AFTER 62 YEARS, THE RAJ IS BACK IN A NEW AVATAR
India Retold
Is this development sudden? Have we all not seen it coming for a long time? When the self-appointed Royal Family of India has been practicing this for decades and even aggressively promoting smaller princely families within the Congress party, is it any surprise that this cancer has now spread to the whole polity, save the Left and, to some degree, the BJP?
This so-called "democracy" that Rahul Gandhi is ushering into the Congress is no more than a variant of the democratic sham that the British had introduced to humor and inflate the egos of a few Indians, and then use them to perpetuate their Raj. Rahul's exercise similarly places him and his family on a pedestal completely beyond reach of everyone else. It also does not upset the pecking order of other political princes lower down the order. All that is does is that it allows a few "peasants" to compete with each other to reach somewhat higher positions where they can become more visible to the Crown Prince who can then pick a few of them every now and then and give them an entry into the exclusive club of lower placed dynastic families. By doing so, he hopes to earn their everlasting gratitude and, at the same time, keep the existing minor royal families on their toes and within their limits.
Obama represents real democracy at its best. For an Obama to happen in India, all routes that lead to and that perpetuate dynastic rule have to be ruthlessly cut. The rot started from the very top and it is only from there that its elimination has to begin.
Look at the irony. At a time when Nepal has removed its king and Bhutan's king has started the process of handing power over to the people, India has accelerated its regressive descent into dynastic Raj. And the vanguard of this decay is India's supposedly liberal and modern media, and its so-called intelligentsia.
Is this development sudden? Have we all not seen it coming for a long time? When the self-appointed Royal Family of India has been practicing this for decades and even aggressively promoting smaller princely families within the Congress party, is it any surprise that this cancer has now spread to the whole polity, save the Left and, to some degree, the BJP? This so-called "democracy" that Rahul Gandhi is ushering into the Congress is no more than a variant of the democratic sham that the British had introduced to humor and inflate the egos of a few Indians, and then use them to perpetuate their Raj. Rahul's exercise similarly places him and his family on a pedestal completely beyond reach of everyone else. It also does not upset the pecking order of other political princes lower down the order. All that is does is that it allows a few "peasants" to compete with each other to reach somewhat higher positions where they can become more visible to the Crown Prince who can then pick a few of them every now and then and give them an entry into the exclusive club of lower placed dynastic families. By doing so, he hopes to earn their everlasting gratitude and, at the same time, keep the existing minor royal families on their toes and within their limits.
Obama represents real democracy at its best. For an Obama to happen in India, all routes that lead to and that perpetuate dynastic rule have to be ruthlessly cut. The rot started from the very top and it is only from there that its elimination has to begin.
Look at the irony. At a time when Nepal has removed its king and Bhutan's king has started the process of handing power over to the people, India has accelerated its regressive descent into dynastic Raj. And the vanguard of this decay is India's supposedly liberal and modern media, and its so-called intelligentsia.
