Lasting Rose

I think he (Rahul) is one of the most talented, able and insightful of the younger generation of politicians worldwide, but how he ends up in your politics again, that's for you, for him and for his party to decide. But I think he has got first class mind and great commitment to India.

That opinion of Tony Blair, given during a visit to Delhi in 2008 as an ex Prime Minister of the U.K, turned out to be as much intuitive as it was prophetic.

Four years on, Rahul Gandhi has proved his worth as a political leader in his own right and not just as the son of Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress Party. He has been favoured as a leader who can take the party to win the next election and foisted by a majority of the Party leaders to the position of the Vice President.

His insightful mind and commitment to his country could be glimpsed from the pathos of his acceptance speech which the Indian media has ascribed as the "Obama moment" of the party. His speech, revealing his personal anguish and hinting a lack of avarice for power, which he could have grabbed anytime he wanted, is seen as a rare one in the Indian politics.

Despite this, why is India, especially its youth, judging from the chatter on the social web and the Indian media, so sceptical and suspicious of the young Gandhi?

Karma - the Indian perception of life.
The reason, perhaps, lies in the Indian perception of life which writes off fellow human beings and their achievements and failures as the reward for the rights and wrongs of past births, something they call Karma. Indians have scant respect, admiration or gratitude for stuff others do in this life and don't care why people behave or act in the way they do.
The tragedy of India is the hollowness of its youth. If only they could stop to think for a moment and look in to the psyche of Rahul Gandhi, who rarely smiles and appears more melancholic than angry, if only they try to look deep in to the make up of his personality, perhaps they could see like Tony Blair did, the making of a great future leader.

Rahul Gandhi - Indian or Italian?
Rahul Gandhi, still a bachelor at forty three, is a young Indian much different from any average youth of modern India. In fact there are many things "Obamasque" about him which a majority of the Indian population fail to grasp. For a start, like Barack Obama, Rahul Gandhi is born with an identity crisis, being born to a Caucasian mother and an Asian father.
A mixed parentage is rare in modern India after the departure of the British. While Rahul Gandhi is an Indian for millions of Indians, for political mileage, he is often depicted as an Italian prince, out to lootIndia's poor. As Obama had discovered, finding an identity must have been truly an excruciating experience for the young Gandhi, with never ending arguments with himself.

Being born in to terror and brutal violence is not for everyone.

"I was taught to play badminton by 2 security guards. Then one day, they killed my grandmother and took away the balance from my life."

A few years later the young Gandhi lost his father in a suicide terror attack and had to live under commando protection ever since. How many of India's young can even imagine growing up like that and still being sane?
Yet Rahul Gandhi had no choice but live through it and endure being ridiculed as an "Amul Baby" by his political opponents.

Coping with the high and low of absolute power
Coping with gaining and losing power is a nightmare for most people. It is almost impossible to imagine having to grow up in the lap of a family which has only tryst with absolute power and tragic death for decades. Knowing one day it may be your turn and live with the thought is nerve wracking enough to drive anyone really insane.

There is no pressure like the pressure of political legacy.
One might say Rahul could have escaped from it all, perhaps by leaving the country. Not an option if you had to bear the immense political legacy of the Nehru family, especially if you had accusation about your late father to disprove and meaningless political murders with no villains to avenge.


The notion of dynasty is actually nasty politics.
A dynasty is something in which sons are anointed or fathers are annihilated for power. The facts are starting from Rahul's grandmother Indira to Rahul; each Gandhi was foisted in to the position of the leader of the Congress party, in tragic circumstances or in the face of political decimation. Yet each of the Gandhi has been accused of dynastic ambition. That is also why majority of Indians can't grasp what Rahul meant when he said in his speech:

"Last night, everyone congratulated me. But my mother came to my room and she sat and cried. Because she understands that the power that so many see is poison. She can see it because she is not attached to it (power)"

All of these should explain why in country in which dynastic politics is the norm, with regional and local politicians practicing it without shame, Rahul Gandhi was seen as a reluctant leader, despite having been given the power on a platter. Chances are you may never see Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India even if he will win many more elections for his party.
For those who really admire Rahul Gandhi and for those millions who believe and clamor on the social web that everything about him is phony  an attempt to understand the makeup of his persona may be worthwhile.

One day, when Barack Obama will no more be the President of the U.S., someone will venture to make a movie on his life. It will be almost impossible to find an actor willing to enact the President's role because the performance of the future actor will be measured against that of the President himself, who in real life was forced to live through the toughest of theatrical moments, like when he addressed the Newton School gathering after the massacre.

No actor, however capable, can bring out the agony of the president, who has to suppress his internal turmoil and present a different face to the nation for the sake of the position he is holding. No director can pull off visualisation of a complex surge of emotions of a whole nation behind a tragic event like that happened in Newtown, which the President was subjected to over and above his own turmoil.
There are moments when a president has to deliver inspiring speeches to convey his vision or unify the country against adversity. Then there are occasions no one wishes to face in life, when the President is expected to address the nation, to say something, to console, assure and somehow alleviate the collective burden on the nation's psyche. The Newtown School speech in the aftermath of the massacre of twenty innocent children and six of their teachers was one such testing moment for President Obama.
Though several tragedies have occurred during his presidency where he had to deliver consoling and supporting messages to the nation, the Newtown tragedy, coming right after a very divisive election in which he won against all odds, must have been very different and difficult for the president.
It is hard to understand, why Barrack Obama is seen as the first "black" President by many Americans and even by leading media though he was born to a white Caucasian lady. Though for the rest of the world this is a non issue, it is the perception. However, this must have been the most difficult aspect for President Obama, who had to face and address a town whose population and the bereaved they came to mourn are almost entirely white.
No one can deny that such was the ferocity and divisiveness of the politics which only just ended in his re-election, which many in the nation still do not accept, at least have great difficulty to reconcile. No one can deny that the second amendment, which the President could do little about and something which his audience hold sacred had to do with the tragedy.
That, President Obama, as a very loving parent of two children couldn't hold his tears while announcing the tragedy that occurred at Newtown as a national tragedy, didn't somehow alleviate his dilemma. Where trust was at best fragile, it must have been very difficult to find the right words to express and communicate something meaningful both to the community and to the nation at large.
The Newtown tragedy has occurred in the Christmas season, when everyone has to rejoice and not bereave, has rendered the event poignant beyond imagination. Mundane call of Presidential duties in the face of the Fiscal Cliff which he has very little time to sort out before the nation fall off it and the nomination of his future secretary of state must have been adding immense pressure to his working life. Yet the President was duty bound to come to the bereaved, and address and console as the supreme commander.
President Obama did come to Newtown, and delivered the most difficult speech of his presidency with amazing grace. With measured words delivered in a way only Barack Obama, the great communicator can do he somehow spoke, conveying the consolation and support of the Nation he took to Newtown and asking for the Nation's support and resolve to enable him for meaningful and effective action.
Without referring to the Second Amendment or NRA he brought home the need for controlling the ownership and accessibility of dangerous weapons. Without admonishing, he brought home the need for better parenting and teaching and loving children. In as few words as possible he reminded Americans about family values they all need to return to.

You handled this horrific situation with such honest sympathy & grace. You have done our nation (and yourself) proud during one of our darkest moments. I am proud to call you My President.

For those who believe in celestial interventions in affairs on the earth, there were indications of the re election of President Barack Obama and even a third term in office. But for mundane observers, a look at the events to the run up of the presidential election, its conduct and the post election realities raise the question whether Barack Obama will be the next three term president of the U.S. In fact most of the issuesObama is likely to address might need well over a decade to solve and for a determined President too difficult to give up before he achieve.


A taller President.

By achieving the impossible and winning the re election, Barack Obama has grown taller in stature virtually dwarfing almost everyone else, not just in the U.S. but on the world scene.
First, let's remember what Obama did in the first term: he passed the most substantial new element in the American safety net in generations, Obamacare. He helped pass a massive re-regulation of the financial sector, the Dodd-Frank bill. He passed the biggest stimulus package in our history, which I believe--Ezra Klein convinced me of this--prevented the worst economic depression in four generations. He did these things in the first two years, of course, when Democrats controlled Congress, but he did them. They were not chopped liver, whether or not you liked them. Q&As, Washington Post