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The Congress Thread: Tracking India's Grand Old Party

jairamesh

By jairamesh
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Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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Sonia's dash to defuse Natwar bomb: Congress chief and daughter Priyanka visit former minister in bid to block tell-all book

The Natwar bomb is yet to be dropped, but Congress president Sonia Gandhi has already popped in to see the former external affairs minister. Sonia, accompanied by her daughter Priyanka, was with Singh at his Jor Bagh residence for almost an hour a few days ago. Sonia and Natwar haven't had a meaningful interaction since 2005, and certainly had a lot to talk about during their 50-minute meeting. The two have run into each other at a function or two, and in Central Hall of Parliament, but haven't exchanged any words. If there was one compelling reason for the Sonia-Priyanka visit, it remains a mystery, because the event has not been made public. It could have been a patch-up bid, now that the party is disarray and possibly looking to the wisdom of its past luminaries. Mail Today sources say, however, that the conversation revolved around books, and one in particular. That book is called One Life is Not Enough, and it is written by Natwar Singh himself. The book is to be released on August 7 by former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, and there's precious little time left if Sonia wants to avoid more - and deeper - embarrassment of the Baru kind. Sources say that's what the unusual calling-on was for - a pre-emptive spiking of the Natwar Singh tale. Priyanka is also believed to have requested Singh not to let the book be published. The former external affairs minister - who joined the Congress way back in 1984 and was ignominiously forced out of the government first and the party later - has written a tell-all autobiography covering his years with Indira Gandhi as a senior Indian Foreign Service officer, and later as a Congressman with Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and Manmohan Singh. A tell-all book Singh's book is already being called the N-Bomb, because it is expected to reveal even more about the inner workings of the Congress and its first family than Sanjaya Baru's Accidental Prime Minister: Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh, which has left the Grand Old Party outraged and the author "amused". Singh was considered a confidant of the party's First Family till his downfall, and has seen the workings of the government at pointblank range through his many years in politics. "No comment" was Singh's terse reply when asked by Mail Today about the meeting. He was a little more forthcoming about the moment of his resignation from the Congress. "I was asked to resign. I went (to Sonia Gandhi) with my resignation. She kept it," Singh said. Natwar Singh, chosen as foreign minister by Manmohan Singh in 2001, was removed from the position in December 2005 in the wake of the controversy over his alleged involvement in the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2701975/Sonia-Priyanka-Gandhi-visit-Natwar-Singh-ahead-explosive-book-release.html Hoping to read this book...
diga Grand Master

diga

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Big 'secular' leaders of the Congress-led alliance were conspicuous by their absence at an iftar hosted by party chief Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Sunday.And the attendance perhaps reflected the Congress’s political isolation and the emerging political equations. Her “secular friends†were missing and so were top leaders of its allies.:--D NCP chief Sharad Pawar, RLD's Ajit Singh and Abdullahs of National Conference skipped the iftar hosted by Sonia after three years. SP and BSP leaders too were not present. However, RJD and JD(U) leaders attended the event and shared the table with Sonia while Rahul Gandhi and ex-PM Manmohan Singh were the stars at the meeting.
Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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Karan thapar interviewed former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh. 'Sonia came to meet me with Priyanka on May 7. She was concerned about my book.' 'Inner voice' didn't prevent Sonia from becoming PM. Rahul gave her ultimatum. Was scared she'd be killed.' 'Rahul said he'd take every step possible to prevent Sonia from becoming PM. He gave his mother a 24-hr deadline to decline.' 'Manmohan Singh, Priyanka & Suman Dubey were present when Rahul gave Sonia the ultimatum'. 'Sonia used to receive govt files when UPA was in power. Pulok Chatterjee would carry these files to her'. 'Sonia's 1st choice for PM after Rajiv's death was Shankar Dayal Sharma. Only after he refused was PV Narasimha Rao considered.' His book is coming out in Aug. Will be interesting...

Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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I will write my own book and then everyone will know the truth: NDTV quotes Sonia Gandhi as saying I am serious about this and I will be writing: NDTV quotes Sonia Gandhi as saying She seems quite pissed off.....I'm waiting for her book :popcorn:

Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/sonia-can-neither-run-nor-hide-mole-from-my-office-fed-false-info-to-10-janpath/?SocialMedia Check this except ...Natwar Singh calls her from “authoritarian†and “capricious†to “Machiavellian†and “secretive.†and the junta , including you were calling Modi the above :--D
Eagerly waiting for his book and even better, for Kaangressis to defend The Family. BTW I've just downloaded "The Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjay Baru" - lets see if it really has something or its just a collection of gossip columns (as some people have been calling it) with Sanjay Baru at the center of everything.
JaiRamesh2 Newbie

JaiRamesh2

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I will write my own book and then everyone will know the truth: NDTV quotes Sonia Gandhi as saying I am serious about this and I will be writing: NDTV quotes Sonia Gandhi as saying She seems quite pissed off.....I'm waiting for her book :popcorn:
Sonia Gandhi she call her book... From Gandagi to Gandhi.
Lord Grand Master

Lord

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Natwar Singh's book has left an unpleasant taste ~ Salman Khurshid Who asked you to eat it ~ Rahul Gandhi :hysterical:
:cantstop:
velu Grand Master

velu

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Natwar Singh's book has left an unpleasant taste ~ Salman Khurshid Who asked you to eat it ~ Rahul Gandhi :hysterical:
:hysterical::hysterical:
Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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"Palace Coup?" Rahul-Priyanka Have Never Seemed Closer, Writes Mani Shankar Aiyar

For 99.999 per cent of us, becoming PM would be the fulfillment of an impossible dream. For a few, a very few, nothing could be more normal. Sonia Gandhi entered a Prime Minister's home as a daughter-in-law, lived in another PM's house as his wife, and went on to determine who would be the Prime Minister. Rahul was born into his grandmother's PM residence. He grew up in his father's PM House. He has served in politics as the son of the most powerful leader in the land. Ditto Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The Prime Ministership is theirs for the asking. The point is: do they want it? Does it have the same irresistible appeal for them as for the rest of us? I remember back in 1999 coming across Priyanka at 10, Janpath standing beside a window. I asked her if she would be standing in the coming election. Quick as a flash, she replied, "For the moment, I am only standing by this window!" I recall also having to every now and then kick myself in the PMO to remember that the guy sitting next to me was the Prime Minister of India, not some Doon School yaar It is amazing how quickly one gets used to the trappings of high office and starts taking it all for granted. That is what we have to bear in mind as we seek an answer to a question that is in everybody's mind even if the party concerned has made the answer repeatedly and abundantly clear: will she, won't she? Well, she says, NO. Why can we no let the matter rest at that? Thus the speculation begins. Arun Jaitley calls her possible entry a "palace coup" - as if he would know. One only has to see pictures of brother and sister together, let alone at closer quarters, to learn the obvious: that the two siblings are so fond of each other, so supportive of each other, so dependent on each other that it takes a rank outsider like Jaitley, grinding his miserable political axe, to even suggest any rivalry, let alone portray what is happening (or, rather, not happening) as a replay of the last days of the Lesser Mughals. That Priyanka would be a huge asset to the Party is beyond question. That the Party intensely desires her involvement is also not in the least doubt. That to behold her is to see Indira Gandhi and to hear her is to listen again to Rajiv Gandhi is what enthuses Party workers and the electorate. That she would be welcomed with both arms, so much so that most Congressmen would willingly grow a third arm to welcome her, is also a given. But who are we to insist on her assuming the mantle of her manifest destiny? That is up to her and her alone. Were she to decide for whatever reason that she does not want it now - or at all - there would be no alternative to getting on without her. Or, more accurately, getting on with her on the margins for she is already in charge of both her mother's and brother's constituencies, from where she delivered such handsome victories to both despite Narendra Modi's churlish attempt to upset the apple cart at the last moment. It was Modi who was driven out of Amethi and Rae Bareli with his tail between his legs. One can be intensely political without being in politics. Priyanka is both - intensely political and not in politics. But that need not hold forever. A day may dawn when she feels she has fulfilled her duties by her family and can now to step into the murky waters of politics. On the other hand, that day may not come, at least not in the remaining political life of aging veterans like myself. But it would be utterly unethical for any of us, young or old, to pre-empt Priyanka's life and tell her she has no alternative to coming to the aid of a defeated Party. That decision would be entirely up to her. As it was up to her mother. Not so long ago, how many of us (including Natwar Singh) were begging Sonia to take over the Party. We understood her self-imposed period of secluded mourning for a full year. But then she continued to remain in her cocoon of sorrow. The Party split (Natwar Singh in the lead). She still did not budge. After the electoral reverse of 1996, Sitaram Kesri ousted PV Narasimha Rao, to the despair of many, including myself. Still, Sonia remained behind almost locked doors at 10, Janpath. Then began the disintegration of the Congress, my own defection to Mamata Banerjee becoming the proverbial dislodged pebble that starts the avalanche. And walking around her home, Sonia Gandhi saw the portraits of her husband and distinguished in-laws urging her to put aside her inhibitions and save the Party they had done so much to nurture. It was that call of duty that brought her to active politics. How the media giggled! How one prominent woman politician let down all women by threatening to shave her abundant locks if a "foreigner" were to become PM of independent India! How the filthiest racist abuses were flung at her by the very person who lined up uninvited at her gate when she trounced an arrogant NDA and inaugurated a whole decade of Vanvas for the self-proclaimed "Ram Bhakts"! Therefore, there is absolutely no need for any of us to beg, cajole or threaten Priyanka. She is a Nehru-Gandhi. She knows where her duty lies. When the call comes - and it will come only if we are in desperate straits - she will know her hour has struck. If we pull ourselves out of the shoals and find our sailing smooth - as could well happen - then, Priyanka can curl up on a sofa and read a favourite book. That she is with us in the Congress in spirit is self-evident. Whether she will join us in our ranks is entirely for her to decide. Whatever her decision, now or in the future, it would always be in the best interests of the Party. "And as for the ill-wishers in the BJP their NaMo's clay feet are already showing. In as many as three bye-elections, the only one held since May 2014, all have gone in favour of the Congress. The forthcoming State Assembly polls will somewhat restore the balance lost in the Great Modi Illusion". Disillusionment with this Gogia Pasha of electoral politics - both among the general public and within the second-rung leadership of the BJP who are sharpening their knives with a sickening whine -will grow. In a year or two from now, the Sangh Parivar's impending rout will become clear to the meanest intelligence. At that point, as we are seeing now in UP, the BJP, through the Bajrang Dal and others, will play their communal card. At that point, Priyanka will come into her own. Perhaps not from a formal post in the Party, but in defence of that secular India which is under the most severe threat the country has faced since 1947.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/opinion/palace-coup-rahul-priyanka-have-never-seemed-closer-writes-mani-shankar-aiyar-574085 A masterclass in sycophancy :hatsoff:
Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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You read his blog :omg:
No. The guy from UnRealTimes posted the link on twitter so I read it. It really is incredible how Kaangressis are totally in love with the Nehru Dynasty and will go to any lengths to defend them.
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