<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Servants of Sonia Society session in Hyderabad</b>
V SUNDARAM
    After the Poorna Swaraj Session of the Indian National Congress at Lahore in December 1929 and the Quit India Resolution Session of the Congress at Bombay in August 1942, the most historic session of the Congress was held at Hyderabad on 20 â 22 Jan, 2006 under the inspiring and unmatched leadership of Sonia Gandhi. At the Lahore Session in December 1929, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Congress president.
    In that session Nehru declared: 'Success comes often to those who dare and act regardless of the consequences. It seldom goes to the timid'. At the Hyderabad session of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, the legitimate scion of the Nehru-Gandhi clan, who chairs the session, has replaced the message of Nehru with the following burning words: 'Success often comes to those who creep and crawl regardless of the consequences. It seldom goes to the brave and spirited'.
    The Indian National Congress today has degenerated into what I call the SOSS. Are you getting confused? <b>I mean the Servants of Sonia Society.</b> In the glorious days of the Indian National Congress, Mahatma Gandhi was the supreme leader. In Biblical fashion we can say: 'At the beginning was Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was with the Congress. Congress was Mahatma Gandhi'. Today Sonia Gandhi is in the place of Mahatma Gandhi in the same Biblical quotation.
Mahatma Gandhi was trying to throw out the foreigners supported by his Congress party, which was fully behind him. <b>Today we have an IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Leader) who is fully supported by the Congress party. Arjun Singh is the decorated bugle-boy of the party.</b>
In this sad and disgraceful situation, I am reminded of what Mahatma Gandhi said: 'Bad self government is better than alien good government'. Dr Manmohan Singh government has reversed this position. <b>Today the collective motto of the UPA government is that a foreign-led secular government is better than a local /national /saffronised self-government!</b>
    I have referred to the SOSS. I am not using this term out of my wild imagination. Gopal Krishna Gokhale established The Servants of India Society in 1905 at Pune. I looked at the prospectus of the Society issued by Gokhale: 'Much of our work must be directed towards building up in the country a higher type of character and capacity than is generally available at present: And the advance can only be slow. Moreover the path is beset with great difficulties. One essential condition of success in this work is that a sufficient number of our countrymen must now come forward to devote themselves to the cause in the spirit in which religious work is undertaken. Public life must be spiritualised. Love of country must so fill the heart that all else shall appear as of little moment by its side. A fervent patriotism which rejoices at every opportunity of sacrifice for the motherland, a dauntless heart which refuses to be turned back from its object by difficulty or danger, a deep faith in the purpose of Providence which nothing can shake?equipped with these, the worker must start on his mission and reverently seek the joy which comes of spending oneself in the service of one's country. M K Gandhi, who did such excellent service in the struggle with the South African Government for justice for the Indians in Africa, has signified his intention of becoming a worker under the Servants of India Society'.
    The thousands of Congressmen who have assembled in Hyderabad like flocks of sheep and herds of cattle are imbued with a different spirit. <b>In the place of men like Bhagat Singh, we have men like Arjun Singh.</b> All of them are declaring: <b>'Let our public life be Soniaised, Rahulised, Priyankaised with a fervent patriotism for Italy and Quaottrocchi</b>. Love for Sonia must so fill the heart that all else should appear as of little moment by its side. Let us rejoice at every opportunity of sacrifice for Sonia and her family'. I have it on journalistic authority that thunderous cries of secular 'Jai Akhand Sonia' (mind you not communal 'Jai Akhand Bharath') rend the air in Hyderabad.
    Another thing which has become a big international joke is that the Congress president sits on a gaddhi while Dr Manmohan Singh leans on a takia on the floor. All the other Congressmen lounge in the same manner on the floor. Whom do they want to defraud and cheat in the Year of the Lord 2006? The whole world knows that they are either Western or wholly Westernised non-Indians in their culture and day-to-day patterns of living. Let them not put on a farce or facade of bumptious simplicity. I cannot help quoting the following lines of poetry by Yevgny Yevpushenko:
 'Where does it live, the face behind the face Everyone ought
To know all that there is About the face that is his. The worms climb arrogantly upwards  The coward rejoices to be up in the clouds
    Only the free man Thinks:
    'I am a slave'
    When the leaders in the BJP sit on the same gaddhi with takia on the floor, it becomes an act or gesture of communal saffronisation. When Sonia wears a tika on her forehead it becomes a symbol of truly international secularism. But when Advani or Vajpayee sport the same tika on their forehead, it becomes a lurid symbol of aggressive Hindu fundamentalism!!
    In the days of Mahatma Gandhi, there was ample room for men of brains and character in the Congress party. Very unfortunately today men who conspicuously <b>lack both brains and character only are able to make it to the apex slots in the Congress</b>. Only the shallowest and the most ignoble men are able to triumph easily over the most brilliant and high-minded in the party. In other words, the more character and capacity a candidate for office possesses the greater is his handicap. This is the solid message given by the Congress party and its President to the teeming millions of India today.
    Am I not being verbose? Perhaps, the fear of writing down eternal words is the real reason for my boisterous verbosity. But you should not forget that eternal verities rest on the precise truths. Precision consists in sacrifice. The price of brevity is blood. Mahatma Gandhi became immortal by insisting on such a precision. Sonia Gandhi's ways are different. Her political primer to all Congressmen is:
    'New thoughts excite
    The voter's dread
    Be sure you're trite
    And go ahead'
    (The writer is a retired IAS officer)
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V SUNDARAM
    After the Poorna Swaraj Session of the Indian National Congress at Lahore in December 1929 and the Quit India Resolution Session of the Congress at Bombay in August 1942, the most historic session of the Congress was held at Hyderabad on 20 â 22 Jan, 2006 under the inspiring and unmatched leadership of Sonia Gandhi. At the Lahore Session in December 1929, Jawaharlal Nehru became the Congress president.
    In that session Nehru declared: 'Success comes often to those who dare and act regardless of the consequences. It seldom goes to the timid'. At the Hyderabad session of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, the legitimate scion of the Nehru-Gandhi clan, who chairs the session, has replaced the message of Nehru with the following burning words: 'Success often comes to those who creep and crawl regardless of the consequences. It seldom goes to the brave and spirited'.
    The Indian National Congress today has degenerated into what I call the SOSS. Are you getting confused? <b>I mean the Servants of Sonia Society.</b> In the glorious days of the Indian National Congress, Mahatma Gandhi was the supreme leader. In Biblical fashion we can say: 'At the beginning was Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was with the Congress. Congress was Mahatma Gandhi'. Today Sonia Gandhi is in the place of Mahatma Gandhi in the same Biblical quotation.
Mahatma Gandhi was trying to throw out the foreigners supported by his Congress party, which was fully behind him. <b>Today we have an IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Leader) who is fully supported by the Congress party. Arjun Singh is the decorated bugle-boy of the party.</b>
In this sad and disgraceful situation, I am reminded of what Mahatma Gandhi said: 'Bad self government is better than alien good government'. Dr Manmohan Singh government has reversed this position. <b>Today the collective motto of the UPA government is that a foreign-led secular government is better than a local /national /saffronised self-government!</b>
    I have referred to the SOSS. I am not using this term out of my wild imagination. Gopal Krishna Gokhale established The Servants of India Society in 1905 at Pune. I looked at the prospectus of the Society issued by Gokhale: 'Much of our work must be directed towards building up in the country a higher type of character and capacity than is generally available at present: And the advance can only be slow. Moreover the path is beset with great difficulties. One essential condition of success in this work is that a sufficient number of our countrymen must now come forward to devote themselves to the cause in the spirit in which religious work is undertaken. Public life must be spiritualised. Love of country must so fill the heart that all else shall appear as of little moment by its side. A fervent patriotism which rejoices at every opportunity of sacrifice for the motherland, a dauntless heart which refuses to be turned back from its object by difficulty or danger, a deep faith in the purpose of Providence which nothing can shake?equipped with these, the worker must start on his mission and reverently seek the joy which comes of spending oneself in the service of one's country. M K Gandhi, who did such excellent service in the struggle with the South African Government for justice for the Indians in Africa, has signified his intention of becoming a worker under the Servants of India Society'.
    The thousands of Congressmen who have assembled in Hyderabad like flocks of sheep and herds of cattle are imbued with a different spirit. <b>In the place of men like Bhagat Singh, we have men like Arjun Singh.</b> All of them are declaring: <b>'Let our public life be Soniaised, Rahulised, Priyankaised with a fervent patriotism for Italy and Quaottrocchi</b>. Love for Sonia must so fill the heart that all else should appear as of little moment by its side. Let us rejoice at every opportunity of sacrifice for Sonia and her family'. I have it on journalistic authority that thunderous cries of secular 'Jai Akhand Sonia' (mind you not communal 'Jai Akhand Bharath') rend the air in Hyderabad.
    Another thing which has become a big international joke is that the Congress president sits on a gaddhi while Dr Manmohan Singh leans on a takia on the floor. All the other Congressmen lounge in the same manner on the floor. Whom do they want to defraud and cheat in the Year of the Lord 2006? The whole world knows that they are either Western or wholly Westernised non-Indians in their culture and day-to-day patterns of living. Let them not put on a farce or facade of bumptious simplicity. I cannot help quoting the following lines of poetry by Yevgny Yevpushenko:
 'Where does it live, the face behind the face Everyone ought
To know all that there is About the face that is his. The worms climb arrogantly upwards  The coward rejoices to be up in the clouds
    Only the free man Thinks:
    'I am a slave'
    When the leaders in the BJP sit on the same gaddhi with takia on the floor, it becomes an act or gesture of communal saffronisation. When Sonia wears a tika on her forehead it becomes a symbol of truly international secularism. But when Advani or Vajpayee sport the same tika on their forehead, it becomes a lurid symbol of aggressive Hindu fundamentalism!!
    In the days of Mahatma Gandhi, there was ample room for men of brains and character in the Congress party. Very unfortunately today men who conspicuously <b>lack both brains and character only are able to make it to the apex slots in the Congress</b>. Only the shallowest and the most ignoble men are able to triumph easily over the most brilliant and high-minded in the party. In other words, the more character and capacity a candidate for office possesses the greater is his handicap. This is the solid message given by the Congress party and its President to the teeming millions of India today.
    Am I not being verbose? Perhaps, the fear of writing down eternal words is the real reason for my boisterous verbosity. But you should not forget that eternal verities rest on the precise truths. Precision consists in sacrifice. The price of brevity is blood. Mahatma Gandhi became immortal by insisting on such a precision. Sonia Gandhi's ways are different. Her political primer to all Congressmen is:
    'New thoughts excite
    The voter's dread
    Be sure you're trite
    And go ahead'
    (The writer is a retired IAS officer)
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