Democracy OR Dynasty ???

Few weeks ago i.e. on 24th September 2007, Rahul Gandhi was appointed as an All India Congress Committee general secretary in a reshuffle of the party secretariat. In addition, he has also been given charge of the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India. And how did Congress go about celebrating this occasion. They compared Rahul to Dhoni as below:

Rahul can do Dhoni for congress.

This particular comparison made me write this blog entry.




In his field of activity, MS Dhoni has proved his mettle beyond doubt - As a wicky, as a strong bat and now as a skipper. Now What is Rahul's claim for the position he is looking to adorn.

I don't have anything personal against Rahul. But the way he is projected, it gives us a feeling that only the members of a particular family, however poorly qualified, can save our land.

Some recent quotations that Rahul has made:

1] "My father said to my mother that he would stand in front of Babri Masjid if it will do any good. They would have had to kill him first," Rahul recalled. "Had the Gandhi family been there in politics (at that time), Babri Masjid demolition would not have taken place," Rahul said on the second day of his election campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

If my memory serves me right, Shri Rajiv Gandhi was killed on 21st May, 1991 and the babri masjid demolition took place on 6th December, 1992. How come Mr. Rahul heard the purported famous lines? Or was the Gandhi Family privy to the plot of babri masjid demolition years in advance?

2] "Once my family decides on something, it doesn’t go back. Whether it’s about India’s freedom, dividing Pakistan or taking India to the 21st century."

Rahul credits his family for the division of Pakistan in 1971, which led to the independence of Bangladesh, thereby suggesting all the freedom movements and sacrifices of Bangladeshis were meaningless.

What has he done for the last 3 years as an MP. He has not spoken a word about reservations, not about the nuclear deal.
Some Straight questions to Rahul Gandhi.

1. Under whose family's long tenure, Kashmir has gone out of control.

2. Why large number of Indians are still under poverty line Gandhi family ruled India most of the period after 1947.

3. What abt the 1984 Sikh massacre

On the face of it, the anti-Sikh riots were far more horrific than the post-Godhra violence. More than 2,700 people were killed in 1984 as per the official death toll, in Gujarat it was a little over a thousand. The '84 riots have seen just 13 convictions, in Gujarat, the fast track courts have already convicted more than 15 persons in different cases. The 84 riots occurred in several high security areas in the heart of the national Capital, the 2002 violence was spread across large stretches of Gujarat. And Rajiv Gandhi said this, "when a big tree falls, the earth shakes". Nothing could be more irresponsible statement than this.

Today Congress has an impressive list of well educated young talent at their disposal. Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Jitin Prasad, Sandeep Dikshit, Naveen Jindal, Deependra Singh Hooda, most of them educated in blue- chip universities abroad. For one, their election campaign rhetoric didn’t centre around religion, caste and corruption but on sadak, bijli, pani (roads, water, electricity) and in particular shiksha (education). However, none of them were given the post. Not only that, none of them finds a positions in the cabinet. The cabinet has room for 79 ministers including the Prime Minister and yet Congress doesn't have enough available cabinet positions for giving a chance to these young guns. Instead we have politicians like Arjun Singh at 77 years who does nothing but practices caste based divide-and-rule politics.

Lets take a peek into how qualified these young guns are:

Jyotiraditya Scindia (36 yrs old):
He has been an MP for five years, he has two degrees from Harvard University and Stanford University, U.S. and went on to work as an investment banker for Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. He also gained some development experience with the UN Economic Development Cell. He in fact had the distinction of being the only undergraduate intern in the UN Economic Development Cell. He is one of the best speakers in Parliament, Congress relies on him to stand and defend it in a crisis. Yet it isn’t making him a minister.

Sachin Pilot (30 yrs old) :
He completed his B. A.(Hons) degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi University. While in college, Pilot was the captain of the college shooting team. He then received his MBA from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania , U.S.A. Worth reading is his take on cracking the reservation riddle here http://www.indianexpress.com/story/4864._.html

Milind Deora (31 yrs old) :
He is an alumnus of the Cathedral and John Connon School, Sydenham College and Boston University in the United States. Regularly writes articles for several of India’s leading publications on a wide range of issues, from Mumbai’s development to Right to Information performs exceedingly well in Parliament, raising issues such as Urban Development, Employment, National Security, Energy Security, Budget Prudence, Manufacturing Preparedness, Administrative Reforms. Milind had been nominated by the UPA Government on two instances to initiate landmark debates on its behalf in Parliament, the first being the Right to Information Bill and the second being the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill. This was the only time a first-term MP was given this opportunity.

Jitin Prasad (34 yrs old):
He studied at The Doon School, Dehradun. He did his BCOM(Hons) from the prestigious Sri Ram College of Commerece, Delhi University and then went on to do his Masters in Business Administration from Indian Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi. Jitin Prasada worked at DSP Meryll Lynch and then on to BPL Net.

Sandeep Dikshit (43 yrs old) :
He attended Modern School, New Delhi, and holds a masters degree in History from St. Stephens College. He received his
Post-Graduate Diploma in Rural Management in 1989 at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).He heads a social development group SANKET which has been responsible for publication of the MP Human Development Report. The Congressman has been an active Member of Parliament, raising several issues which have kept both him and his colleagues busy.

Naveen Jindal (37 yrs old) :
Naveen who did his MBA from the University of Texas, Dallas, USA in 1992 is a multifaceted personality - an industrialist, a sportsman, a pilot, but most of all a dyed-in-the-wool patriot.

He single-handedly took up the cause of restoring in Indians a national pride, choosing the Tricolour as his symbol. Today if you can display the national flag at your home or workplace throughout the year, it is because of legal battle fought by Mr Jindal for nine long years to make this right available to every Indian. On 23rd January 2004, in a historic Judgement, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that the right to fly the National Flag freely, with respect and dignity is a Fundamental Right of every citizen.

On his return from USA he took over the management of the Raigarh & Raipur divisions of Jindal Strips Limited (JSL) in 1993 at a challenging time when these divisions were in their difficult phase making huge financial losses. JSPL, under the leadership of Mr Naveen Jindal, has not only seen a spectacular growth but it is today one of the most efficiently run steel companies in the world for its scale of operations. It is the fourth largest private sector Indian business group by assets and sales turnover.

Tejaswini Sreeramesh (41 yrs old):
Tejaswini, the Congress MP from Kanakpura had defeated former prime minister and Janata Dal supremo H.D. Deve Gowda by a massive margin of 116,863 votes. She holds a masters degree in Political Science and a bachelor's degree in Law from Vivekanda Law Collge, Bangalore. She is also a Philosophiae Doctor from Bangalore University. Before joining politics, Tejashwini was a research scholar and used to write on various aspects of life and society. She has also travelled into the tribal belts of Chattisgarh and Bastar to produce television documentaries.

Now let us see what qualifications Rahul has:

Rahul Gandhi attended St.Columba's School, New Delhi before entering the The Doon School. He attended Doon from 1981-83 before being home-schooled for security reasons. His admission to St Stephen's College was controversial as he was believed to have been admitted on the basis of his abilities as a competitive pistol shooter, which was disputed. He left the school in 1990, after one year of education.

It is reported that Harvard alumni records list him as attending between 1990 and 1993 but not as completing a degree. He transferred, reportedly due to security concerns following his father's murder, to Rollins College in Florida where he completed a B.A. in 1994.

During the parliamentary elections in 2004, Gandhi claimed that he had received an MPhil in Development Economics after attending Trinity College, Cambridge. Media enquiries report that he attended under the alias "Raul Vinci". He worked in London with the strategy consultancy firm Monitor Group, before returning to India in late 2002 to run an engineering and technology outsourcing firm in Mumbai

Rahul Gandhi's legal affairs team has taken a number of heavy-handed measures to prevent damage to his image. For example, when Newsweek alleged in late 2006 that he had not completed his degrees at Harvard and Cambridge or kept his job at the Monitor Group, they were slapped with a legal notice, following which they hastily retracted or qualified their earlier statements.

Far more serious allegations of rape, apparently originating from the web forums of Hindu revolutionary group Hindu Unity and spreading through sympathetic vectors in the blogosphere and other web discussion communities, surfaced in early 2007. The host of the web board, ezboard, was served a legal notice as well, and immediately shut down Hindu Unity's web board, for what it deemed as "Terms of Use" violations.

http://scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/3659/index.php
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/09/30/stories/02300003.htm
http://in.news.yahoo.com/050308/43/2k1rd.html

India has a 100 crore population, out of which 60 crore are active voters. Further 65% of these voters are below the age of 30. Their aspirations are the same, cutting across the rural-urban divide and they are in a hurry. This calls for quicker induction of young educated persons with a global perspective into cabinet positions.

However, it seems that the reason why Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora can’t be ministers, is because of Rahul Gandhi. They belong to his generation and hence can’t be heir apparent. And because he is not fit to be a minister, they can’t be considered either. There must be at least a hundred more experienced and more deserving leaders in Congress but they can not see beyond the Gandhi family. There's no scope for merit, performance and passion for country's welfare when it comes to raising people to powwerful positions. Not only Rahul, but his yet unborn offsprings have already been 'selected' as heir apparent to the Cong throne.

It is ironic that we live in the world’s largest democracy, and the party that has ruled us for most years after independence, practises dynasty and not democracy.

References:

1] wikipedia
2] http://ibnlive.com/blogs/rajdeepsardesai/1/2616/dr-modi-and-mr-hyde.html
3] http://www.yuvahindustani.com/our-founder.html
4] http://www.educationworldonline.net/eduworld/article.php?choice=prev_art&article_id=250&issueid=24
5] http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040530/spectrum/main1.htm