The man is fresh off the boat. He is like Rajiv Gandhi. I remember his speech one time when he was inaugurating a computerization initiative for Railways. He said we missed on one revolution we cannot afford to miss the other. Incidentally there was a guy who sat on "Sanketik Bhook Hartal" saying a western Rajiv Gandhi does not know the needs of India and will cause unemployment in India. This guy was AB Vajpayee who after the success of IT story changed tunes and said roti kapda makaan aur IT. Because Rajiv Gandhi was not as dirty as the other politicians, he sacrificed immediate popularity for a long term vision that has today brought India on the verge of being an economic powerhouse. I wish more Indians gave him credit for that.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by ss on Feb 11, 2008 10:44 AM Permalink
u can go gaga about rajiv gandhi & the other pretender morons that india have seen. but the man for whom the credit goes to is p v narasimha rao - the greatest statesman the indian subcontinent has seen. it is only cos of him that india is the economic force it is today.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by raj on Feb 11, 2008 10:49 AM Permalink
50-50. PVN didnt get his due cos he was a non-gandhi PM. next, he wasnt a posterboy. third, he is supposed to have pussyfooted on ayodhya, which is unfair cos it was rajiv who started it all . fourth, pvn had no choice then - india was totally down and out financially - which probably was a boon. imagine india continuing as a nehruvian outdated and failed socialist country with friends like gaddafi, yasser arafat, russia, saddam, etc etc who dont care a rat's ass about india. it was providence or destiny that saved india from the shackles of stupidity much like how the jihadis were caught in karnataka - not due to any hard work, but by sheet luck.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by Rahul Gupta on Feb 11, 2008 10:58 AM Permalink
I agree... Rajiv was a positive thinker and had a modern outlook no doubt. But I think he had no political spine to stand for the right cause and took the easy path of Muslim Appeasement trying to strike a vote balance. But doing so he made the idea of Hindu Vote polraziation relevant never than before.But whenever Hindu Votes got polarized these politicians talked of Hindu Fundamentalism rather then more violent Muslim fundamentalism. The more Media and Politician nexus justified the acts of Muslim Fundamentalists, they are making way for Hindu fundamentalism.The best way to counter Hindu Fundamentalism call spade a spade and go against the Muslim appeasement.
RE:RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by sajansajan on Feb 11, 2008 11:10 AM Permalink
I agree with you. I think the biggest disappointment in secularism debate are Muslim middle class. There is a big segment out there which doesnt have 3 wives or 20 children. They are as modern as rest of us but they wont stand up to the Mullahs. I think a uniform civil code or Vande Matram or Afzal Guru are not issues Muslims care about but they still wont say so simply because they think this is going to mean they are taking BJP line
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by dev dath on Feb 11, 2008 11:49 AM Permalink
he was thinking very positively when he took bribe from bofors for his holidays
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by Secular India on Feb 11, 2008 11:07 AM Permalink
If secularists take on muslim fundamentalism head on - there will be no Hindu fundamentism in this country. BJP will go back to having 3 seats in the parliament.
However - Hindu fundamentalism is also a good glue to keep India together as otherwise people will start dividing Hindus into North Indians , Maharasthrians , Madrasis and so on.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by Secular India on Feb 11, 2008 10:51 AM Permalink
Rao used Rajiv;s name to push through reforms as that was the dead man's dream. The first round of reforms were started by Rajiv Gandhi lead to India breaking the Hindu rate of growth in late 80s. Rajiv Gandhi could have done a lot more than he did in his five years - but he needs to be given the credit where it is due.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by raj on Feb 11, 2008 10:56 AM Permalink
rajiv should have done a lot more, problem was that congress at that time was filled with these second rung leaders who wanted to be next to rajiv. bad advisors really let him down. second rung leaders n congress sucked. rajiv was moderate, and was well received abroad.
RE:RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by Veluswamy kumaran on Feb 11, 2008 11:07 AM Permalink
who said, "when a big tree falls, earth bound shake". Was that beautiful if not ugly?
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by jack on Feb 11, 2008 10:52 AM Permalink
This is the greatest joke - Rajiv Gandhi brought modernity and was the root cause of the Indian IT success. Were you even born when Rajiv Gandhi was the PM? The economic recovery of India started during PV's tenure. Rajiv Gandhi was just a pilot who did not know governance and relied a lot on the coterie of chums like Arun Nehru etc. No doubt he was better than his mother. But, he was neither a statesman nor a leader. And...Rajiv Gandhi was not dirty? You have a very short memory and seems to have very conviniently forgotten his friend Quattrochi and the Bofors scam. You really are a dumbo. If you ignore Obama's Rezko connection and the property scam around his house, he is certainly a novice. You won't find many skeletons in his closet because he has a very tiny closet at present. He is going to be a failure. The youth are enamoured by him. It's going to be short lived.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by sajansajan on Feb 11, 2008 11:02 AM Permalink
I quoted a speech he gave. I was in 7th grade then. I also said AB Vajpayee sat on "Sanketik Bhookh Hartal" that day for the imagined unemployment his zeal for information technology was to going to cause to India. He had a friend called Sam Pitodra who gave India the first STD based telephone dialling system. Before that you had to wait for 3 days to make trunk call from Mathura to Delhi. He introduced satellite imaging of agricultural areas to estimate agricultural production (this information was given to me by a person who is with the BJP).
As for Quattrochi two non congress governments later you still dont have proofs. Incidentally it was Vajpayee government who gave him clean chit.
RE:RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by raj on Feb 11, 2008 10:54 AM Permalink
IT happened on its own , due to private enterpreneurs. the most that any government can claim is that they didnt interfere in IT progress.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by Mahi on Feb 11, 2008 11:45 AM Permalink
I agree with you. Just b'cos Rajiv inaugrated some railway reservation computerisation doesn't mean anything. He didn't has any political spine to stand for anything and muslim appeasment was his last resort. He couldn't see the things from Hindu angle of the LTTE problem and got killed consequently.
RE:RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by raj on Feb 11, 2008 10:57 AM Permalink
i think that is congress' fault that he was projected n a certain way, partly because congress is a gandhi family stooge, if not they could have introduced him as is.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by Secular India on Feb 11, 2008 10:37 AM Permalink
Rajiv Gandhi change the course of Indian history - for good as well as bad. Brought modernity to India - computerisation , capitalism and consumerism. At the same time - his inability to stand up to fundamentalists or rather tact to do so led to Shah Bano case , banning of Rushdie's book leading to rise of Hindu and muslim fundamentalism in India.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by raj on Feb 11, 2008 10:40 AM Permalink
i find indian secularism laughable at best. blatant one sidedness of the media for some godforsaken token symbolic causes. the real picture is quite real from what either of the fundamentalist and secularist portray.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by Secular India on Feb 11, 2008 10:44 AM Permalink
No one dares to take on the mullahs ... rather they are indulgent towards the tradionalists in the name of tolerance to "their way of life". I think the "secularists" have let down women in minorities by ignoring their plight and sinking them further into dark ages.
RE:Obama is Rajiv Gandhi of US
by raj on Feb 11, 2008 10:52 AM Permalink
thats true anywhere in the world i guess, hardliners all over the world starting from osama to bush are winning. the problem everywhere is "fuzzy knowledge" - people do not know what news is worthwhile and what is the truth, news / facts and truth are all the same for the un-initiated masses. as a result nobody has credibility.
