The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Sunday, 16 December 2012

RAHUL GANDHI’S LOVE FOR POTATO, POTATO CHIPS AND COMPUTERS (VI)

IT HAS NOT TO BE ALL ABOUT FAMILY

Another thing that Rahul often quotes is the how the Gandhi family has empowered the nation. He attributes computer and mobile revolution to Rajiv Gandhi and Mr. Sam Pitroda subsequently comes into the picture. He had started using Sam Pitroda during the Uttar Pradesh polls to woo voters on the ‘caste plank’ (something that had not to work).

Campaigning on the last day before the first phase of voting, Rahul said in a rally, "You have a mobile phone. Who brought it? Rajivji... what happened...a revolution came and your voice started getting heard...Who was standing with Rajivji...Sam Pitroda from Gujarat." (http://english.samaylive.com/nation-news/politics-news/676520012/rahul-gandhi-narendra-modi-polls-election-palanpur-gujarat-natio.html)

See more of it:

Congress ropes in Sam Pitroda for Uttar Pradesh polls, India Today, January 28, 2012: Sam Pitroda said, "It was the dream of the late Rajiv Gandhi to promote IT sector which would help India make its presence felt on the global level." (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/congress-ropes-in-sam-pitroda-for-uttar-pradesh-polls/1/170940.html)

Rahul Gandhi uses Pitroda's OBC link for votes - TNN, December 18, 2011: The report says - RAMABAI NAGAR (UP): Rahul Gandhi said the country's telecom revolution ushered in by his father Rajiv Gandhi was authored by a "vishwakarma", Sam Pitroda, introducing the technocrat as a poster boy of "most backward castes" (MBCs) and giving a final thrust to Congress's social engineering plank for Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.( http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rahul-Gandhi-uses-Pitrodas-OBC-link-for-votes/articleshow/11151580.cms)

An Indian Express report puts it more clearly, “Twenty years back Rajiv Gandhi thought of bringing mobile phones to India. Do you know who brought them? Sam Pitroda, who is a Vishkarma, “Barahi” (carpenter). He brought mobile phones to your houses.” (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sam-pitroda-is-new-caste-face-as-rahul-targets-most-backwards/889077)

Rahul has been using such similar streaks in his speeches more and more. Computer, information-technology, mobile phones are big-ticket words and long-term business processes, not directly affecting the psyche of the voter on the street. Shelter, food, water, health, education and security still remain the mainstay of the development politics and not the technological advances of sophistication.

Also, these being the long-term investment sectors,  what Rahul mentions attributable to his family and his people, is not acceptable. In a democracy like India, one government takes a decision and another one continues with it, and the industry builds more on it with the increasing consumerism. Governments have nothing to boast in the process – not any longer.


And so we often hear the retribution - from media reports:

Gujarat polls 2012: Rahul takes on Narendra Modi in final hours of campaigning - The Economic Times, December 14, 2012 - The report said: “Gandhi then narrated a familiar litany of Congress achievements, including the Right To Information Act and the 'mobile revolution', which he credited to his father, Rajiv Gandhi. The late prime minister had appointed Sam Pitroda as his technology advisor and Pitroda is credited with heralding the first telecom revolution in India. However, linking Rajiv Gandhi to the 'mobile phone revolution', seemed far-fetched.” (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/gujarat-polls-2012-rahul-takes-on-narendra-modi-in-final-hours-of-campaigning/articleshow/17607989.cms)

And from opponents like Modi: The Tribune, December 16, 2012 – He doesn’t spare Rahul Gandhi either, referring to him scornfully as “Rahul Baba”. Late Friday evening, while addressing a packed meeting in his constituency Maninagar, he tells the audience that “Rahul Baba claims his father brought about the mobile revolution.” And then asks, “Did Rahul Baba’s father give you mobile sets?” When the crowds in unison answer in the negative, much to their amusement, he tells them, “Then ask Rahul Baba to please distribute a free mobile set to each of you.”  (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121216/ground.htm)

A personality cult is never a healthy sign for any democracy, be it of Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi.

To continue..

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/  
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