08-07-2006, 11:15 PM
<b>Last legs </b> <b>The Congress party is in a serious crisis. </b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>What is at the core of it is protecting the Gandhi family and its dynastic ambitions, without a care about what happens to larger Congress interests, or indeed governance issues, or to give Manmohan Singh a decent chance of success. Except, this obsession of keeping the dynasty from harmâs way is hurting everybody, the Gandhi family being sought to be protected, the Congress party, the government, and of course the country,</b> which has lost the confidence of the NDA years.
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Obviously, there are individual motives, and there are also party and Gandhi family interests involved. <b>Turning the needle of suspicion away from the party on Natwar Singh would have turned suspicions away from the Gandhi family, because it was heavily whispered that they were major non-contractual beneficiaries in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal.</b> This selective indictment of Natwar Singh would have anyhow not washed, because the Volcker report had indicted the Congress party after a long investigation. Why make it worse by leaking against Natwar? Here, individual interests precede party interests, somebody couldnât resist the temptation to finger Natwar even if it hurt general party interests.
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<b>Although Sonia Gandhi leads the Congress, she has presided over its collapse in power, which is unusual. You could say there is now a coalition within a coalition, the Congress is no longer that fully composite party but a coalition of interests, and since the binding forces are weakening, it wonât survive as a national party long</b>
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>What is at the core of it is protecting the Gandhi family and its dynastic ambitions, without a care about what happens to larger Congress interests, or indeed governance issues, or to give Manmohan Singh a decent chance of success. Except, this obsession of keeping the dynasty from harmâs way is hurting everybody, the Gandhi family being sought to be protected, the Congress party, the government, and of course the country,</b> which has lost the confidence of the NDA years.
...............
Obviously, there are individual motives, and there are also party and Gandhi family interests involved. <b>Turning the needle of suspicion away from the party on Natwar Singh would have turned suspicions away from the Gandhi family, because it was heavily whispered that they were major non-contractual beneficiaries in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal.</b> This selective indictment of Natwar Singh would have anyhow not washed, because the Volcker report had indicted the Congress party after a long investigation. Why make it worse by leaking against Natwar? Here, individual interests precede party interests, somebody couldnât resist the temptation to finger Natwar even if it hurt general party interests.
.............
<b>Although Sonia Gandhi leads the Congress, she has presided over its collapse in power, which is unusual. You could say there is now a coalition within a coalition, the Congress is no longer that fully composite party but a coalition of interests, and since the binding forces are weakening, it wonât survive as a national party long</b>
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