Glossing Over History

Ms Tavleen Singh makes a valid point in this latest column in DH. Before getting to it, lets deal with some invalid (at least in my opinion) points.

The most damning proof of the bankruptcy of India’s political leadership is that an Italian housewife who despised Indian politics should have found it so easy to become India’s most important political leader. This she unquestionably is today and privately even she must sometimes wonder at how easy it was to get where she is.

Ronald Reagan was just an actor in B-grade movies, though he probably did not despise American politics, till he became the most powerful person on earth. It happens sometimes - that is how life is! One just can't ban mid-life transitions, can one?

As to the journey being easy, Ms Singh is glossing a bit over history I think. She probably does not remember that most of the media, including herself, wrote the lady off for quite some time after she assumed the presidency of the Congress party. And followed it up with a lot of, let's say, sympathetic advice. And there was the occasional big election defeat for the party.

Then she asks in anguish:

... what is wrong with India that we seem incapable of producing talented, indigenous political leaders? The problem, in my view, is that other political parties have tried to imitate Congress methods of anointment and appointment instead of recognising that the only way for good leaders to rise to the top is if good leaders are promoted from the bottom up.

Did Nehru, Gandhiji, and the rest rise up from the bottom? I don't think so. No sir.

And the valid point I mentioned above is this:

On my travels in ‘grassroots’ India I constantly run into men and women who are doing excellent work and who deserve to be elected to Parliament and the state legislatures but they never get picked up by political parties because all the way down the line these parties are infested with power brokers.

Is it true? I don't know. What did happen to T N Seshan?