Human beings are sentimental. In fact, it's this quality that differentiates him from the animals that inhabit the jungles, though after seeing quite a few documentaries on wild life, I've doubts about the age old belief! Probably, the supporters of the theory might harp on the saying that 'exceptions do not prove the rule'.
We, Indians, are very, very sentimental.......too sentimental to a fault. How can we, otherwise, ever justify the enormous love and affection that we'd bestowed on Sonia Gandhi and her family? Her faults and shortcomings were brushed aside as a woman's genuine mistakes as she charted the murky and dangerous waters of politics. The nation really grieved when she didn't make it to the Prime Ministerial chair and were sold on the subsequent gimmick that indeed she'd never hankered for power but had always wanted to serve the country.
It's this bubble that has been burst by the two books on the UPA I and II governments viz.
(a) Sanjaya Baru's 'The Reluctant Prime Minister' and
(b) PC Parakh's 'Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and Other Truths'.
As had been cited earlier, the former was in the PMO during the UPA I while the latter was the Coal Secretary to the Government of India, when a massive scam had surfaced during the process of the coal block allocations.
What becomes abundantly clear is that Sonia Gandhi had played a direct role in the major decision making process while Manmohan Singh and his cabinet were mere puppets! Authority without accountability.....what a scary scene it is? And it's based on this piece of news that my queries come tumbling, which are:-
(a) Suresh Kalmadi's defiance, for months, and refusal to step down from the Commonwealth
Organiser's post. Wasn't it because he'd just been the 'front man' for someone else?
(b) A Raja's defiance to quit on account of the scam that was around the allocation of the 2G spectrum?
(c) Pawan Bansal's drama over the Railway Recruitment scam and subsequently, allowed to fight the
Lok Sabha elections by the Congress high command?
(d) Ashok Chavan, tainted by the infamous 'Adarsh' scam, being given the go ahead to fight the elections.
As a follow through, the additional doubts that worry me as an Indian citizen are:-
(a) Why did the setback to the 'naval submarine acquisition programme' happen?
(b) Were the induction of substandard spares the cause for the spate of accidents in the armed forces
or was it the inordinate delays in the acquisition process ?
(c) Was there a sinister design in the realm of national security? Or has it been a bungling by the
inefficient troika of P Chidambaram(the Finance Minister), Sushil Kumar Shinde(the Home Minister)
and AK Antony(the Defence Minister), all of whom'd Sonia Gandhi's patronage.
My take on the series of revelations is that, perhaps, it got a nudge from Manmohan Singh, himself, to come out clean on the entire set of corruption charges against him! On a personal level, I feel angry with him and no, there's no sympathy for his helplessness for having been on the chair for 10 years!! He ought to have resigned long ago when he'd first realised that he was being used!!!
Come to think of his plight when his own ministers used to bypass him or did not feel it necessary to keep him in the loop for the decisions that they took! And he was left to fend for the answers in the Parliament with hardly any support from his own party either!!
Tailpiece.
It would be worthwhile to take a look at the way the Americans handle sentimentality. I think that they're a practical people. Years back, when Kennedy was brutally assassinated and the television grabs showed Jacqueline Kennedy in blood splattered clothes, the whole of America had grieved. But in their moment of grief not a single American had clamoured for making Jacqueline Kennedy the President!
We need to emulate them on this score, at least!
We, Indians, are very, very sentimental.......too sentimental to a fault. How can we, otherwise, ever justify the enormous love and affection that we'd bestowed on Sonia Gandhi and her family? Her faults and shortcomings were brushed aside as a woman's genuine mistakes as she charted the murky and dangerous waters of politics. The nation really grieved when she didn't make it to the Prime Ministerial chair and were sold on the subsequent gimmick that indeed she'd never hankered for power but had always wanted to serve the country.
It's this bubble that has been burst by the two books on the UPA I and II governments viz.
(a) Sanjaya Baru's 'The Reluctant Prime Minister' and
(b) PC Parakh's 'Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and Other Truths'.
As had been cited earlier, the former was in the PMO during the UPA I while the latter was the Coal Secretary to the Government of India, when a massive scam had surfaced during the process of the coal block allocations.
What becomes abundantly clear is that Sonia Gandhi had played a direct role in the major decision making process while Manmohan Singh and his cabinet were mere puppets! Authority without accountability.....what a scary scene it is? And it's based on this piece of news that my queries come tumbling, which are:-
(a) Suresh Kalmadi's defiance, for months, and refusal to step down from the Commonwealth
Organiser's post. Wasn't it because he'd just been the 'front man' for someone else?
(b) A Raja's defiance to quit on account of the scam that was around the allocation of the 2G spectrum?
(c) Pawan Bansal's drama over the Railway Recruitment scam and subsequently, allowed to fight the
Lok Sabha elections by the Congress high command?
(d) Ashok Chavan, tainted by the infamous 'Adarsh' scam, being given the go ahead to fight the elections.
As a follow through, the additional doubts that worry me as an Indian citizen are:-
(a) Why did the setback to the 'naval submarine acquisition programme' happen?
(b) Were the induction of substandard spares the cause for the spate of accidents in the armed forces
or was it the inordinate delays in the acquisition process ?
(c) Was there a sinister design in the realm of national security? Or has it been a bungling by the
inefficient troika of P Chidambaram(the Finance Minister), Sushil Kumar Shinde(the Home Minister)
and AK Antony(the Defence Minister), all of whom'd Sonia Gandhi's patronage.
My take on the series of revelations is that, perhaps, it got a nudge from Manmohan Singh, himself, to come out clean on the entire set of corruption charges against him! On a personal level, I feel angry with him and no, there's no sympathy for his helplessness for having been on the chair for 10 years!! He ought to have resigned long ago when he'd first realised that he was being used!!!
Come to think of his plight when his own ministers used to bypass him or did not feel it necessary to keep him in the loop for the decisions that they took! And he was left to fend for the answers in the Parliament with hardly any support from his own party either!!
Tailpiece.
It would be worthwhile to take a look at the way the Americans handle sentimentality. I think that they're a practical people. Years back, when Kennedy was brutally assassinated and the television grabs showed Jacqueline Kennedy in blood splattered clothes, the whole of America had grieved. But in their moment of grief not a single American had clamoured for making Jacqueline Kennedy the President!
We need to emulate them on this score, at least!
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