A Humble Proposal for Bringing About Greater National Unity
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-104, Jan-Feb 1998)
We Indians are indeed a very ungrateful people. Morning, afternoon and evening, day after day, Congressmen of all shades and hues – loyalists and the not-so-loyal, alike – assure us that Sonia Gandhi alone, as the current head of the Nehru Indira Dynansty, can lead the nation. They never tire of repeating their claims that her Great Family has made Great Sacrifices for the nation over so many generations.
It is a shame that India’s Prime Bahu along with her pretty princeling daughter should be made to suffer the ignominy of asking for votes just like any plebeian politician despite the aura of her Great Sacrificing Family.
All this because her partymen are convinced that they dare not ask for votes in their own name. Having gotten used to being treated by the Great Ruling Dynasty of India like juvenile delinquents who could not be trusted with any independent charge, not even of their respective party units in districts and towns, it is understandable that Congressmen are feeling orphaned and insecure requiring the protection of a Rajmata who can use the fear of her wrath to stop them from cutting each other’s throats. Their presenting Sonia as the Saviour of the Hour is based on an incredibly insightful calculation: If all Congressmen, despite their innate self destruct tendency, their propensity to undermine, stab, and destroy each other, can be “united” by the magical power of an icon from the Great Sacrificing Family, why not the entire Indian people?