In an op-ed,

Ramchandra Guha, a known Gandhi aficionado (the original gangster – Mohandas Gandhi) seems less-than-fascinated by the current affairs of the the Indian National Congress and the inheritors – the fake Gandhis – Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka. Guha makes the same allegations as Obama does in his book about the Gandhis. I am not equating Guha and Obama by any means but their sob-stories have an important common denominator – they are expressing utter grief and sadness for what could have been. They envision India to be still ruled by colonial masters, aka the fake Gandhis and they are lamenting the fact that the INC and Gandhis have made a blunder out of the multiple opportunities they have been given. In a sense, they are crying over the survival of pagans and dharmics despite full-fledged and world-wide efforts to destroy the idea of India.

Praise of the BJP

For a casual reader, Guha’s remarks on how Modi, Shan and Nadda are self-made and hard-working might seem like praise being bestowed on NaMo & company. However, the comments seem to show partial surprise as well as abysmal sadness. About he fake Gandhis, Guha states that they have all lived under the same roof and are related to each other, plus they are in politics because someone in their family had occupied a position of power.

Guha’s point here is that even though the fake Gandhis have every opportunity and possibility available to them in terms of resources; access to top institutions for education, security, and all other privileges which elites might enjoy, they have not done much with it, and this is their own fault. i.e. Gandhis have not fully learned to use their privilege and power while those like NaMo and Amit Shah who come from lower and middle class upbringing and have had no connections to real political power during their early years have surpassed the fake Gandhis in every single way. Thus, Guha, a self-proclaimed BJP critic continues to criticize the Prime Minister, Home Minister and BJP leadership but only with the view that the grapes are sour and that Pappu, male Pappu and Italian mummy have all but squandered time and money and also sympathy of the INC supporters such as Guha and therefore need to go into retirement.

Heavy Heart

Two of the most important points Guha makes but doesn’t directly spell out are: 1) All eggs were put in one basket by the INC and the political party has always had a low amount of intra-party competition. Meaning, the INC was and has been run like a dictatorship where Congressis have had to fall in line with Mummy’s diktat. 2) The INC has changed a lot since the days of Nehru and original Gandhi and that the initial purpose of the INC is far lost. Guha does mention that the fake Gandhis come off as lazy, not hard-working as well as silent or politically unsophisticated about the situations on the ground. i.e. The comment about Rahul and Priyanka’s holiday in Himachal Pradesh while recent elections were ongoing.

It is most amusing to read how Guha is writes about himself in the third person, pretending to be a critic of both parties. He despises the BJP and truly believes that the party is against minorities, Muslims and much-needed reforms in society regarding cow-slaughter laws and crack downs on forced conversions for “inter-faith” marriages is a made-up Hindutva shadyantra, and Bharat is suffering from “Hindutva authoritarianism.” Though he claims so, Guha is not a fair critic of each of the parties by any standard.

Guha’s biggest sob-story is how the BJP has made gains because of the ineptness of the fake Gandhis. He truly believes that there are three more years left till the next elections and that the INC can reinvent itself in these three years in order to save the republic of Bharat. This pipe dream is akin to longing for the British Raj… where brown servants were at beck and call of the white and some brown masters (read elites such as Guha).

Guha clearly fails to see that the making of INC went on for over a decade, even before India’s independence from the British. INC’s undoing has largely been evident in the repeated election losses and total lack of credibility and legitimacy of Pappu and Mummy. Rebuilding will require much more than Sonia not celebrating her birthday or even her stepping down. Guha stops at opining about the way forward for the “new” INC. Perhaps the only way forward is a real and permanent split in the INC but is real resurgence of the party truly possible in just three years sans the fake Gandhi $$$$?

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