So PM Manmohan Singh will retire from the position of PM sooner, or later if election results are not favorable to the Congress Party. In all events it will not be good for the Congress Party to have him in his present position for too long as it projects a weak leadership which in the present climate of India (a rejuvenated India moving forward, confidently) might not be the right leader to have, both representing the Congress Party and India.
Of course on the other hand the Congress Party will want to project continuity, and therefore there may be no questions of replacing him at this juncture before election results are out. It may appear too cynical and opportunistic to remove him now...the better to sell his term from 2004---2009, without him actually having to do the grueling politicking associated with Indian elections.
He has done a great service to India, especially the much needed economic reforms of the early 1990's which laid the foundation for India's economic miracle in the 1990's to the present. Such needed reforms and economic progress have made India economically successful, and in addition has brought India a certain degree of prestige in the eyes of the world........So he is the prime "Indian" of the nation for the last two decades. But now the time has come to pass the baton on to another...and who will that be, or should it be?
One could argue it doesn't matter who the next PM is (or opposition party leader) as the real power in the party is the lady from Italy, Sonia Gandhi. However, even so with such a back seat driver, driving the state ship, I think we cannot discount the importance of the PM position, or as leader of the opposition if Congress were to lose the next election. I am quite certain that Sonia Gandhi wasn't controlling and running ALL policies for the country, and for Congress, though the pictures with her and PM Manmohan in toe were quite ominous and telling.
It had a Cheney/Bush junior quality, though of course Bush junior and Manmohan Singh are worlds apart. Bush junior was the black sheep of the family, given the presidential position through the powerful connections of his father, despite being totally unqualified. Bush junior himself was a failed individual failing in everything in his personal life, checking into rehab for alcoholism, forever trying to live up to the achievements and expectations of the towering figure of his father. Never mind, though it makes for good melodrama in the colorful world of slippery greasy politics, and the demise of a great nation achieved single handedly by his two terms.
PM Manmohan Singh is obviously not Bush junior; he is an accomplished man, with vast degrees of competency and the tract record to prove it. One would like to think that he was not a mere token subservient front for the Italian lady, but will his successor be a token front for Sonia Gandhi....and where does it all go? For how long? For how long do we have Nur Jahan running the show of India using pliable weak fronts? Is she really qualified to run India? Is this arrangement constitutionally and administratively correct?
And so the question of Rahul Gandhi arises, too young to be PM, but hovering ever closer to that objective. Is this good for India? Is this good for the Congress Party? And here are my generalized objections to him becoming PM, or leader of the Congress Party knowing full well that the person who really matters with the requisite power in the party is Sonia Gandhi:
1) Rahul spent far too many years abroad for a Indian leader in the modern sense (1990---2002). An Indian leader should be educated ONLY in India for a variety of reasons, mainly to do with security and psychology. A person of that background can be a target of foreign intelligence, eager to influence an important country like India, a rising global player. I would be a total idiot if in his time in the USA and UK, the intelligence services of these globally proactive powers did not try to "recruit" him either directly or through Third Parties....girlfriends, business friends, boyfriends, other social friends......spy's don't have spy written on their lapels. Thus in my honest opinion and "experience" of this area over 22 years I would judge him to be a security risk for India, because of the possibility that he will/may have been recruited directly and indirectly by intelligence from the USA or UK or both.
This is a serious problem as the USA gears up against operations against Pakistan, with the possibility that American troops may occupy Pakistan, and thus America will become a "neighbor" of India security wise.......That India should not have such persons at the helm, with his mother behind him when a reincarnation of the East India company situation takes place in our time. Then if the Americans occupy Pakistan, what India will require is a leader who is a sufficiently skeptical national leader of American geostrategic designs and intentions in the region, overt and covert. Otherwise what you will have in such a future scenario is Rahul merely justifying American actions in the region, in the manner of Pranab Mukherjee when he equated the recent Mumbai incident with Global terrorism (you see the LeT is a global oufit according to Mukherjee dada), which is a fake song and prayer from the American hymn sheet. GWOT as any non-American, or even good American statesman should know is a fake false story to justify American global expansionist strategies, articulated through the PNAC 2000 document, especially during the Bush administrations term driven by the Neocons in the AEI, and later en mass given key positions in the Bush administration. Al-Qaeda simply does not exist, and neither does global Islamic terrorism, ONLY regional terrorism or insurgency depending on how you describe them.
2) Rahul's character. Has he got what it takes to be the leader of the Congress Party, and country? Does it matter if his mother is actually running the show? Yes I think it does if she is not directing all the decisions of the party. So one looks at his record, his stature, his speeches and his general demeanor ........as I understand according to many sources he failed at Harvard University, and then ran to sunny Florida to get a late degree certificate. The same with Cambridge University, and his job in London...........so shades of George Bush junior here. On this basis of no staying power, and of a weak non-committed character infused with seeking pleasure at times of national crisis (partying whilst Mumbai burned November 2008) does not bode well for him to become the leader of the party.
3) In my humble opinion dynasty politics is inappropriate for a modern party like the Congress Party, representing a great nation like India, an emerging global power. Dynasty politics is OK for North Korea, for Egypt, for Haiti, for Libya, for Pakistan and Bangladesh, BUT not for India......it is crude, filthy and smacks of nepotism and corruption. Even if Rahul is a reincarnation of Emperor Ashok, he still should be disqualified, and not crowned emperor of India. Every indications are that Rahul is not Ashok. There are many rising talented party members within the Congress Party who should be groomed and sought to replace the old tired leaders of the Congress Party in India.
India beyond the SINGLE issue of economic success faces many problems which require head on comprehensive holistic energetic tackling by future governments, otherwise the benefits of economic success will become meaningless in themselves and will be negated.......I am talking about controlling the population growth, giving India the largest population in the world a few decades later; with existing severe food insecurity covering large parts of the population; poorly managed agricultural sector; unequal economic benefits, with the % living in poverty increasing creating knock on socio-economic and security problems; infrastructure problems; lack of electricity and power distribution; corruption; naxal and other forms of political violence; poor education; extremely low levels of exports relative to the world............and so on. That outside of the old farts, and inside circle of expected leaders, a new generation of Congress Party members can be given a chance to serve India.
4) Related to point 1, but slightly more technical. No Manchurian candidates should be allowed to become the PM of India. Micro-chip technology used for mind control is at an advanced stage, and they can be implanted into the skin, and dentures during visits to dentists. Such technology has existed especially in countries such as France and the USA, since the 1960's. Rahul has been micro-chip whilst in the West and shoud be scanned for them.
These are my objections to why Rahul should not become the next leader of the Congress Party.
