To Goanet - I liked Rajiv Desai's post (linked here - http://rajivndesai.blogspot.com/2011/02/india-hostage-to-demented-culture.html)
because it mostly comports with my own observations, analysis, and prejudice about present-day India and Indians. Rajiv has singled out Mahatma Gandhi in his essay. I am an admirer of the ideals Mahatma Gandhi stood for and strove to live up to. But I am not an uncritical admirer of the Mahatma. Indians have installed a few of these sacred cows up there. We cannot joke about them. All talk about them has to be solemn and serious. I wish India had some of the late-night comics America has, to poke fun at Gandhi, Tagore, Nehru and others. In America, there are no sacred cows - everyone is fair game, including - especially - the Founding Fathers of that great country. That said, I think Rajiv has fingered the wrong Gandhi. Although Indians pay lip-service to the Mahatma, modern India and Indians have comprehensively repudiated him, and turned their back on his vision for the country. It is not my concern here to discuss whether that is desirable or not. What I would like to point out is that the disease (for that is what it is) that Rajiv correctly diagnoses CANNOT be linked back to the Mahatma except through some tortured by-lanes of illogic. It is puzzling though that Rajiv does not home in on the real Gandhi - or the Gandhis - who first contaminated the national DNA with their poison. I am referring to Jawaharlal's spawn Indira and the fruit of her loins, Rajiv. It was Indira who gave India its seed corn of sycophancy, dynasty politics, disregard for the rule of law, unbridled corruption, nepotism - the list can be extended indefinitely. This legacy was admirably sustained and strengtened by her college dropout son Rajiv (and before him the thuggish Sanjay). The foundations of the traits Rajiv highlights in his post can be laid at the door of this Gandhi line, not Mohandas. The baton has now passed on to the college dropout Sonia and her college dropout son Rahul who continue to defecate on India through their personal valet Invertebrate Singh. Somehow, portions of Rajiv Desai's memory seem to have gone on a vacation when it comes to this particular line of Gandhis. He loses not one opportunity to stick a bamboo up Narendra Modi for the same misdeed his beloved Rajiv G engaged in over a couple of decades earlier (keywords: Delhi, Sikhs, murder, Indira, assasination, banyan, tree, earth, shakes). He has only scorn for the BJP. But his beloved Kangress gets a pass. Not that we noticed. Regards, r
