And in Hyderabad city, jilted lovers, rebellious sons or distraught housewives simply jump into the Husain Sagar lake when they can't face life anymore. In fact, the suicide rate in Hyderabad city is among the highest in India.
Now India's oldest and grandest party is beginning a two-day period of introspection in Hyderabad. The 82nd plenary of the All India Congress Committee will be wafted by the breezes off the Husain Sagar lake. The breezes are gentle, yet they carry the deadly scent of suicide.
The Congress' coalition government is tottering in Karnataka. If it was Volcker in December, it's Bofors in the new year that has once again fallen on Nehru's party. The Congress' handling of the new revelations has been disastrous. Silence, denials, tame statements like "we didn't know anything about it," and "India can't control bank accounts in England". Where are the fervent men and women of the people who would have thrown themselves among the public, taken out rallies, held public meetings, gone on innovative yatras, to roar out their challenge to anyone who questioned the Congress commitment to India?
No, there are no people's leaders in sight. Nehru, Prince Charming of 1947, Oxford-educated eternal lover of India, would have died of shame and horror at such timidity. Sonia Gandhi's famous shyness and reserve seems to have percolated down to all her flock.
But politicians can't be shy! They can't afford to be reserved and aloof! Politicians are the heartbeat of the people, they must be warm, extrovert, charismatic orators. But what else but cold aloofness can one expect of a party that has no mass leaders or any political talent anymore? The party of the Indian masses, the party which Mohandas Gandhi once put on a train to Champaran and Kheda and said, "Go, go and find the Indian people," has no mass politician today.
Most senior Congressmen are gerontocrats in the Rajya Sabha, hopelessly out of touch with the rumbustious new energies of aspirant India. HRD Minister Arjun Singh came third from Satna in Madhya Pradesh in the last election he contested. Home
Minister Shivraj Patil lost in Latur and had to be brought in through the Rajya Sabha. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee won his first ever Lok Sabha election from Jhangipur in West Bengal and that too with 'covert' Left support. And Finance Minister P Chidambaram is undoubtedly brilliant, but not really a Congressman in the true sense of the word, having to rely on DMK support to win an election.
Why should a young person join the Congress today? Joining the Congress has become simply an ambitious move to acquire power not to plunge into the cause of the people with the fever and spirit of sleepless ideology. Organisational elections are held through the year, but when it comes to constituting the Congress Working Committee, most of individuals are nominated by the Supreme Leader and not elected. The cult of the Supreme Leader is creating a deep malfunction in the heart of the Congress.
Just as the sangh is pulling the BJP back from a modern future, the Supreme Leader cult is pulling the Congress back from inventing a new identity. Perhaps Sonia Gandhi is not to blame. Perhaps she's just trying in her own way to keep the show on the road and preserve her husband's inheritance, to do the best she can for the family she married into. But given even her best intentions, sadly, tragically, indeed catastrophically, the existence of the Nehru Gandhi unquestioned leadership imprisons the Congress into the trap of being household retainers where 'loyalty' will always count for more than merit, talent or mass charisma.
Supreme Leader cults, by definition, cannot create modern democratic movements. Supreme Leaders are totalitarian figures whose existence quells dissent, stamps down debate and discourages fresh talent. Supreme Leaders prize 'loyalty' above 'talent'.
Imagine if you were a young talented politician in Amethi or Rae Bareilley with a talent for oratory and a heart that beats for the people. Would you even have a ghost of a chance at getting a party ticket to contest in those constituencies and prove your talents? Not a chance. When 'loyalty' is the crucial stepping-stone to success, then no talented young politician can hope to climb the Congress ladder. When votes are seen to emanate only from the Supreme Leader, then anyone else staking a claim to being a vote getter will be seen not as a future talent but as a rival power center to the Supreme Leader, who others will energetically extinguish to prove their own undying faith in family.
Law Minister HR Bhardwaj and former External affairs Minister Natwar Singh are diehard family loyalists. The pitfalls of 'loyalty' perhaps have led them into compromising their own integrity. Slogans like 'aam aadmi' are a camouflage. They
camouflage the deep crisis that the Congress today embodies in its utter failure to be a modern democratic party of liberalizing India. Instead, the Congress today symbolises, the return of old-fashioned feudal loyalty and a certain 19th century genuflecting to the absolute monarch that characterised the princely states before independence.
Its secular ideology lies threadbare as it eagerly admits former Shiv Sainiks like Narayan Rane and Sanjay Nirupam into its ranks, individuals known for their blistering anti-Congress rhetoric. In Uttar Pradesh, in Nehru's land, in the place he fought his most crucial political battles, the Congress is sputtering like burnt out firework, getting less than 2,000 votes in Allahabad, the city of the Nehrus.
So as it comes to its Hyderabad plenary and the suicide-scented breeze blows off the Husain Sagar Lake, perhaps the Congress can ask itself a fundamental question. How can it become a party that will attract the young, the talented and the aspiring?
From the dusty tracks of Jaisalmer to the alleyways of Azamgarh, one drug has seeped into the bones of Indians: the intoxicating drug of equality. The media, the new economy, new wealth are creating a burning desire to be socially and materially equal. We Indians don't want to be servants anymore! We want to fulfill the 1940s dream of modern democratic citizens who get ahead on the basis of their talent and nothing else.
The Congress must make a choice: will it stand for the talented, dissenting, reforming perennially youthful soul of Kabir, Mira, Rammohan and Jawaharlal? Or will it sit on a decaying throne of a medieval king, in a stupor of arcane loyalty. A new virtue is in dire need of being born in the Congress: the virtue of tossing out 'loyalty' and encouraging true political talent. About the AuthorSagarika Ghose Sagarika Ghose has been a journalist for 20 years, starting her career with The Times of India, then moving to become part of the start-up team...Read Morefirst published:January 20, 2006, 12:54 ISTlast updated:January 20, 2006, 12:54 IST
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The Husain Sagar lake in Hyderabad is almost as well known for its suicides as its beauty. Across Rayalseema, Telengana and coastal Andhra, farmers drink endosulfan pesticide to end their lives.
And in Hyderabad city, jilted lovers, rebellious sons or distraught housewives simply jump into the Husain Sagar lake when they can't face life anymore. In fact, the suicide rate in Hyderabad city is among the highest in India.
Now India's oldest and grandest party is beginning a two-day period of introspection in Hyderabad. The 82nd plenary of the All India Congress Committee will be wafted by the breezes off the Husain Sagar lake. The breezes are gentle, yet they carry the deadly scent of suicide.
The Congress' coalition government is tottering in Karnataka. If it was Volcker in December, it's Bofors in the new year that has once again fallen on Nehru's party. The Congress' handling of the new revelations has been disastrous. Silence, denials, tame statements like "we didn't know anything about it," and "India can't control bank accounts in England". Where are the fervent men and women of the people who would have thrown themselves among the public, taken out rallies, held public meetings, gone on innovative yatras, to roar out their challenge to anyone who questioned the Congress commitment to India?
No, there are no people's leaders in sight. Nehru, Prince Charming of 1947, Oxford-educated eternal lover of India, would have died of shame and horror at such timidity. Sonia Gandhi's famous shyness and reserve seems to have percolated down to all her flock.
But politicians can't be shy! They can't afford to be reserved and aloof! Politicians are the heartbeat of the people, they must be warm, extrovert, charismatic orators. But what else but cold aloofness can one expect of a party that has no mass leaders or any political talent anymore? The party of the Indian masses, the party which Mohandas Gandhi once put on a train to Champaran and Kheda and said, "Go, go and find the Indian people," has no mass politician today.
Most senior Congressmen are gerontocrats in the Rajya Sabha, hopelessly out of touch with the rumbustious new energies of aspirant India. HRD Minister Arjun Singh came third from Satna in Madhya Pradesh in the last election he contested. Home
Minister Shivraj Patil lost in Latur and had to be brought in through the Rajya Sabha. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee won his first ever Lok Sabha election from Jhangipur in West Bengal and that too with 'covert' Left support. And Finance Minister P Chidambaram is undoubtedly brilliant, but not really a Congressman in the true sense of the word, having to rely on DMK support to win an election.
Why should a young person join the Congress today? Joining the Congress has become simply an ambitious move to acquire power not to plunge into the cause of the people with the fever and spirit of sleepless ideology. Organisational elections are held through the year, but when it comes to constituting the Congress Working Committee, most of individuals are nominated by the Supreme Leader and not elected. The cult of the Supreme Leader is creating a deep malfunction in the heart of the Congress.
Just as the sangh is pulling the BJP back from a modern future, the Supreme Leader cult is pulling the Congress back from inventing a new identity. Perhaps Sonia Gandhi is not to blame. Perhaps she's just trying in her own way to keep the show on the road and preserve her husband's inheritance, to do the best she can for the family she married into. But given even her best intentions, sadly, tragically, indeed catastrophically, the existence of the Nehru Gandhi unquestioned leadership imprisons the Congress into the trap of being household retainers where 'loyalty' will always count for more than merit, talent or mass charisma.
Supreme Leader cults, by definition, cannot create modern democratic movements. Supreme Leaders are totalitarian figures whose existence quells dissent, stamps down debate and discourages fresh talent. Supreme Leaders prize 'loyalty' above 'talent'.
Imagine if you were a young talented politician in Amethi or Rae Bareilley with a talent for oratory and a heart that beats for the people. Would you even have a ghost of a chance at getting a party ticket to contest in those constituencies and prove your talents? Not a chance. When 'loyalty' is the crucial stepping-stone to success, then no talented young politician can hope to climb the Congress ladder. When votes are seen to emanate only from the Supreme Leader, then anyone else staking a claim to being a vote getter will be seen not as a future talent but as a rival power center to the Supreme Leader, who others will energetically extinguish to prove their own undying faith in family.
Law Minister HR Bhardwaj and former External affairs Minister Natwar Singh are diehard family loyalists. The pitfalls of 'loyalty' perhaps have led them into compromising their own integrity. Slogans like 'aam aadmi' are a camouflage. They
camouflage the deep crisis that the Congress today embodies in its utter failure to be a modern democratic party of liberalizing India. Instead, the Congress today symbolises, the return of old-fashioned feudal loyalty and a certain 19th century genuflecting to the absolute monarch that characterised the princely states before independence.
Its secular ideology lies threadbare as it eagerly admits former Shiv Sainiks like Narayan Rane and Sanjay Nirupam into its ranks, individuals known for their blistering anti-Congress rhetoric. In Uttar Pradesh, in Nehru's land, in the place he fought his most crucial political battles, the Congress is sputtering like burnt out firework, getting less than 2,000 votes in Allahabad, the city of the Nehrus.
So as it comes to its Hyderabad plenary and the suicide-scented breeze blows off the Husain Sagar Lake, perhaps the Congress can ask itself a fundamental question. How can it become a party that will attract the young, the talented and the aspiring?
From the dusty tracks of Jaisalmer to the alleyways of Azamgarh, one drug has seeped into the bones of Indians: the intoxicating drug of equality. The media, the new economy, new wealth are creating a burning desire to be socially and materially equal. We Indians don't want to be servants anymore! We want to fulfill the 1940s dream of modern democratic citizens who get ahead on the basis of their talent and nothing else.
The Congress must make a choice: will it stand for the talented, dissenting, reforming perennially youthful soul of Kabir, Mira, Rammohan and Jawaharlal? Or will it sit on a decaying throne of a medieval king, in a stupor of arcane loyalty. A new virtue is in dire need of being born in the Congress: the virtue of tossing out 'loyalty' and encouraging true political talent.
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