After the last elections, when it appeared that Sonia Gandhi might be the next Prime Minister of India, I went ballistic with anger. An immigrant in a foreign country who felt proud whenever a person of Indian origin was elected to an official position in countries like the US, Canada or UK, it was an obviously bigoted reaction. Part of it was because I was extremely fond of the grand old man of Indian politics, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and I felt that Sonia had dethroned him in a coup; part of it was a visceral reaction to the shenanigans of the Congress party in the past, but the rest of it was bigotry due to the sole reason of Sonia being born in a foreign country.
A couple of years down the line, I think I owe an apology to the lady. Much bandwidth, ink and paper has been consumed in the past few days over the recent events surrounding Mrs. Gandhi and overwhelmingly, the response of the Indian middle class and Indian intelligentsia has been cynical and negative. I know that the middle class and the upwardly mobile consider Congress party and specially the Nehru family to be the main reason for India's economic stagnation (and so do I) but that is really no reason for them to not to see through their own demagoguery and ideological position in ignoring the facts staring in their face regarding Mrs Gandhi.
You could attribute any number of motives to Mrs. Gandhi's actions. That she is playing a political game, that she is preparing the stage for her children but the only charge that sticks is that she inspires Congressmen to burst into wild bouts of sycophancy, which is a disgusting sight, but even that is not her fault - blame the Congress, nay Indian, political mindset for it. It is ironic that the biggest albatross that she seems to be carrying is her connection to the Nehru family, obviously ironic, because had it not been for that connection, she'd be somewhere in Europe, worried about the Muslim immigration issue.
During the past two years, Mrs. Gandhi has shown that all said and done, she really is different from the current breed of Indian politicians. Her willingness to be a fast learner, her aptitude in mastering foreign policy, her political intuition and just plain decency, everything sets her apart from the Mulayam Singhs, the Sitaram Yechuris, the Amar Singhs, the Rajnath Singhs of Indian politics. And yet, despite considering all these alternatives, people are not able to see anything good about her insisting that everything she does is attributable to her planning to further the Nehru raj. Well, I used to be terribly worried about the continuation of the Nehru raj as well, but honestly, the more I see of her, the less I am worried because if her actions are any indication, then she surely must have given a much better upbringing to her children than Indira ever did to her two brats.
In today's political climate, where every party and politician seems to have put country's interest aside, how can you not admire a leader who has the guts and understanding to write something like
this?
To the person who gave India one of the best Prime Ministers, to the person who by the sheer decency of her behavior has highlighted the depravity of the rest of Indian politicians and to the person who has proved that I was utterly wrong in my analysis of hers, I owe an apology - I was wrong about you and I stand corrected!
