The Best is The Enemy Of Good
There is this story which went around on the bizarre circumstances under which son-of-soil HD Deve Gowda was sworn as the 15th Prime Minister of India.
Representatives from all the 'secular forces' were having a meeting on the consensus candidate. Mr. Gowda too marked his valuable presence (which incidentally turned very valuable for himself) in the meeting through his patent siesta. Each of the participants was being asked the name of his/her preferred choice, but when Mr. Gowda's turn came, delta waves were already in formation, putting him at the 4th stage of sleep. At that point, Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, a Prime Minister aspirant himself, attempted to revive him back to the meeting, by hollering out his name "Mr. Gowda, Mr. Gowda !" Seeing his futile attempts, some others too joined in the chorus.
Nobody is sure what happened next or rather why it happened. Possibly due to the abrupt sleep disruption, and causing some sleep deprivation, Gowda senior got a little disoriented and hearing a cacophony of his name, he arrived to this happy conclusion that it was his name which the gentlemen were suggesting for the coveted post. Hurriedly he said "Thank You, Sar" and to the shock of the nation, the history was made.
It is said that since then Mulayam Singh has been harbouring a deep grudge against Lalu as he believes it is the latter who thus jinxed his chances of becoming PM while Lalu is no less bemused at the thought claiming why would he do that to himself, much less to Mulayam.
Sigmund Freud postulated that dreams are the symbolic expression of frustrated desires that have been relegated to the unconscious mind. Maybe all that happened because Deve Gowda was dreaming about that and when he woke up, his dream came true but if we come back to present times, then definitely dreams of Nitish Kumar have come to a shattering end.
Sycophants around Mayawati made her believe that she can be the country PM one day and she always gushed at that wishful thought. Something similar has happened with Nitish Kumar. He was always an ambitious man which was pretty evident the way he mercilessly relegated senior and respected JD(U) leader George Fernandez in the party. His two successive victories which coincided with a leadership void and factionalism in BJP brought him an artificial self-belief that perhaps he can be the next NDA leader and future PM but the sphinx like rise of Narendra Modi has put water to all such dreams.
Unfortunately, his only hope now rests on the idea of "Third Front" which in itself has no hopes. A mercurial Mamata Banerjee is better off as a foe than a friend. An equivocal Mulayam is a person whom no-one can reliably count either as a friend or foe. In the modern world where cradles of communism and socialism like Russia and China themselves have long since succumbed to the temptations of bourgeois and have moved on to become capitalist states, the leftists have no ideology left. J Jayalalitha always keeps cards close to her chest. If "Third Front" will have JD(U), where would their arch enemy RJD go ? Clearly, "Third Front" is a non-starter.
One would wonder what benefit have these various offshoots of erstwhile Janta Dal have done for the country. They way they have divided, sub-divided like diseased amoebae, tells a lot of about their opportunistic tendencies. Here is their staggering list at the time of writing : Janta Dal(S), Janta Dal (U), Samajwadi Party, Samajwadi Janta Party (Rashtriya), Rashtriya Janta Dal, Biju Janta Dal, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Indian National Lok Dal, Samta Party (later merged with JD(U)), Lok Janshakti Party, Janta Party, and Socialist Janta Party.
While these parties ably represent the crass and corrupt political class like their other brethren do, they are far worse because the reason of the birth of such splinters is not any ideology or a revolution; it is their absolute lust for power and unfathomable greed for money. Most of their leaders are either charge sheeted criminals or proclaim offenders and some of them have even enjoyed the hospitable services of Indian prisons. They can't even boast a single statesman amongst them and all they have learned to follow and practice is the art of blackmail.
Nitish Kumar's blackmailing has failed. Unfortunately, his ambition would cost more to his state than him as it might pave way for the return of Lalu and Bihar might sink back to dark ages once again. He should perhaps read Macbeth to learn about the pitfalls of uncontrolled ambition.
"I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other."
From Macbeth (William Shakespeare)
Representatives from all the 'secular forces' were having a meeting on the consensus candidate. Mr. Gowda too marked his valuable presence (which incidentally turned very valuable for himself) in the meeting through his patent siesta. Each of the participants was being asked the name of his/her preferred choice, but when Mr. Gowda's turn came, delta waves were already in formation, putting him at the 4th stage of sleep. At that point, Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, a Prime Minister aspirant himself, attempted to revive him back to the meeting, by hollering out his name "Mr. Gowda, Mr. Gowda !" Seeing his futile attempts, some others too joined in the chorus.
Nobody is sure what happened next or rather why it happened. Possibly due to the abrupt sleep disruption, and causing some sleep deprivation, Gowda senior got a little disoriented and hearing a cacophony of his name, he arrived to this happy conclusion that it was his name which the gentlemen were suggesting for the coveted post. Hurriedly he said "Thank You, Sar" and to the shock of the nation, the history was made.
It is said that since then Mulayam Singh has been harbouring a deep grudge against Lalu as he believes it is the latter who thus jinxed his chances of becoming PM while Lalu is no less bemused at the thought claiming why would he do that to himself, much less to Mulayam.
Sigmund Freud postulated that dreams are the symbolic expression of frustrated desires that have been relegated to the unconscious mind. Maybe all that happened because Deve Gowda was dreaming about that and when he woke up, his dream came true but if we come back to present times, then definitely dreams of Nitish Kumar have come to a shattering end.
Sycophants around Mayawati made her believe that she can be the country PM one day and she always gushed at that wishful thought. Something similar has happened with Nitish Kumar. He was always an ambitious man which was pretty evident the way he mercilessly relegated senior and respected JD(U) leader George Fernandez in the party. His two successive victories which coincided with a leadership void and factionalism in BJP brought him an artificial self-belief that perhaps he can be the next NDA leader and future PM but the sphinx like rise of Narendra Modi has put water to all such dreams.
Unfortunately, his only hope now rests on the idea of "Third Front" which in itself has no hopes. A mercurial Mamata Banerjee is better off as a foe than a friend. An equivocal Mulayam is a person whom no-one can reliably count either as a friend or foe. In the modern world where cradles of communism and socialism like Russia and China themselves have long since succumbed to the temptations of bourgeois and have moved on to become capitalist states, the leftists have no ideology left. J Jayalalitha always keeps cards close to her chest. If "Third Front" will have JD(U), where would their arch enemy RJD go ? Clearly, "Third Front" is a non-starter.
One would wonder what benefit have these various offshoots of erstwhile Janta Dal have done for the country. They way they have divided, sub-divided like diseased amoebae, tells a lot of about their opportunistic tendencies. Here is their staggering list at the time of writing : Janta Dal(S), Janta Dal (U), Samajwadi Party, Samajwadi Janta Party (Rashtriya), Rashtriya Janta Dal, Biju Janta Dal, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Indian National Lok Dal, Samta Party (later merged with JD(U)), Lok Janshakti Party, Janta Party, and Socialist Janta Party.
While these parties ably represent the crass and corrupt political class like their other brethren do, they are far worse because the reason of the birth of such splinters is not any ideology or a revolution; it is their absolute lust for power and unfathomable greed for money. Most of their leaders are either charge sheeted criminals or proclaim offenders and some of them have even enjoyed the hospitable services of Indian prisons. They can't even boast a single statesman amongst them and all they have learned to follow and practice is the art of blackmail.
Nitish Kumar's blackmailing has failed. Unfortunately, his ambition would cost more to his state than him as it might pave way for the return of Lalu and Bihar might sink back to dark ages once again. He should perhaps read Macbeth to learn about the pitfalls of uncontrolled ambition.
"I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other."
From Macbeth (William Shakespeare)
posted by Unknown at 1:08 PM
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