It logically follows of course. We noticed that we haven't exactly been doing a stellar job of running the country since its independence. Therefore, the problem lies with the leadership. The problem is that we don't have enough leaders, we surmised. So here you go, step up with your coupons folks, two for the price of one.
In fact, this was so blindingly obvious all along that it makes me wanna kick myself in the privates (this may be difficult to do from a purely anatomical point of view) for not seeing it before. But of course, what was wrong was not the quality of the leaders; what was wrong was the quantity.
Thus and so, it has come to pass that we have two Prime Ministers. The beaming, grinning puppet known as Dr. Manmohan Singh and the redoubtable (but only because we have made her so) and extra-constitutional Ms Sonia Gandhi. Those born with a stick up their behinds would call them the de jure and de facto Prime Ministers. I call them the Real Prime Minister and the Pretend Prime Minister. You know, like in the US, you have these pretend speed limits posted everywhere that nobody pays any attention to. Well, in India, we have a pretend Prime Minister (that nobody pays any attention to).
It is true: you can take a man out of slavery, but can you really take the slavery out of a man? Please see the article below from www.rediff.com to fully appreciate the import of that aphorism.
Dr Manmohan Singh might have completed one year as prime minister, but the contrasting manner in which Congressmen react to the presence of him and Sonia Gandhi is a pointer to who is more powerful.
Even casual visitors have noticed how Congressmen virtually ignore Singh whenever he moves through the Central Hall of Parliament to go from one House to the other.
Barring a kindly Congressman or two who happens to be sitting on the aisle seats next to which the prime minister moves unobtrusively accompanied by a couple of officials, hardly any one acknowledges his presence.
In sharp contrast, whenever Sonia enters the Hall -- to walk briskly through to her office in the outer corridor of Parliament House virtually ignoring her obsequious followers -- a frisson runs through it. Those who have morsels of food in their mouths stand in their seats while others hotfoot to the path she is bound to take on her way to office and half-bend in salutation.
The other day, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Ranbir Singh Mahendra, who is a Congress member of the Haryana assembly, was learning a thing or two in man management from BCCI Vice-President and Rajya Sabha member Rajiv Shukla when he caught a glimpse of Sonia entering.
He suddenly upped and ran 20 odd paces a la Mohammed Kaif, to stand in the farthest aisle so that he could bow before her. She did not even nod in acknowledgement.
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