Sonia Gandhi, who heads the Indian National Congress, which is leading the UPA coalition partners at the Central Government, gained yet again in stature on Thursday by thanking the Left parties for enabling the government function all these four years. In the ugly bickering that mark the current phase of Indian politics -- the Left has been accusing the Congress of betraying the Nation over the Nuclear deal and so is the BJP, Congress's main Opposition party etc -- this comes as a refreshing change. The UPA coalition partners were meeting early in the day to strategise on seeking a Trust Vote in the Parliament in the wake of Left withdrawing its support from the UPA thus rendering the government, technically, into a minority. The Prime Minister has taken the stand that before moving to the IAEA for the Safeguards Agreement he would want to seek a vote of confidence in the Parliament.
Sonia thanked the Left parties "who have been with us during these last four years", and added that without their support the UPA could not have been formed and a good deal of what has been achieved would not have been possible. "Unfortunately, we could not carry them with us on the nuclear agreement despite our best efforts. While we regret their withdrawal of support, it is now time to look ahead," she exhorted her leaders while at the same time giving them a lesson or two in political propriety.
This is not the first time Sonia Gandhi has bestowed her generosity. She has been gracious on earlier occasions as well and her refusal to accept the chair of the Prime Minister after the UPA government was sworn in in 2004 will go down in Indian political history as a rare one.
One hopes other leaders of different political ideologies would take a leaf out of Sonia's acts.
Sonia thanked the Left parties "who have been with us during these last four years", and added that without their support the UPA could not have been formed and a good deal of what has been achieved would not have been possible. "Unfortunately, we could not carry them with us on the nuclear agreement despite our best efforts. While we regret their withdrawal of support, it is now time to look ahead," she exhorted her leaders while at the same time giving them a lesson or two in political propriety.
This is not the first time Sonia Gandhi has bestowed her generosity. She has been gracious on earlier occasions as well and her refusal to accept the chair of the Prime Minister after the UPA government was sworn in in 2004 will go down in Indian political history as a rare one.
One hopes other leaders of different political ideologies would take a leaf out of Sonia's acts.
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I was reading a opinion piece written by AIJAZ ZAKA SYED (View from Dubai)titled "Indo-US deal and Muslims" at Khaleej Times Online [http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=/data/opinion/2008/July/opinion_July40.xml§ion=opinion]. A very well written analysis on how politicians are taking benefits from this issue by hilighting the miniroty issue. Politicians and media went to the extent by saying that they have consulted the minority communitiy [Muslims] before arriving at a decision to support the goverment in the wake of the Left withdrawing support. A clasic example of political hypocracy. Even Barkha Dutt conducted a debate in NDTV over the same issue and Congman Salman Khurshed was present. I request Sashi Tharoor to comment on this with his analysis. We are heading for another devide on the basis regional, cultural and religious before the upcoming elections and lets see how the BJP does its gameplan having Modi as the architect. We will miss Mahajan for sure this time.
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