This intriguing story involves
some of India's top politicians worshipped as idols,
but who in fact, had feet
of clay.
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| A LETTER WHICH APPEARED IN THE OCTOBER 12, 2015 ISSUE OF OUTLOOK MAGAZINE |
Jawaharlal Nehru who pioneered
dynastic succession in this country wanted to make his sister Vijayalakshmi,
President of the republic. Overlooking the best and the
brightest minds he made her ambassador earlier. In his lifetime, his sister,
son-in-law and later daughter held important public offices.
The Lalus, the Mulayams,
the Pawars, the Badals and all who discovered leadership and
nation-saving qualities in their family members found an august precedence. And
why not? If AAP's Ashutosh could find in Mahatma Gandhi's ascetic life,
justification for the sexual misdemeanours of a colleague, the rest could
justifiably explain away the vulgarity of their dynastic greed with perfect
precedence.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who was
already Vice President could not stomach the loss (of elevation). It appears,
he had information that Nehru would not want made public. (Alvin Toffler was
perhaps not born by then, but isn't information power?)
Radhakrishnan leveraged (a term
of the information technology era; 'blackmail' would be crude!) the information
he had about a sighting in Russia's freezing Far East. To cut a long story
short, he was made President and all was well! The story had a happy ending!
