The Ayatollah of National Congress



Even Indira Gandhi never had it so good: What his daughter-in-law is enjoying is much greater freedom, arguably much bigger power and inarguably with much less responsibility. Just when the Telengana problem is threatening to burst the seams of an already a fragile India, when the central government has shot itself in the foot by caving to the TRS blackmail, and as buses burn, shops shut, Andhra assembly in a standstill, Sonia Gandhi is amazingly absent. What is even more intriguing is that it is not even been felt conspicuous.

Compare this to the BJP regime: Every time the government was in crisis, be it a murder of a Christian missionery, a coordinated pogram against Muslims, or even an attack on a card shop, the media wanted to know what Vajpayee felt about it. What he quoted or misquoted or refused to quote were furiously discussed in the cosy comforts of 24/7 studios.

Strangely, none of this seems to happen for Sonia. Be it things as trivial as Azhagiri or as big as Spectrum or Telengana, no one really knows what is Sonia's stand. And the media doesn't bother either.

Yes, Manmohan who is the Prime Minister and Chidambaram is the Home Minister. But it is hard to believe that they would have taken the Telengana decision without consulting Madam. And she is conveniently out of the picture. Where there are garlands, Mamam is present and where brickbats, she is MIA.

It is working extremely well for Sonia that she is not a Prime Minister. Indira Gandhi had to take responsibility for all the bad things that happened to India during her tenure. Vajpayee is still being accused for Gujarat riots. But Telengana and Spectrum are going to the Manmohan Singh's file. Sonia: she is a clean, tall leader guiding the country and her party to a glorious future. Like an Ayatollah of Iran.

Even Obama can't boast of such a luxury.

A war for the world

‘Don’t increase the troops to Afghanistan; more troops are needed to train the local army and police; don’t set deadlines on withdrawal; troops can’t be there forever; we need a plan; having a date is premature; you can never win a war against the Taliban; Veitnam déjà vu…’

Regardless of what you otherwise think about Obama, you can’t help pitying this young president when it comes to Afghan policy. The media must be driving him crazy. You read three newspapers and you become a confused man. You don’t know what to do. You start having Vietnam nightmares.

To clear up the debris of critics, another critic is needed here. Somebody who doesn’t have the burden of secularism on his shoulders, or to put it differently, just like how Vinod Mehta wears the tag ‘pseudo-secular’ proudly, this critic would like the tag ‘pseudo-communal’. Or perhaps even ‘communal’, because that’s what the readers of this piece are going to call him.

Here we go.

First things first: Afghan is not Vietnam. The causes were different, the motives were different, and the strategies are different. More importantly it’s a different time. US had to go to war with Afghanistan. Bush may have said he wanted to liberate Muslim women, or his critics may have accused that Bush wanted oil. The real reason was to root out Islamic terrorism. This world could not afford to have a safe haven for this evil.

And now they are not losing this war. If you think that, next time try rebuilding a war-ravaged country full of illiterates where the fanatics and extremists mix and mingle. And also trying to win a war that was being fought so cowardly that all the teachings of Islam that Taliban seems to espouse seems to fall flat on their own face. Unlike what critics love to write, this predicament that the US is in should not be attributed to the weakness of their military might but to the nature of Islamic fundamentalism. The tribal leaders of Taliban are the ones who must be embarrassed about the nature of this war, about why, despite millions of dollars pouring in, they want to continue to keep their citizens on the edge of life, in abject poverty, cultivating opium and teaching Islam by pushing half of their population underground. The religious leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan should answer the question why they want to keep their believers in perennial insecurity.

They, the Taliban, don’t realise that they are in a terrible conundrum. The US and the UK will be more than happy to leave their land but they can’t leave as long as the Taliban tribes keep fighting their troops.

The world of Islam – which shows astounding might and enviable unity when a wrong cartoon is drawn or a bad book gets written – should unite, show concern, and display their might in ensuring that the chasm between faith and prosperity is restored. When the Islamic world expects the rest of the Europe to rise to their support when a minaret ban is passed in Switzerland, the Islamic world should rise to the need when their brothers are in need. Not rise to their need by supplying arms but by supplying books.

The US and the UK are fighting a lonely war. The war for the world. And the world should gather around in support. If not to battle the Taliban, but at least to battle the critics.