small minds and their strategic significance in a global game...

Karl Marx, and it is ironic that I quote him now, had said about India: '...we must not forget that these idyllic village communities, inoffensive though they may appear, had always been the foundation of Oriental despotism, that they restrained the human mind within the smallest possible compass, ... enslaving it beneath traditional rules, depriving it of all grandeur and historical energies. …' (article on British Rule in India), Marx a sincere modern western thinker seems to have got it better than his contemporary followers, Com. Karat & Co.,

Ultimately it is the economic benefit from some of the industries that will benefit from the Nuclear deal (for whom this is a small change investment) and ability to settle scores in their small town rivalries will ensure that the UPA manages the adequate numbers for the global game of nuclear comeuppance. The internationally experienced PM who during this tenure 'invited' the British to India again promising a better reception that what Robert Clive & Co., got has done what RC&Co mastered best, using small time rivalries of small people to gain political mileage. It is Amar Singh Vs. all those who humiliated him, Mulayam Singh Vs. Mayawati, Ambani Vs. Ambani, Soren's image Vs. Soren's 3 MPs wanting to be ministers, Gowda's image Vs. his own greed, Telengana Vs. AP Congress wishes...as long as their small time feuds are even temporarily shown as settled, they would support any global power to set-up anything anywhere. Nuclear deal doesn't mean anything to them. 'I don't know much about it', says Amar Singh about the Nuclear deal, in one of his numerous interviews that has suddenly crowded our public space with all its podgy dramatics, I am sure Deva Gowda, Shibu Soren, Mulayam Yadav and Chandrasekhar are no better aware of it. If they can get the centre to help settle their local scores, they will go anywhere to support it to do anything. Small chieftains across India sold their local kingdoms to settle small scores with Clive's help and the rest is in our history books. As far as the PM goes, while he waits the G8 sidelines, all these people and their petty rivals are 'expandable', they can sell their souls to hell for settling their rivalry scores today and the consequences can wait while they gloat in their transient victories.

Prakash Karat: My candidate for PM

I have come to like the current CPM Gen. Sec. increasingly. He has the global commie-mindset and has come to realize probably, a la Chevaz is what gets the public going, which means stepping high on the anti-US rhetoric, talking tough, asserting stand...he is still not (thankfully) holding all day television gospels. I think he will make a good PM.

The 'Bush is a Fool' statement is perhaps the most daring statement of the fact (albeit well acknowledged and documented) by a Indian political leader. The last courageous statement I could think of was old man, George Fernandes at the beginning of the Nuclear deal dialogue.

Karat makes me think of possibilities of a commie PM for India. I am no fan of communists and their policies in every area, but, we are caught today with all round weak leadership. On the one side we have the BJP creating new frontiers in senility and on the other side the confused Congress with the young, old, in-between, all in a state of confusion. If the commies are the only strong leaders, maybe it is time they shed their permanent opposition position and took to leading the country. The only person who could have made from their ranks earlier was the immortal Jyothi Basu...he is no longer a candidate and with his strong views, Karat seems to be the next candidate.


Revised Post Gujarat Elections, Dec 2007
With the media repeatedly projecting Modi as the new face of BJP and the central leadership of this party not really in a mood to counter it, I am even more convinced that the coming years will see the emergence of two leaderships in the national mainstream, an increasingly assertive left, no longer know-toying, but, leading the Congress (or dropping it if need be for a Third Front with regional allies) under Karat and the committed right wing BJP, willing to take a different stand from RSS on issues, but, definitely clear in its orientation perhaps with Modi on the lead! I am even more inclined post-Gujarat elections that Karat may be the best bet in the coming years. The Congress loss in the Centre may finally bring to end the Nehru dynasty rule. This can only change if some of the regional players do take some daring steps, Mayawati, Uma Bharathi, Chandrababu Naidu, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lallu may be the men and women to watch out for, but, for them to make a national difference, it would require any two or more of them to work in tendem, that currently looks near impossible. So, coming times will see Karat Vs. Modi. My choice stays as of now.