On the Sidelines of Rahul vs Modi Contest

By now it has become a well known fact that the Congress will only be shooting itself in the foot if it lets the election race turn into a one-on-one contest. But they have already committed the mistake in their fierce endeavour to stop the nomination wave of Narendra Modi  in May June this year, by regularly targeting him in all their submission, converting Modi as the single challenger to Rahul Gandhi.

More and more "media" tit bits are thrown as the election comes closer,exposing the change and swing in mood in the tussle between the two heavyweights, that is closely monitored :

Now the Congress party has to change the stance, from communal or secular platform of fight, the war is to be fought on development platform, and here Congress might have to try to debunk Modi’s claims of development like they have argued in the past. The party has repeatedly accused Modi of failing to look beyond Gujarat and being too full of his Gujarat success story. Congress party has been in power for two consecutive terms after having pushing NDA to the door, the Congress can also question Modi and BJP’s efficiency in running a country.

But as and when the poll battle becomes a Modi-Rahul face-off or a Modi-Congress PM hopeful face-off, it will become political suicide for the Congress. Because except Rahul's contribution to the party organisational restructuring, he has nothing else as concrete achievements to show, that he can take a fair claim on. 

There is no evidence that Rahul Gandhi  takes active part in policy-making and policy-implementation. Even in the Lok Sabha, while Sonia Gandhi pushed the Food Security Bill with a hasty speech, Rahul Gandhi was seen and heard nowhere. Even outside the House, Rahul’s promotion of the Food Bill has been mostly blank assumptions that don’t stand on facts for support. 

Rahul Gandhi's speeches sound more like college union election addresses than something meant to influence the most important polls in the country. Finally, Rahul can’t claim to have run anything with any success. And that clearly makes bigger sense that Rahul will only be doing Congress party a favour by not declaring himself its prime ministerial candidate.

At the same time the youth and development hope juggernaut called Narendra Modi, has gathered momentum needs to be looked at seriously by his opposition, the Congress. To remain in intellectual denial, claiming that Modi has no resonance in the southern states of India or in Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra and the Northeast, will allow him a free run, and not necessarily as the face of the BJP. Thus a fighter and doer Modi will be imagined to take the role of a ‘saviour’. 

This time the general elections could well defy the predictable parameters of the national vote. The polls may be an aberration in the sense that the election would not pay any heed to the factors as done in past but swiftly change to new role of youth unconcerned with caste and religion. The media are hysterical in their superficial support of Modi and his rhetoric. ‘Debate’ on talk shows continues to insult the intelligence of viewers, yes  Modi  supporters has deftly used this sub-standard discourse by the ruling party's arrogant spokespersons, to his advantage.

Manmohan Singh Take Lesson from US Prez Obama's Cancelled Russian Summit

Indian aspiration to become a super power in future may learn some tricks of the game from the two biggest super power of the cold war era, USA and Russia, who are recently engaged in a see saw tussle, where nobody want to low down. It relates to the grant of temporary asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive intelligence analyst, of the United States  facing charges of leaking national security secrets. In  response to frustration at the Russian government for refusing to send Edward J. Snowden US President Obama has cancelled a planned summit meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, .

White House said the president had decided to postpone the summit meeting between the two leaders after concluding that there had not been enough progress made on the “bilateral agenda” to make a meeting worthwhile.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said, “Given our lack of progress on issues such as missile defence and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last twelve months, we have informed the Russian government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda,” and Mr. Carney added that Russia’s “disappointing decision” to grant temporary asylum to Mr. Snowden was “also a factor” in Mr. Obama’s decision.

The Kremlin expressed disappointment, especially with the president’s linking of the decision to the case of Mr. Snowden. A senior aide to Mr. Putin, Yuri V. Ushakov, said that Mr. Obama was still welcome to visit, but blamed the United States for not wanting to build a stronger partnership to manage bilateral and international issues.

In contrast the Asian super power India, whose five brave soldiers have been ambushed and killed on the "Seize Fire Area of LoC" by the Pakistani Army personal in the disguise of terrorists, have failed to blame the culprits the Pakistani troops, lest it will hamper the peace process with Pakistan, a futile Drama show, the ruling  Congress party and its Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has to present to their countrymen to get more votes in  coming election . 

Hope they learn some finer as well as bolder points in international diplomacy platform, from a super power friend US President Obama, one who never bogs down when his national interest and prestige are at the stake.