Gautam Siddharth has a pretty nice analysis of the Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty.

Readers of this weblog might have by now, known my dislike for the Congress, more so the Dynasty and all that it has done to (ruin) the country, and stands for. Gautam’s take is quite different: he analyzes the Dynasty from different angles:

• Association of the Gandhi name with the Nehru dynasty
• Subsequent promotion, and brand building by successive heirs to the dynasty
• Decay of the brand in recent times
• What is means for India if the dynasty returns to power

It is little known that Mahatma Gandhi adopted Feroze (son of Nawab Khan and his Parsi wife) as his son thereby enabling Pandit Nehru to assent to Indira’s marriage with Feroze; as Feroze now bore the surname, Gandhi. As Gautam says,

It turned into an irresistible lineage - an astonishing denouement brought about by pure circumstances. There was nothing orchestrated about it…

However, what happened thereafter was the product of sheer genius.

…it is not as if the Gandhi dynasty has not worked hard to keep the aura and the mystique of its name alive with the people of the country.
[...]
The name that continues to keep the imagination of the Congress workers in captivity is Gandhi. The Gandhis have become this overarching umbrella for the Congress party, the great banyan under which no other plant can find nourishment.
[...]
go to the countryside and you will hardly come across a person of a certain age who does not consider the Nehru-Gandhis as descendants of Mahatma Gandhi.

The last sentence holds good not just in India, but abroad. I remember reading somewhere, when a certain person reacted with the following words when he/she heard that Rahul Gandhi was contesting: “Oh! but isn’t he the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi?” In a world where we need to cope with information overload, this kind of ignorance proves very rewarding for you-know-who.

On the subject of decline and the current leadership under Sonia, I’d simply say it is sad, bad, and dangerous. The half-witted lady leader of the Congress who can’t intelligibly answer even simple questions related to economy, policies and the rest aspires to head India! How would an imaginary picture of Sonia holding her own against say, Musharaff or Colin Powell look like? Not very flattering, I’m sure.

As Gautam says, she’s solely banking on her marriage into the stinking so-called First Family: which may soon become a nonentity.