01-24-2006, 11:10 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sycophancy INC. </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Ever since Jawaharlal Nehru ensured that the mantle of supreme leader of the Congress remained with the family, the party that has ruled India since 1947, barring the 10 odd years when it was forced to occupy the Opposition benches, has evolved into a remarkable organisation that cannot look beyond the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty for inspiration and leadership. Irrespective of what individual Congress leaders may say in private during off-the-record discussions, they behave in the most fawning manner when it comes to declaring their loyalty to the party's first family.
As much was on display during the All-India Congress Committee plenary in Hyderabad where party elders, who have otherwise been rendered slothful by age, were amazingly energetic in demanding that Mr Rahul Gandhi be made a member of the Congress Working Committee. Other party leaders, who did not wish to miss the opportunity to demonstrate that there is nothing which distinguishes them from Nehru-Gandhi family retainers, refused to allow the plenary to proceed till<b> "the symbol of youth", the "chirag (lamp) of hope" </b>addressed the congregation of sycophants who had ostensibly gathered to take their party and supreme leader to greater heights of political and electoral success.
This despite Congress president Sonia Gandhi - the mother of their hope, their chirag - coyly asking her courtiers not to lavish praise on "individuals" but focus on the agenda of the jamboree. That was, of course, asking for too much; for, the main agenda item of any AICC session is competitive declaration of loyalty to the dynasty. Everything else - the resolutions, the speeches, the promises - is but an excuse for getting together for this appalling collective tribute to the reigning deity of India's oldest political party that was in the vanguard of the freedom movement.
Hence, the cloying, maudlin and, some would say, fulsome, praise heaped on Ms Gandhi by such able colleagues as Mr Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, Mr Arjun Singh and Mr Vyalar Ravi. Such is Mr Arjun Singh's concern for the future of India's youth, which he has single-handedly destroyed after taking charge as Human Resource Development Minister in 2004, that he repeatedly pleaded with Ms Gandhi to draft her son for big time politics and larger - as well as, presumably, greater - things in life.
<b>Mr Dasmunshi was so carried away by the urge to outdo Mr Singh that he described the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty as "not just a family, but the beacon (of India), a flame of revolution..." </b>Mr Dasmunshi is welcome to speak for himself and his fellow flatterers; he would do well not to speak for India. Nor should Mr Vyalar Ravi labour under the belief that he speaks for the people when he genuflects so cravenly at the altar of the dynasty.
The icing on the cake of flattery that was the centrepiece at Sunday's proceedings came in the form of a special resolution, drafted and deposited by AICC delegates from Rae Bareli, Amethi and Sultanpur, seeking the immediate elevation of Mr Rahul Gandhi as a party general secretary.
The party's chirag, who spoke to a spellbound audience on Monday, made bold to wonder why the Congress has been virtually wiped out in north India. Actually, the Congress is a spent force in most of India, but we shall let that detail pass, given his knowledge of and grasp over politics. Mr Rahul Gandhi need not look beyond the sycophancy at the AICC plenary for an answer to his question.
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
Ever since Jawaharlal Nehru ensured that the mantle of supreme leader of the Congress remained with the family, the party that has ruled India since 1947, barring the 10 odd years when it was forced to occupy the Opposition benches, has evolved into a remarkable organisation that cannot look beyond the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty for inspiration and leadership. Irrespective of what individual Congress leaders may say in private during off-the-record discussions, they behave in the most fawning manner when it comes to declaring their loyalty to the party's first family.
As much was on display during the All-India Congress Committee plenary in Hyderabad where party elders, who have otherwise been rendered slothful by age, were amazingly energetic in demanding that Mr Rahul Gandhi be made a member of the Congress Working Committee. Other party leaders, who did not wish to miss the opportunity to demonstrate that there is nothing which distinguishes them from Nehru-Gandhi family retainers, refused to allow the plenary to proceed till<b> "the symbol of youth", the "chirag (lamp) of hope" </b>addressed the congregation of sycophants who had ostensibly gathered to take their party and supreme leader to greater heights of political and electoral success.
This despite Congress president Sonia Gandhi - the mother of their hope, their chirag - coyly asking her courtiers not to lavish praise on "individuals" but focus on the agenda of the jamboree. That was, of course, asking for too much; for, the main agenda item of any AICC session is competitive declaration of loyalty to the dynasty. Everything else - the resolutions, the speeches, the promises - is but an excuse for getting together for this appalling collective tribute to the reigning deity of India's oldest political party that was in the vanguard of the freedom movement.
Hence, the cloying, maudlin and, some would say, fulsome, praise heaped on Ms Gandhi by such able colleagues as Mr Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, Mr Arjun Singh and Mr Vyalar Ravi. Such is Mr Arjun Singh's concern for the future of India's youth, which he has single-handedly destroyed after taking charge as Human Resource Development Minister in 2004, that he repeatedly pleaded with Ms Gandhi to draft her son for big time politics and larger - as well as, presumably, greater - things in life.
<b>Mr Dasmunshi was so carried away by the urge to outdo Mr Singh that he described the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty as "not just a family, but the beacon (of India), a flame of revolution..." </b>Mr Dasmunshi is welcome to speak for himself and his fellow flatterers; he would do well not to speak for India. Nor should Mr Vyalar Ravi labour under the belief that he speaks for the people when he genuflects so cravenly at the altar of the dynasty.
The icing on the cake of flattery that was the centrepiece at Sunday's proceedings came in the form of a special resolution, drafted and deposited by AICC delegates from Rae Bareli, Amethi and Sultanpur, seeking the immediate elevation of Mr Rahul Gandhi as a party general secretary.
The party's chirag, who spoke to a spellbound audience on Monday, made bold to wonder why the Congress has been virtually wiped out in north India. Actually, the Congress is a spent force in most of India, but we shall let that detail pass, given his knowledge of and grasp over politics. Mr Rahul Gandhi need not look beyond the sycophancy at the AICC plenary for an answer to his question.
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