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Showing posts with label Tony Blair. Show all posts
Why Won’t the Indians Accept Rahul Gandhi as Their Own Obama?
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?
Who Needs Tony Blair for British P M Any Way?
In the olden days, not so long ago, heads of states used to look older, wiser, indomitable and even formidable. These days a G8 summit photo has many baby faces of leaders who don't have a clue of not only how to deal with the Euro crisis but even of the price of milk they still drink. Gone are the days when the British voices of Churchill, Wilson and Thatcher were carried along as far as the waves of Britannia reached.
If France's Sarkozy shuns extending a hand or Germany's Angela Merkel throws a disapproving glance, at a British Prime Minister, only we, the voters who put too much confidence in young blood, disregarding the need for time and experience for human development, are to be blamed.
Unfortunately, the British don't have much of a choice. All they have to show the world is another dour young face which shows no intention to put on a smile in the near future. The poor taste the leader of the Labour party has shown in challenging his brother didn't hold much promise as no one needs a potential sibling rivalry in the Downing Street, hurting national interest. By failing to disprove the skeptics by pulling out any signs of a spectacular leadership, the Labour leader has already lost hismagic.
The recent candid admission of Tony Blair, that he will accept the post of the Prime Minister again if offered, raises the question if the British don't have an alternative. However, judging from the avalanche of abusive comments and reactions Tony receives to his posts in the Huff post, one would agree with him that he has only fat hopes of that ever happening.
Our memory is getting easier to erase and rewrite than the fastest micro chip, especially when instant self gratification is the only thing everyone seems to want anymore. Who does bother to reflect on a decade which passed by in which the British pride came across as tolerable to the rest of the world because it was backed by an appearance of leadership, stability, achievement and a feel good factor in the British Isles ?
For example, we have forgotten the Euphoria of winning the rights to hold the 2012 Olympics making the French very sore indeed and how Tony Blair, David Beckham and Prince Charles and others won that for us. If we failed in translating the hard won victory in to a much bigger fame, prosperity and throbbing flow of enthusiastic tourists to London, we can of course blame the British weather.
No one remembers how the bombs of Omagh were doused slowly but surely thanks to the determination of a British Prime Minister and parliament aided by a helping hand of a U.S. president. Thankfully those who had to fight the war on terror no longer had to face a pointing finger at them and a decade later hands could be held out to forgive and forget.
When we whisk through the widened motor ways and newly built bridges from Land's End to John o' Groats, we tend to forget the long road works and delays which took a decade and meant nothing but investment and employment under stable and equitable governance.
When we drive in to the suburbs more and more towns all over the United Kingdom and reminded of London with big signs of prosperity like the bill boards of supermarkets and other commercial outlets, we know wealth and development indeed has arrived in the remote corners during the last decade.
Lying on a hospital bed waiting for a heart procedure in modern Heart Lung centres and other advanced facilities across the country, many people wonder how lucky they are to receive the type of care they get, but forget where it came from.
For those who left the country in the middle of the miner's strike and returned, a decade without strikes and disruptions must have made the UK an unreal land. With happier, nurses, teachers and police men and women and numerous other public sector staff, no wonder life in the UK appeared better and easier with a smashing housing boom as poof of the pudding.
Who can forget the Spice Girls, David Beckham and Manchester united and many other feel good contributions all of which add to the icing on the cake of three labour governments, which in many ways turned the eyes of the world on the UK with the respect it deserved.
Not that all of these were achieved by Tony Blair alone, but he was the Prime Minister and leader, despite the unfortunate circumstances he had to turn away from a fourth term.
For those who believe he let us down in his decision to go after WMD, what are we to do with another dictator in another country who flaunts another pile of those after a decade?
Tony Blair may never be elected again to become the leader and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but with Hollande of France, Merkel of Germany, and Obama of the United States, who are going to lead the world in this decade, there will be a gaping hole in the British chair around the table.
Article first published as Who Needs Tony Blair for British PM Any Way? on Technorati.
If France's Sarkozy shuns extending a hand or Germany's Angela Merkel throws a disapproving glance, at a British Prime Minister, only we, the voters who put too much confidence in young blood, disregarding the need for time and experience for human development, are to be blamed.
Unfortunately, the British don't have much of a choice. All they have to show the world is another dour young face which shows no intention to put on a smile in the near future. The poor taste the leader of the Labour party has shown in challenging his brother didn't hold much promise as no one needs a potential sibling rivalry in the Downing Street, hurting national interest. By failing to disprove the skeptics by pulling out any signs of a spectacular leadership, the Labour leader has already lost hismagic.
The recent candid admission of Tony Blair, that he will accept the post of the Prime Minister again if offered, raises the question if the British don't have an alternative. However, judging from the avalanche of abusive comments and reactions Tony receives to his posts in the Huff post, one would agree with him that he has only fat hopes of that ever happening.
Our memory is getting easier to erase and rewrite than the fastest micro chip, especially when instant self gratification is the only thing everyone seems to want anymore. Who does bother to reflect on a decade which passed by in which the British pride came across as tolerable to the rest of the world because it was backed by an appearance of leadership, stability, achievement and a feel good factor in the British Isles ?
For example, we have forgotten the Euphoria of winning the rights to hold the 2012 Olympics making the French very sore indeed and how Tony Blair, David Beckham and Prince Charles and others won that for us. If we failed in translating the hard won victory in to a much bigger fame, prosperity and throbbing flow of enthusiastic tourists to London, we can of course blame the British weather.
No one remembers how the bombs of Omagh were doused slowly but surely thanks to the determination of a British Prime Minister and parliament aided by a helping hand of a U.S. president. Thankfully those who had to fight the war on terror no longer had to face a pointing finger at them and a decade later hands could be held out to forgive and forget.
When we whisk through the widened motor ways and newly built bridges from Land's End to John o' Groats, we tend to forget the long road works and delays which took a decade and meant nothing but investment and employment under stable and equitable governance.
When we drive in to the suburbs more and more towns all over the United Kingdom and reminded of London with big signs of prosperity like the bill boards of supermarkets and other commercial outlets, we know wealth and development indeed has arrived in the remote corners during the last decade.
Lying on a hospital bed waiting for a heart procedure in modern Heart Lung centres and other advanced facilities across the country, many people wonder how lucky they are to receive the type of care they get, but forget where it came from.
For those who left the country in the middle of the miner's strike and returned, a decade without strikes and disruptions must have made the UK an unreal land. With happier, nurses, teachers and police men and women and numerous other public sector staff, no wonder life in the UK appeared better and easier with a smashing housing boom as poof of the pudding.
Who can forget the Spice Girls, David Beckham and Manchester united and many other feel good contributions all of which add to the icing on the cake of three labour governments, which in many ways turned the eyes of the world on the UK with the respect it deserved.
Not that all of these were achieved by Tony Blair alone, but he was the Prime Minister and leader, despite the unfortunate circumstances he had to turn away from a fourth term.
For those who believe he let us down in his decision to go after WMD, what are we to do with another dictator in another country who flaunts another pile of those after a decade?
Tony Blair may never be elected again to become the leader and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but with Hollande of France, Merkel of Germany, and Obama of the United States, who are going to lead the world in this decade, there will be a gaping hole in the British chair around the table.
Article first published as Who Needs Tony Blair for British PM Any Way? on Technorati.
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