Mani Shankar Aiyar hosts the 'Tea Party'

When I used to prepare for my examinations , my mother would make tea for me to stay long awake at night and study hard.  But I didn’t know that the hot cup of tea can also stimulate “sleepless nights” to many politicians and political parties. Probably the ‘tea’ is strong, the ‘tea-vendor’powerful and the 'flavour' political.

For the first time after the post-1975-Emergency elections, it doesn’t require any astrologer to foretell the fate of the Congress in the coming Lok Sabha polls, which is deafeningly loud and distinctly clear. Quite a few seasoned leaders of the party are in the process of maturely reconciling with the offshoot.  Of course, there are bound to be a few aberrations.  Mr.Mani Shankar Aiyar, the diplomant-turned-politician belonging to the Congress party, is one such deviation.  He mocked at  Mr. Narendra Modi's Prime Ministerial ambitions and said a place will be identified for the Gujarat Chief Minister to distribute tea.  He also said that "I promise you in 21st Century Narendra Modi will never become the Prime Minister of the country. ...But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for him," Mr. Aiyar said at the venue of the AICC meeting in New Delhi.  Sometime back,  the Samajwadi party leader Naresh Agarwal  also echoed a similar comment. 

From a media perspective, anything nonsense one speaks also becomes “news” due to the so-called element of personality.

While the ‘beverage’ is brewing up, the BJP and other anti-Congress outfits are milking the opportunity, mixing the requisite quantity of masala and maintain the political aroma.

A cursory view at Mr.Aiyyar’s comment not only insults the communiTEA, but all the Indians. It also prompts you to perceive his feudal and sub-standard mindset. The bulk of the Indian psyche has digested the familiarity of goondas and criminals in Indian politics and the same logic is now arguing for “why not a tea-vendor?”  If a tea-boy becomes a PM, it would be a better success story, says another theory.  True, have we not witnessed Bandit Queen Phoolan Devi elected to parliament from the Samajwadi party?  And scores of tainted MPs and Ministers?

It is not new to Mr. Aiyar to indulge in such shoddy controversies.In an article in The Telegraph on Sep. 12,2002, Mr. Aiyar wrote, "When J.Jayalaithaa became Chief Minister, she donated a baby elephant to the Guruvayoor temple. When I become CM, I intend donating Jayalalithaa to the Guruvayoor temple. And to become CM, I am planning to move a bill in parliament to ban fading actresses of cinematic origin from becoming Chief Minister." (Ref. The Hindu, October 16, 2003- See link below).

I don’t know if BJP would get a clear majority, but the self-seeking political “Aiyyars” and “Agarwals” have clearly ensured playing into the prospects of BJP. All the more, when the Congress party is already tormented by their performance balance-sheet presented before the people , spewing such outbursts only hammered the final  nails.  Further, despite being a highly qualified academic and also having  authored many titles to his credit, Mr. Aiyar has catered to wicked public mudslinging. The chances of the Congress party is comprehensively and convincingly doomed.  Now tell me, Mr. Aiyar, who is more realistic: The “educated-you” or the enterprising tea-vendor?   All the non-congress parties are grateful to you and your likes, thanks to your verbal diarrhoea (due to fear).

In spite of knowing fully well that such discretionary abuse of choicest epithets will be counterproductive, you have pandered in “poll-fixing”, like spot-fixing events frequented in cricket. After all, there is total unanimity that ethics  and fairness are bad words in politics. 

If you want to attack your political rivals, you could have done it any number of ways, but it is puzzling why you opted to affront the tea vending community?  "Can’t a tea-vendor have a national perspective" is a natural query of any aam aadmi (no pun attempted). Selling tea is more honourable than an Honourable Minister looting the public funds, true or false?

Mr. Aiyar, please wake up! A newspaper seller made us proud by becoming the President of India; in fact, Mr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the most respected visionary,  the free India  ever had.

Abraham Lincoln, the son of a shoemaker, became the President of America.. 

Every time we drive a car, it is good to remember Henry Ford, who started from scrap, yet managed to steer his way through to riches and harness the benefit to mankind.

Dhirubhai  Ambani was born to a humble school teacher.  While there was nothing to indicate that he would rise above the lower middle-class level, the corporate giant Brand Reliance is an icon to reckon with.

The chapter on Rajnikanth’s life story has been incorporated by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board to motivate children to be successful and take pride in whatever work they do, just like their favourite superstar has , no matter what the job was – being a bus conductor or the most loved super star of India.

Washing your own clothes, cleaning your own utensils, doing all your things by yourself is considered below one's dignity. This attitude was attacked by Gandhiji, who is not only the Father-of-the-Nation, but also a founder-member of the Congress party, to which you proudly belong to.

History is replete with plenty of inspiring success stories.  May be, any day ahead, a tea vendor too would nail his national identity.

By your utterances, Mr. Aiyar, you have failed to honour the dignity of work, caused unlimited disrepute to your party and hurt all your fellow-citizens.

Well, its time for a cup of hot tea, not to be haughty!

http://www.hindu.com/2003/10/16/stories/2003101605230400.htm

Dr.Manmohan Singh’s tenure : A corruption decade decayed the system

In a rare press conference, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh called Mr. Narendra Modi as a “disastrous choice” if he becomes the Prime Minister, in addition to declaring that  he will not seek the PM’s office for the third term.  Mr. Rahul Gandhi will be the appropriate choice with all the credentials as the Congress party candidate, Dr. Singh added.

I am not a big follower of politics.  I, however, happened to watch the entire press conference yesterday (03/01/2014) and it left me with a disgusting impression.  When Dr. Singh was long ago introduced to the parliament, for a moment I thought that we are going to be blessed with a statesman amid tainted politicians,  but yesterday I noticed to see the body language of an apologetic guilty-Singh.

It was childishly ridiculous that Dr. Singh gave a clean chit to himself during his tenure for nearly a decade.  During his interaction with the media, he mentioned that history would be kinder to him than the media and the opposition parties.  He floated the flippant theory that most scandals of UPA-2 occurred during UPA-1.  It is unfortunate that he sought to take refuge that people endorsed Congress to power in 2009, desperately attempting to ratify the wrong-doings of UPA-1.  It was also sickening to listen to him when he bid to distinguish between his personal conduct and the performance of the government.

His utterances lacked even political logic.  Dr. Singh accused Mr. Modi  of “presiding over the massacre of 2002 riots” in Ahmedabad.  That the Supreme Court has already cleared Mr. Modi of all the charges is public knowledge, Dr. Singh’s allegation against Mr. Modi amounts to reviewing the Court ruling.   Can somebody clarify that under the recently enacted Lok Pal Bill, can a contempt petition be filed against a sitting Prime Minister?  As a PM , Dr. Singh could have, nay, should have initiated appropriate action against Mr. Modi.  Yet again he exposed his inability in saving the situation.   In the same breath, did not Congress party instigate the anti-Sikh riots in the aftermath of Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s assassination?  Applying Dr. Singh’s formula, are we to believe that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was a “disaster” for presiding over the 1984-riots?

For once, I was able to observe a decisive politician in Dr. Singh.  The more he smacks of Mr. Modi, make no mistake, the more stronger the latter will be.  Hate speech against Mr. Modi only diminishes Dr. Singh’s stature.  Or is it that Dr. Singh is subtly playing the self-side goal as a settling score to the ignominy he suffered  all these years in the hands of the Gandhi family? After all, when it comes to politics, there is no permanent friends or foes!    On a serious note, it felt like a contrite looser talking to media, not like a PM of India.

The best joke comes when he says that Mr. Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to become the PM, showing how low sycophancy can take you down.

Hopes were aplenty with the people, because as a former bureaucrat before joining the government, Dr.Singh knew all kinds of inefficiencies existing in the bureaucratic system.  Alas, he failed to apply his knowledge for the improvement of the economy.  Or is it because he had to work under remote control?   In the whole of media comments and analysis, I found one thing common – corruption and inflation, huge issues we are facing today.

Pause for a moment.  Recall the series of scams – Common Wealth Games (CWG), Adarsh Housing scams,  2G scam, Coalgate – to name a few.  If you can restore the swindled amount, the Finance Minister will be presenting “Surplus” budgets, year after year; and I don’t have to pay Rs.100/-for a kg. of onions.

Or does he want to come to the open and say that the black money or hoards of it, all these, are due to “coalition partnership”?   Well, if you want to enjoy power, you should as well take ownership, Dr. Singh.  Or does he want to say that these are entirely the misdeeds of the Congress alone and the “beneficiaries”  have taken monstrously unfair leverage of the meekest PM we have ever had?  Or does he want to say the Congress had used the most qualified PM, as a shield and made him the obvious scapegoat who will be blamed for the Congress’ failures and the party will emerge out of this whole shoddy affairs as an unintended victim of a  bad prime-ministership and in the same stroke Mr. Rahul Gandhi will emerge as the savior?  Or at least, does he think that he could have done a better job as a Finance Minister than a thankless Prime Minister?

The reality is that after 10 years to Dr. Singh and 60 years to Congress, we are flooded with scams and rapes and inflation.  The people are visibly angry and disappointed.  Public opinion is severely against the Prime Minister and the Congress government.  India is potentially a rich country, but its fortunes are stolen by a few and stacked offshore.  Dr. Singh has grossly failed to communicate effectively what his government was, is and intended to do to curb corruption at high levels.  The anger and anguish of the people shoots because Dr. Singh is most educated and a seasoned economist.   He is relating the inflation to international economic changes.  Is the price rise happening in all countries?

But as a top leader Dr. Singh should know not the price increase, but the rampant corruption that led his party down in the recent assembly elections.  He can explain the price rise and always say it was beyond his control, but it would have been qualified statesmanship if he had taken  cognizance that corruption was the chief factor for the crisis.  Never in free India’s history has food inflation touched the dreaded double-digit.  All the hopes aspired by the people of this country are belied, thanks to the spinelessness displayed by the technocrat-turned-politician.  Sadly, he was unable to rule or control.  The people of India should be very careful in exercising their franchise.  Even if they poll for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the coming Lok Sabha elections, it tantamounts to allowing the same corrupt Congress through the back door.

Yet with all the failures, Dr. Singh still claimed that he was not a “weak leader”.  He has dented his goodwill.  His arguments were totally indefensible.  Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has paved the way for Mr. Rahul Gandhi and Mr. Narendra Modi, leaving the government with a legacy of guilt and shame.After all, there is a huge gap between a good man and a good Prime Minister.

Let historians script their documentation.   Can we simultaneously expect the PM-in- office-not-in power, Dr. Singh relax and pen a memoir annexed to his conscience? 

Jai Hind!