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Editorial: 'Gandhi' Is The Name Of The Game

In a nation like India the common man is so bogged up with pressures of life that he has to spend his entire life trying to raise his family, clear his debts and run the show. There is not much he can do because that’s how the system works, thanks to the bunch of inefficient and corrupt politicians and the way they have been running their show.

In today’s time, politics is all about power and for power anything which helps is a plus. In the case of congress, it is a surname and that is ‘Gandhi’. From many decades it has been the ‘Gandhi’ Pariwar which has been a spine to the congress. If it was not for the brutal assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, maybe Rajiv Gandhi would never have taken up the political mantle.

But he had no choice and after doing his bit he met with a horrifying fate in 1991. At that point, his wife Sonia Gandhi was shell shocked and decided never to go near the shadow of politics. But years of constant pressure and persuasion from the senior congress leaders and the need for the existence of a ‘Gandhi’ tag in the party cornered her from all ends and she yielded in 1998.

From then on, she has been facing the brickbats of criticism but also enjoying the power and wealth of longest serving president of the congress party. Today, Sonia is on the verge of retiring and the panic button was pressed in the congress camp. The need for another ‘Gandhi’ came into existence and thus came Rahul Gandhi as the new Vice President. He is now going to lead the party in 2014 elections.

Whether Rahul has a set of credentials to lead such a party against a massive force of opponents throughout the nation, that is not the concern. The congressmen are willing to push the envelope because they now have the new ‘Gandhi’ in their home. Well, all it takes is the surname to keep the image prospects up but how long this formula will continue is something of a suspense.

(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)

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