Priyanka Gandhi Vadra targeted PM Modi over the latter’s repeated Nehru bashing, and i felt a some happiness that someone was voicing what i had felt for 6 odd years now, and done so in a rhetorically effective way (unlike her brother).
“When Done Nehru Bashing, Debate Unemployment”: Priyanka Gandhi’s Top Quotes
You can find the entire speech on YouTube : LIVE: Smt. Priyanka Gandhi ji speaks in Parliament on the 150th anniversary of ‘Vande Mataram’.
Ram Guha has said multiple times that if Rahul and Priyanka were to leave the INC, the charge of dynasty and sins Nehru and Indira (real and alleged) wouldn’t pull the INC back as much as it does. But i think we are at a point where even firm BJP supporters are fed up of BJP’s Nehru bashing and its bound to have diminishing returns.
Its been 12 years and Nehru bashing brings cheers from only the hardcore supporters and none others. Maybe we are at an inflection point, maybe not.
Personally I remain an admirer of Nehru while disagreeing with his decisions profoundly. Maybe i will expand upon my criticisms and praise at some point but i do not think Gandhi erred massively in choosing Nehru over Patel. While i do think Gandhi shouldn’t have gone against democratic nature of congress (which had chosen Patel), I do think Nehru would have been a better PM had Patel remained alive longer into Nehru’s term. A bit cliched but Nehru’s life kind of reminds me of famous lines from Dark knight trilogy.
You die a hero or you stay alive long enough to become a villain.
I am not into fortune telling but i think the path Modi is following is very similar to his great opponent (atleast in his own mind), Jawahar Lal Nehru. I think they’re a bit more alike that their followers think. But all thats for another time.
she gives strong Indira vibes
The OTT Nehru bashing is almost litmus test indicator for me – folks who resort to this excessively are invariably incapable of being objective. Tribal perspectives bore me, on either side of the spectrum.
ur author now btw
thanks.-
who is serving as the member of the Lok Sabha for Wayanad, Kerala, since November 2024
I guess one State where her Mixed Heritage is not not a disadvantage.
She then completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Jesus and Mary College, New Delhi,[2] and a master’s degree in Buddhist studies in 2010
Nice education background./ Too bad no Economic or Technical Education
I think Kerala is their safe seat; they are allowed to contest from multiple seats?
Would a Mixed Heritage (half Italian) stand a a chance in even BJP stronghold in another state.
From comments in this forum, I dont think so. Thats the supposedly “educated” cosmopolitan crowd
I donβt think they are perceived as foreign
Couple of comments on this blog considered that my ancestors were collaborators for being mixed and Christian (of course when you learn English and aspire to live in the West you are a collaborator and sellout, That is for those made those comments)
Soon after the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notice to Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s to clarify his citizenship, his sister and the party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday dismissed the allegations as rubbish and said her brother was an Indian who was born and brought up in India
https://www.outlookindia.com/national/india-news-rubbish-everyone-knows-rahul-an-indian-priyanka-gandhi-on-citizenship-notice-news-329555
yes I guess Rajiv never thought he would become PM
Sonia ji is frequently referred to as the “Italian nanny” by BJP supporters.
Rahul had to say he is a Brahmin who wears the caste-thread. This seemed like a concession to “soft Hindutva”.
Well, Sonia herself is Italian so I don’t know what you are on about? And BJP supporters may be brash puerile but it is the Indian voter that essentially made her queen for 10 years.
who are you? change ur pseudonym pls
he is a Brahmin, he can own it
I’m not really concerned about his personal religious views.
But the fact that he made a big deal about wearing the caste thread was a concession to “soft Hindutva”.
In his article about Zohran Mamdani, Harsh Mander asked why just as Zohran says “My mother is Hindu”, Rahul can’t say “My mother is Catholic”.
what BS is this? who says Rahul can’t say that his mother is catholic?
that’s actually a bit offensive re Zohran
What’s offensive? Comparing him to Rahul Gandhi?
Harsh Mander’s article was in the context of why there can’t be an Indian Zohran Mamdani. Zohran identifies as Muslim but he has no problem saying “My mother is Hindu”.
Mander was asking why Rahul can’t say “I’m a Brahmin but my mother is Catholic and my paternal grandfather was Parsi”.
Sbbarkum and Kabir – if you have genuine interest in this topic:
try not projecting your own ignorant prejudices on Indian politics ( which is the most complex in the world)
If you focus on noise you will keep on making weird projections as you do.
Sonia won all her Lok Sabha elections handsomely from Rae Bareli in heart of Uttar Pradesh.
Despite her Italian heritage she is vastly more popular than Rahul or Priyanka.
As i have posted in comment above – from 1998 to 2012 odd she was was popular as Vajpayee and Advani. She was the de facto ruler of the country for 10 years.
The fall of congress party has also coincided with her failing health. Unlike her son and daughter she understood politics.
The reason Rahul went to Wayanad is
1. Kerala congress is still a force to reckon with unlike rest of country where INC has become a joke on ground.
2. Demographics of Wayanad make it easier for him
+1 yes you are right Gaurav
Sonia won all her Lok Sabha elections handsomely from Rae Bareli in heart of Uttar Pradesh.
Isnt that the home of the Nehru
Dynastic Politics. Also sympathy vote for deaths of Husband and Mother in law
Much like Srimavo Bandaranaike getting elected after husbands SWRD’s assassination. Her first opportunity as a politician and worlds first woman PM. Later she became one of the best leaders of SL
Video Sirimavo Bandaranaike to State Welcome in China 1963 (I was 4 years old)
https://youtu.be/cz1VtnwR6tA
fascinating
A simpering Srimavo at BBC interview in 1961
She was 45 at that time and three children,
Who would have thought she would go on to be a World Leader. She was a Force in the Non Aligned nations.
Read her Wiki
https://youtu.be/N6irRv1q8L4
ofcourse – Sonia isnt getting elected without dynasty: but thats true for her husband and her MIL;
Even Nehru got where he got as he was Motilals son;
Sympathy votes make you win 1 time, not 6.
During her peak she could have won arguably 1 of 50 odd seats across 8-9 states .
Rahul on the other hand has only a handful of safe seats – many of them in Kerala and some in TN due to strength of their allies.
Its pretty self-evident if one observes it
why are the kids so weak. is Priyanka the same?
the wives and daughters eclipse their Patriarchs…
is the family still prominent?
Indians were fine with Sonia leading India for 10 years. She was the defacto umero uno of the country for 10 years. Ofcourse she wasnt as popular as Modi but one could argue she was as popular as Vajpayee.
Its the sins they committed when in power that came in to roost in 2014 in public perception.
Anyone thinking Rahul’s Italian heritage matters either way in Indian politics doesn’t know anything about it.
Sonia’s seat was Raebareli ; heart of Uttar Pradesh which she won for 5-6 times.
Thats the seat Rahul holds at the moment.
When Congress won in 2004, Sonia ji chose not to become Prime Minister.
Arguably, part of her reasoning was that because of her foreign background, the BJP would make a big deal about why she was not acceptable as PM. This is despite the fact that in South Asian culture, the daughter-in-law becomes assimilated to her husband’s family and not the other way around.
Back in the old days of this very blog, people referred to her as the “Italian nanny”.
Of course, you could argue that for strategic reasons Sonia ji felt it was more important she remain party president than become PM.
@XTM – new to the site. I was just trying to show a mirror to Kabir with the name but I realize it is not in line with the principles of moderation on this forum so changed that.
@Kabir – You are basically parroting Congress party lines as to why Sonia chose to not be PM. To anyone who followed things closely, it was obvious that she chose to be “queen” as I alluded to above by instituting a completely unconstitutional NAC that governed the country under her direct control. But I guess the fault is mine for expecting a well-informed take on India.
Nice handle – yes itβs best you donβt go down the Kabir wormhole hahah ..
Gaurav has a much better take on Indian politics; more light than heat ..
You’re new to the blog so I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. If I find that you are engaging in trollish behavior, I will simply stop engaging with you.
It’s been twenty years, so forgive me if I’m not correct in all the details, but I do remember this argument being made at the time that India would not accept a foreign-born PM. This must have been part of Sonia ji’s calculus for choosing Manmohan ji as PM. Admittedly, there may have been other reasons.
As for “well-informed takes on India”: I read “The Wire” and “Scroll.in” regularly. I’m far more “well informed” about India than many Indians who comment about Pakistan on this blog are about Pakistan. Most you don’t even bother to read DAWN.
If you think propaganda peddling outlets like the Wire are a source of truth then I have a Tejo Mahalaya in Agra to sell you.
I also did not claim any knowledge of Pakistani politics or governmental structure but I am absolutely more qualified than you to judge your under-/mal-informed take on Sonia’s role in the government from 2004-2014. While I may not be a constitutional law expert, I did study Indian law. My self appeal to expertise notwithstanding, anyone with half a brain can tell you what an absolute joke the NAC was on the democratic process in India but I guess understanding democratic processes is expecting too much from a Pakistani?
Your describing “The Wire” as “propaganda peddling outlet” just reveals your place on the political spectrum. It’s a respectable center-left news portal.
“I guess understanding democratic processes is expecting too much from a Pakistani?”– Since you’re new to the blog you may not know that I am an American citizen and completed my entire education from age 6 in the USA. You have no idea what I do or do not know about democratic processes. I would advise you not to get personal with me.
American citizen and yet you speak of Pakistani nukes as “ours”?
What part of dual citizenship don’t you understand?
“Respectable centre-left new portal”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tek_Fog_(Hoax)
Waiting for you to claim Wikipedia is a RSS mouthpiece.
People refer to her as Italian nanny;
Didn’t stop people from voting in her favor in center and states across a decade.
What hardcore vocal supporters of opponents say is irrelevant in the larger scheme. Ditto for hardcore Congressis wrt Modi.
They called Modi Chaiwallah and Maut ka Saudagar.
That didnt stop him getting even more votes.
What party loyalists say hardly matters
Of course what party loyalists say doesn’t matter beyond a certain extent.
My limited point is only that Sonia ji’s foreign origin was part of the calculus for why she chose not to take the PM’s position herself.
It’s counterfactual now. Who knows how the opposition would have reacted to her had she chosen to govern?
what sins did Congress do?
Recently read N.S. Sarila’s The Untold Story Of India Partition: The Shadow of the Great Game. A terribly ignored perspective on the geopolitics that shaped India’s partition and I couldn’t help but come to the same conclusion as you – Nehru and Modi are perhaps the two PMs most similar to each other in terms of their governance styles and even personalities. Both exhibit “I know better” tendencies which reflect in their extreme centralization of power. This reflected in Nehru’s decisions to keep external affairs and commonwealth relations ministries and he also exercised great control over defence and industry. Was played like harp by Mountbatten because he was too keen to be treated an insider amongst the elite Brits who still held a lot of power and influence in the early days post Independence. One of the reasons, PoK remains occupied is Roy Butcher and Mountbatten’s manipulation of Nehru leading him to think it was not militarily possible while Cariappa was ready to go and had clear plans to reclaim most of the strip around Naushera. I could go on…
Modi, too, seems to to crave for approvals from the liberal intelligentsia IMO. Being an “outsider” in Delhi’s power circles is something that was quite often mentioned in early discussions about him. We will perhaps only know in 20-40 years the blunders that his centralization has already committed.
There are many obvious differences in their personalities and background that are not lost on anyone.
Would love to hear more on what leads you to the same conclusions.
The evidence/data shows that Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi only got elected in Waynad Kerala and Rae Bareli the home of Nehru
Dynastic Politics.
My conclusion is that Kerala is less xenophobic than most of India.and so can elect mixed European Gandhis
a) Because of demographics (Hindus 54.7%; Islam with 26.6%; Christianity 18.4%)
b) Because many including women have worked in the middle east.
Point b) is a big factor. It opens their horizons, specially for women. They work with Filipinos, Indonesians and Ethiopian maids. So they learnt to interact with different races, religions. That makes them more tolerant and open minded.
I should know my late partner had worked in Lebanon as a housemaid for 10 years. My late wife had worked as maid for a year in Singapore before she married me.
Both partner and wife were from villages. Interacting with non Sri Lankans was no big deal. My partner with Foreign Tourists who were visitors at our small guest house. Many liked her bossy confidence, very dark skin and height (5’8″). In the case of my late wife she had quiet easy confidence and interacted with Faculty and fellow Grad students at the US Uni Research Center
I think it is fair to say Congress has a lot of other problems besides the part European origin of Rahul and Priyanka.
The party seems to be in terminal decline. As XTM and others have pointed out, Rahul Gandhi is not a particularly good politician. Certainly, he can’t compete with Modi’s charisma. Which is truly unfortunate since Modi’s politics is mostly built on communal polarization and “othering” India’s Muslims.
Also as Pratap Bhanu Metha pointed out in one of the videos I linked recently, the center of Indian politics has decisively shifted to Hindutva.
yes this was a natural evolution..