When a 37 year old needs a 27 year old role model
The Congress Media Spin Machine has started to roll as predicted by Offstumped yesterday.
However it seems to have got its foot in its mouth on Day 1 itself.
Perhaps carried away by the euphoria over India’s victory in the first ever T20 World Cup (thanks to Prasanna Vishy for pointing this out), Congress spin meister and spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi went head over heels to put a cricketing spin on Rahul Gandhi’s elevation with these words
“The spirit of youth was reflected yesterday afternoon when Rahul Gandhi took over an important position and Dhoni and his team delivered a magnificent victory to India,” AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
“I have no doubt that Rahul Gandhi will return the compliment by decisively winning the next big match,” he said.
Unfortunately however for Singhvi the spin turned out to be a doosra.
At 27 years of age MS Dhoni has a trail blazing track record of talent and accomplishment to show while his ageing protege in Rahul Gandhi at 37 years of age has neither accomplishment nor talent to lay claim to.
With just genes and a popular last name being his only claim to political office, the not so young anymore Gandhi is also an intellectual vaccum without anything particularly insightful to offer on the defining issues of this day and age.
The media as predicted by Offstumped has gone gaga over his elevation. The lone exception is an odd posting on CNN-IBN by Bhupendra Choubey celebrating small town hero Dhoni and questioning the wisdom of fast tracking the not so young anymore Rahul Gandhi’s political career.
Offstumped Bottomline: This probably the shortest post in Offstumped History and it bears testimony to how lacking in accomplishment the subject of this post is. Abhishek Singhvi tried to a spin a good one but it ended up being a doosra blowing up on his face.
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his Valley of Fear, observes: “Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself but talent instantly recognises genius.†An old English proverb also notes, “Empty vessels make more noiseâ€, while a Tamil aphorism conveys the message, Niraikudam thalumbathu (a vessel full of water doesn’t make gurgling sounds).- from an article by K. Vijayraghavan.
Dhoni is a genius demonstrating traits of a born leader. Sachin Tendulkar has admitted to this saying in as many words that Indian Cricket is now in safe hands.
Reverse is true in case of Rahul Gandhi.
‘Empty vessels make more noise.’ People of India are no more ignorant now not to understand this. They have learnt the art of separating wheat from the chaff.
” The Chinese leadership on Tuesday congratulated Rahul Gandhi on his recent elevation as General Secretary of the All Indian Congress Committee”…
parleys with the ruling party in China. ”
” The Chinese statement congratulating Rahul Gandhi came on a day when its Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo held a series of talks on the boundary question with India’s National Security Advisor, M K NaLayaKan.”
“It also confirmed that Sonia Gandhi would soon visit the country, a decision that has been taken after secret
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Beijing_gets_ready_to_welcome_Sonia_congratulates_Rahul/articleshow/2402568.cms
So are the Chimese accomplishing what their pet breeds could not BY INDULGING THE gANDHIS ?
Jyotindra – will see what noise this vessel makes
KK – hard to tell what the chinese are upto here, remember how they played Nehru in the run up to the war in the 60s.
You should feel sorry for Abhishek, yossarin. He is a primary leader of the party, whose main responsibility consists of going on newscasts and preaching about the virtues of the first family. That has to be a pretty sad existence. At least other leaders have ministerial berths in the states and centre, or other organizational berths, but Abhi..poor guy, is stuck as this.
On Tuesday, BJP took digs at Congress on the “elevation of Rajiv Gandhi” saying that this is a manifestation of “dynastic politics” in the Congress party.
Ironically, on the same very day, the BJP President’s son – Pankaj Singh (son of Rajnath Singh) was appointed as the BJP’s Youth Wing in UP !
While the right of centre guys in this blog site are trying to corner the Congress on the issue of “dynastic politics”, your very own Party is also resorting to the same. I guess your own political party is hell bent on embarrassing you guys – on every issue you want to corner the Congress with.
WHAT SAY YOU GUYS ??
KK – why are you getting so paranoid about China inviting Sonia and congratulating Rahul Gandhi ?
Do’nt you remember how the BJP worked as a proxy for China & Pakistan and stymied the Indo-US nuclear deal? China will ever remain grateful to BJP for this yoman’s service provided to them. Not only that, in the past the BJP-led NDA govt had clandestinely agreed to compromise Indian Territory to China in lieu of China agreeing to include some parts of India in the Indian map recognised by China.
What a shame ! This party (BJP) and its supports have no right moral right to talk about how the Congress-led govt deals with China…. just as they have no moral right to raise the bogie of “dynastic politics” (when they are practicing it themselves).
This invitation by China to Sonia for a visit only underlines the Global recognition of India, the Congress party & the UPA Chairperson.
Yossarin the fun has just started. The could have been PM @ 25 is sure going to give bloggers a lot of material to right.:)
As for singhvi he reminds me of Tam and Jerry cartoons.When ever i see him on screen,invariably i smile.
PI.
“The real threat to Indian democracy is from the new breed of politicians who are taking advantage of the institution of democracy to create dynasties, a form of demonarchy such as that perpetuated by the Nehru Dynasty. There was an interesting editorial in Wall street Journal prior to UPA’s election to power in India. The editorial starts with a quote from Jawaharlal Nehru: “HISTORY TELLS US THAT HEREDITY BREEDS FOOLS IN POLITICS AND EMPIRES.†What a profound quotation! The editorial was in reference to Sonia Gandhi of India who claims entitlement to power, because her mother-in-law, Prime Minister Indira, died in her lap!”
For more on this view point see
http://www.india-forum.com/articles/5406/1/De%92mo-narchy-Of-Democratic-Republic-of-India—2
Rahul Gandhi has not served even as a Municipal Councillor nor has he established his contacts with the masses all around the country. To see in him “the future PM” timber is to beg the question. “Heredity breeds fools in politics and empires”. So the elder and original Nehru said. It will be quite a challenge to Rahul Gandhi to disprove the statement. In school essays we often used to write: some are born great; others achieve greatness; and some have greatness thrust upon them. Let the people save our country by voting out such leaders who have greatness thrust upon them, from whichever party they come.
Jyotindra,
Thanks for that Doyle quote. Here’s another one on similar lines: “The first-rate hire the first rate, and the second-rate hire the third-rate.”
Congress does have some second-rate talent. These people know that the dynasty is vital to the party’s survival. The Nehru family is no longer the vote-getter that it was once upon a time, and the “charm”, if any at all, that Rahul ‘Gandhi’ can work on the voters will not last longer than one election. The second-rate Congressmen know this. Why do they then cling to the family?
The answer lies in the fact that wihtout the dynasty at the helm, Congress will break into thousand factions. Each of the leaders of these factions is too vain and egotistic to accept any other faction leader as his leader, and the only ‘leader’ all the factions are willing to bow to is the ‘first’ family.
Thus, the second-rate Congress netas are smart enough to know that their third-rate leader is crucial for their ticket to power and vital for their own survival.
37 year old person is treating as a ‘baby’ by the media. Amazing ! Is that a too early age to prove that how worth a person is ?
Looking at the ‘real achivements’, service and talent of RG is it right to question the wisdom to project him as the ‘PM in waiting’ in the next general election. Is PM post is the dumpest job in India ?
A candidate even who want to be an IAS has to go through herculian taks but for the top most job in the country such a moron person is well qualified.
It is true congress still has valid proof that to rule India is easy as far a people are illiterate?
I remember a debate on CNN IBN with Swapan Dasgupta and the other congress Spokeslady (forgotten her name).. When dear PR Madamji started doing Rahul Ashtothara and going on about how young he is and how much responsibility her was taking…
Swapan immediately retorted with how Tony Blair was the British Prime Minister at 36, while Rahul Baba has yet to win an election.
Ever since Rahul Gandhi has stepped into politics – empty vessels have started making a lot of noise ! These guys are getting too scared of Rahul Gandhi ! He may or may not become the PM of India – but I do not see any point in opposition supporters getting too paranoid about it… as if with his entry into politics, BJP will get wiped out completely.
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