It is not known who advises Rahul Gandhi as he is always found to be negative and commenting adversely about the government and the Prime Minister. He seems to have no idea about offering alternatives or being constructive. He just has to jump into the fray and condemn everything. As a matter of fact, this boomerangs on him and his party as seen in election results. The Congress vice-president has also affected his image by commenting on the Prime Minister while on foreign soil. No sensible leader, however critical he may be of his political foe, especially when he is the Prime Minister, will think of bringing down the latter’s image — which is the equivalent of degrading his own nation. It is unfortunate that the media is giving undue importance to Mr. Gandhi and seems only interested in sensationalism.
V.S. Ganeshan,
Bengaluru
It is easy to misread Rahul Gandhi’s speech at Berkeley for only his ripostes against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A closer reading will show several takeaways that reflect the hard reality of Indian politics. First of all, dynastic politics is here to stay and any party which is so squeamish about it needs only to look inside its own fold. Second, in spite of the cadre base that each party boasts of, their leaders are impervious to feedback from the people, and more so when the party is in power. The saving grace is that parties learn to make all the right noises when they are out of power. Third, every political party in India which aspires to rule the world’s largest democracy has no inner-party democracy to show. Partymen are bound together by blind loyalty or by something similar to ‘omerta’ (the unwritten enforced silence in the mafia) and thus truth and honesty are snuffed out. Political transparency becomes a casualty and service to people is reduced merely to a game of thrones.
V. Nagarajan,
Chennai