's public acknowledgment that she is his maker and he her product?
Dr Singh's begging act brings in memories of shameful days of emergency in 1975 the nation would detest recalling. That was the time when Dr Singh was in World Bank and most of the leaders of India were in jail, courtesy Indira Gandhi. Dev Kant Barooah, the Congress Party president then, shamelessly used to declare 'India is Indira and Indira is India". Later even Indira, normally happy in the company of courtiers, felt shy of such extreme sycophancy. Here is something much worse happening. The only answer Dr Singh can give for begging the people to strengthen Sonia, not India, is that strengthening her is as good as strengthening India. That is Sonia is India and India is Sonia. Are we seeing a new Barooah in the making? Yes with a difference that makes it worse. Barooah was just a Congress Party president, voicing the party's views at best. But Dr Singh is the Prime Minister speaking for the nation. Barooah shamed the Congress party then. But on Monday Dr Singh has shamed the nation itself.
Writer's email: comment@gurumurthy.net
27 Oct 2004