His two-year tenure as Prime Minster has been, to put it mildly, dismal.
Imran Khan was undoubtedly one of the greatest cricketers of all time. As Prime Minister of Pakistan he is likely to be a minor footnote in the history of his country. His two-year tenure as Prime Minster has been, to put it mildly, dismal, if not disastrous. He is a provincial level politician.
On Thursday, 25 June, in his speech at the National Assembly, speaking on foreign policy, he called the bigoted, murderous Saudi Arabian monster, Osama Bin Laden a martyr. “The Americans came to Abbottabad and killed, martyred Osama bin Laden. What happened after that? The entire world cursed us and spoke ill of us.” What else should have the world said? Congratulate Osama bin Laden for masterminding 9/11, when nearly three thousand people lost their lives in the twin towers in New York?
However, the Prime Minister rightly got a tongue lashing from opposition leaders. “Bin Laden brought terrorism to our lands and the PM calls him Shaheed.” The leader of the Pakistan People’s Party called Imran Khan “a national security threat”.
The Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi made an outrageous anti-India observation the same day. He said, “after being beaten and embarrassed” by China, India was trying to find excuses for an operation against Pakistan. He asserted that “India will receive a response in kind for whatever it does”. If I am not mistaken, it was an 18th century European statesman who said, “a country gets the government it deserves.”
This futile India baiting shows how little Mr Q knows about India. Does he not remember 1971?
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Two days ago, two senior-most leaders from Rajasthan asked for the return of Rahul Gandhi as Congress president. Both Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot do not indulge in chamchagiri, but surely they know that Rahul Gandhi has, for the last several months, shown no interest in returning to the post, which now his mother occupies.
When Rahul Gandhi resigned after the dismal performance of the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections he had publicly declared that no member of the Gandhi family would replace him. Regardless of this pronouncement, Sonia Gandhi became “interim president”. That “interim” period has now lasted more than a year. The Congress has neither been rejuvenated, nor revitalized. It has seen no reform.
The party finds its self in a Catch-22 situation. The Gandhis are both an asset and a liability. It they were to announce their final decision to opt out and ask the Congress Working Committee to elect a non-Gandhi, then the party would splinter. It they do not fade away then the sterile status quo will continue.
The result: the Narendra Modi government will have a free ride in Parliament. This will mean a virtual political monopoly.
Suppose, Rahul Gandhi is persuaded to become party president, what miracle would he perform? Will he decide that the Congress Working Committee elect ten members and the president will appoint the other ten? The last time elections for the CWC were held was in 1992 at the Tirupati AICC session, i.e. 28 years ago. Will Rahul Gandhi do away with the pest called, “special invitees”? He should, if he wants the Congress to be a dynamic and forward looking political outfit.
Will he abandon his penchant for using unseemly language, keep calling the Prime Minister, “chor”, “afraid” and much else? His great grandfather, his grandmother, his father, his mother never used/uses unbridled vocabulary like Rahul. Will he refrain from speaking on unimportant matters every other day? Why is he throwing away his very exceptional legacy? He has everything going for him. Don’t blow it. Lastly, choose your advisers after mature consideration.
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I am half through John Bolton’s book, The Room Where it Happened. It is revealing, depressing, anti-Trump and hilarious. Bolton was fired as National Security Adviser after 19 months.