15 April, 2007

Anointing the successor

It seems appropriate that three days after my column, ”The Nehru-Gandhi legacy of shame,” this should happen:

Addressing an election rally in Bijnore, his first in the current assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Prime Minister [Manmohan Singh] said “Rahul Gandhi is your future. He is sweating it out for you. Please give one chance to Congress”.

Ah well.

And by the by, many readers have pointed out to me how the new design of the Hindustan Times website is a rip-off of the New York Times design. If only they could emulate the quality of the content as well.

Update (April 16): Abhinav points me, via email, to a Deccan Chronicle piece that quotes Rahul Gandhi as saying:

You know, when our (Gandhi) family commits itself to a task, it also completes it. We never rest till we complete the task and we never retrace our steps. In the past too, members of the Gandhi family have achieved the goals they have initiated, like the freedom of the country, dividing Pakistan into two and leading the nation into the 21st century

As you’d expect, a Pakistan spokesperson has jumped on the remark and said that this proves that “India interfered in Pakistan’s affairs and tried to destabilise it.”

Really, what to say about the man? He’s actually boasting of all the things his family did?