Disgruntled Congressmen target PM

We must salute Dr Manmohan Singh for emphatically insisting on the agenda and outcome of the China and Pakistan summits. Both are the Prime Minister?s personal victories. Left to the bureaucrats in the ministry of external affairs, we would still be squabbling and stalling the move towards peace with the two neighbours. History has shown that such steps forward happen only when the Prime Minister at the helm forces the issue and bypasses the babu, who is all for status quo. Babus must be instructed to follow the line and their delaying tactics have to be thrown to the winds. Whichever ministry you look at, the babu is destroying our future and is being allowed to do so. What is required is a weighing scale and a leather hunter…weigh them and whip them!

In the case of Manmohan Singh, he has to contend with the manipulating bureaucrat who has allegiances elsewhere and a party, ridden with envy, that is sabotaging him. They started by sabotaging his (1999) election in South Delhi. Delhiites know this well. Today, senior leaders of the Congress, the AICC, political advisors, are all being sarcastic about their Prime Minister, anointed by the Congress President. Their deep insecurity and envy is apparent as they make untoward comments, laced with sneers. This should be unacceptable to the Congress high command. But alas, some within the high command are leading the brigade of dissenters. It is truly sad and their behaviour is juvenile. Is this how they believe they will win brownie points? If so, God help the future of the Congress party, and its disgruntled, fast aging members. And my heart goes out to the young, committed and energetic new leadership and what it will have to endure till it hits middle age!

Doctor Sahib has managed rather well with these internal opposing factions. Despite the whisper campaign against him led by his party, he will probably emerge as a very successful Prime Minister, who, by ignoring his substandard colleagues in the party, will surmount in his honest and quiet way, all political hurdles. It is unforgivable and disgraceful that Congressmen and women are behaving as they are vis-a-vis their PM. In the bargain, they will lose this opportunity they have got to rule after many years outside of government. Their predictable shenanigans of duality and back-biting, that lost them much in the past, will drown them in the future. Maybe it is Manmohan Singh?s intellectual honesty and unflinching integrity that is bugging them, since it is a sharp break from the norm.

It is those who have not won elections in the last decade who are masterminding the assault. They feel threatened by those who are elected and have been through the trial by fire, including the Congress president. These others are ready to jump onto any available and lucrative bandwagon. Non-elected Congress people should not be allowed to call the shots and run the party, or advise the powers that be. They are disconnected with the realities that face us all. They are, in fact, parasites playing politics to the detriment of the party.

The recent attack on Sheila Dikshit is another case in point. The accusations made against her of favouritism, et al., can be made against every single political being in India. Therefore, to the public, all this is of no import. She is minding her business, delivering the goods as best she can in the circumstances and because she is feted, is being attacked by her party. Is it envy once again?

What a relief that Ashok Gehlot is once again emerging as the leader for Rajasthan. What the Congress in that state had to endure for the last year was sad, to say the least. The leadership there has been pathetic, diluting the potential influence of the Congress by playing footsie with the Jats, regardless of which party they may be part of. Gehlot has, hopefully, learned a lesson from his last debacle?keep the corrupt out, listen to voices outside of the Congress cabal and disregard the claims and diktats of those who make it their business to flout their connections to Delhi. Select the best from the lot and run with it. That is the only hope for the Congress across India. Other-wise, it will lose the many elections that are on the anvil.