The Queen of Sleaze, the woman every celebrity loves to hate, but don’t dare
to openly, the Empress of Trash Fiction (ever read Sultry Nights? or is it
Evenings? I chucked it half way) has a way with words. Wish her novels were as
good as some of the columns she writes 
“analysis” of Madam Antonia Sonia’s failure to understand the Indian
polity. I’ve blogged about this on many occasions and am still convinced that
she’s a misfit on the Indian political stage. Call it confirmation bias, but
I’ve noticed that apart from holding the Congress “together,” she hasn’t much to
her credit except perhaps the erstwhile control of 15 states (which has now
reduced to 11), which is hardly an achievement. I say this because the states
where the Congress rules are riddled with its traditional baggage (?):
corruption, misrule, instability, factionalism and/or intra-party
fighting. Kerala is the best example of the last trait and Karnataka–despite
its claims of being home to the Silicon Valley of India–an example of the
other traits. The recent restructuring of S.M. Krishna’s ministry saw him
give the boot to his arch rival, H.K.Patil.
The Congress is fairly “united” under Sonia’s
leadership solely because the majority of the Congress party men are not
willing to risk vacating their respective seats from the gutter next to 10
Janpath. Their begging bowls would otherwise be empty as none would welcome
them. In fact, their beggary is legendary–they began by sucking up to Chacha
Nehru to Indira to Rajiv to Ms. Italy Sonia.
Sadly, Sonia, I repeat doesn’t understand Indian politics. India Today
recently carried a cover story captioned, Honey I Shrunk the Congress,
which says that Sonia has placed an inordinate amount of trust in her
henchwoman aide, Ambika Soni and that Ambika Soni
blindly believed whatever Digvijay Singh and Gehlot had told her, about their
respective “achievements.”
But no one puts it better than Shobaa De
Tags: General
No sir, Sonia doesn’t need a makeover. Only jaded models
and fading actors rely on that as a last resort. What Sonia needs is an
education — and I’m not being facetious. She needs it. Or all those millions of
women in India who are denied a basic right to knowledge need it. In her place,
I’d go back to school and start from scratch. This isn’t just about acquiring
some meaningless degree. This is about informing herself about a country she
clearly knows very little about. I would strongly recommend a reading of
Kautilya’s Arthashastra. Maybe then, she will learn the basic lessons of
statecraft a la India . And realize why she didn’t stand a chance in the first
place.
On 07.24.05 Tilo says:
at last! Someone who says it well - Shobaa’s columns are witty and well-written.
I know nothing of her books - can only guess- but I don’t feel the need to be dismissive of her as many of our ‘intellectuals’.
On 10.12.06 infrequenter says:
Frankly, not all of Shobhaa’s columns are good. Its a mixed bag. She did very well for the last decade as the predominant Indian Female writer but lately we’ve seen some real talent. Thank god for that!