Sonia Gandhi leads Congress to new peaks
(Kadakkal Ramesh, Vice Chairman, Kerala State NRI co-ordination Council.)
Twelve years have passed since Smt. Sonia Gandhi assumed as President of All India Congress Committee in 1998, when the condition of the party was very pathetic. Congress was not in rule at the centre at that time and total number of Congress MPs in the parliament was around 145. When her husband Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a bomb blast in 1991, she was not in politics at all. And she never wanted to step into active Indian politics, because she knew that India is a complicated nation with different religions and cultures.
Some political analysts are comparing her with Mahatma Gandhi, when she refused to accept the offer to become the Prime Minister of India in 1994. After independence of India Mahatma Gandhi refused to join the new government , and asked Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to lead the nation. With the help of the left parties in India Smt. Sonia Gandhi could become the PM in 1994. But because of the controversy around her foreign origin she took the wise decision to keep away from the PM’s post. And to suggest the name of an economist like Dr. Manmohan Singh as the new PM was also proved right in the course of time.
Smt. Sonia Gandhi resembles Smt.Indira Gandhi in several aspects like the way she dresses, the way she speaks for the poor, the way she forecasts the development of our nation and the humble life she leads. Smt. Sonia Gandhi never runs after power, she has become the biggest crowd puller for the party, she likes to give chance for the leaders who have shown their leadership qualities. Now she is at the peak of Indian National Congress with a proven ability and tactics to hold the party cadres together and win general elections with outstanding majority and thus winning the hearts of millions of common men in our nation.
In the 2009 parliament elections also she performed extraordinarily well and The Congress Party won near majority seats, and with the help of like minded parties the Congress was able to form a new government at the Centre. Congress party is at the peak now, with an all accepted leader at the top. Smt. Sonia Gandhi has always given preference for the uplift of the poor people in our country, especially women. It is because of the interest and initiative of Smt. Sonia Gandhi that the Central government introduced rural employment schemes, through which millions of women are able to earn a living and lead a happy life.


Smt. Sonia Gandhi has been highly successful in getting elected for the first time a woman president for the nation. Also she has to be complimented for choosing a lady as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. The historic event in the history of independent India is the passing of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha with the support of almost all the opposition parties. It was a dream come true for Smt. Sonia Gandhi, because it was the ambition of her late husband and former Prime Minister Sri. Rajeev Gandhi, to keep 33% reservation for women in the Parliament.
During her 12 year rule as the President of Indian National Congress, Smt. Sonia Gandhi has always upheld high democratic values in the constitution of the party, by promoting in-party elections and promotions. The Congress party is ruling in 11 states in the country now. And the coalition partners of the ruling United Progressive Alliance have good respect for the AICC Chief and she stands high among them, holding them together as the Chairperson of UPA. Smt. Sonia Gandhi, who was born in Italy in 1946, has already shown her maturity as an experienced Indian Politician and proved that she has the capability to take the right decision at the right time.
Smt. Sonia Gandhi is non-corrupt, sympathetic towards poor people, sincere to the overall development of the nation, never power hungry attitude, charismatic personality, purely secular in thinking, promoter of democracy and she is the ever loving daughter-in-law of India. Under her leadership the Congress Party and the Nation can grow ahead in this period of globalization and become one of the leading economic powers of the world. The people of India are of the view that Smt. Sonia Gandhi is as powerful as her late mother-in-law, Smt. Indira Gandhi. The confidence in her words, her stern stand for justice to the society, the matured and attractive personality has thrown rays of hope into the minds of millions of Indians to be on top of the world by the year 2020.
Surely the Congress party and the Indian people are lucky to have an unchallengeable leader to lead the nation towards prosperity by providing jobs to each one, especially to women, implementing social reforms like rural health schemes and rural industrialization, fighting the world menace like terrorism, education for all and protecting the interests of different religions of our nation. India is passing through a period of several challenges like global economic recession, regional unrest created by naxals and Maoists, threat from external fanatic forces, unemployment and poverty. We need a strong leader like Smt. Sonia Gandhi to lead our nation to prosperity and to keep the integrity of India.
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INDIA IN 2020
(Kadakkal Ramesh, IT-Finance Consultant)
The quality of its leaders has an important role to play in the development of a nation. A leadership with good vision, dedication and commitment to the society and people will help to attain a nation’s prosperity. After sixty two years of independence, it will be appropriate to analyse at this juncture, the reasons for India being termed still as an under developed country. Till the beginning of ninetees we saw strong, dedicated leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi under whose leadership our nation achieved self sufficiency in food production and also industry and technology got a bold start. A weak leadership not only promotes corruption in all sectors of our government machinery which in turn prevents the progress of the nation, but also provokes external forces to engage in activities which will weaken our country.
Had Indira and Rajiv were not been killed by extremist outfits inorder to take revenge for the stern action they have taken against their movements, the situation in India would have been much different now with less corruption and poverty. They were leaders who were placed deep inside the hearts of millions of poor people in our country, including peasants and workers. They were leaders with charismatic personality and commitment to the nation, with deep sympathy for the weakest sections of our society. What actually the whole nation is looking forward for? Is there any vaccum at the top of our nation at present? Who will lead our nation to progress in the coming decades? Who will get the whole - hearted support of the people of the whole nation? Is our nation looking for a new young, energetic, charismatic leader to be born in the horizon like a shining star who could lead our country into prosperity along with other nations of the world? Are we going to get a leader who will be sincerely putting efforts for the upliftment of the poor peasants and workers; who will take initiative to empower the illiterate women in our country ; who will give importance to provide free education for the poor children who are going to be the powerful citizens of our nation tomorrow?
With such an ambitious, sincere and powerful leader, India can become a highly developed nation by 2020. A few years back we were giving our ears to the words of our former President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, who was suggesting to take different positive steps to lead India to a highly progressed nation, which will be self sufficient in the agriculture and industrial sectors. We have sufficient resources and manpower; but lack of strong determination from the ruling leadership and the ever increasing corruption are pulling our nation down continuously. Accountability is not at all given any consideration by the people who are occupying responsible positions. Several political leaders and government officials are looting public fund which could be otherwise used for the welfare schemes of the government for the upliftment of the weaker sections. And we have been highly successful in pardoning such culprits during the course of time and the whole society forgets the unpardonable crimes committed by such scrupulous people and giving again chances to them to occupy high positions in the government. Is our country lacking a strong judiciary to punish them and put them behind bars?
Our nation can be a super power before the end of this century, if we can curb corruption and violence including labour militancy. Our country has got millions of young, brilliant students with us who can become nation building engineers and scientists. Due to lack of opportunities here they are forced to migrate to other parts of the world and contributing well for the development of those nations. Political instability is another situation when the process of progress will slow down. The political leaderships have to take initiative to avoid such situations by giving importance to the interest of the nation ; not for the interest of parties or individuals. Creating employment opportunity for the educated youth of a nation is the utmost step to be taken for the overall development and well being of the country. The situation in our country is so favourable that we can be super power in education, human resources, nuclear energy, information technology, space research, defence, agriculture and industry by 2020. The contribution of each individual to attain this great achievement is also very significant. Every student, politician, farmer, worker, industrialist, educationalist, social worker, engineer, doctor and scientist can play their own important role for the progress of our nation.
Several world leaders including the newly elected US President Mr. Barrack Obama are looking towards India, which is going to become a super power in the world in the areas of science, energy, information technology, nuclear science, agriculture and space science. In order to achieve more progress in these areas the nation has to invest more fund on these areas than for defence and for fighting terrorism. For this, more diplomatic relations are to be established with our immediate neighbours as well as with other nations around the world and take initiative to gather international consensus to fight global terrorism. At present almost all the countries in the world are spending more money for protecting their territories and for fighting against anti-national outfits. It is high time that leaders of world community sit together and chalk out strategies to find out the causes for global unrest and implement amicable solutions to their causes, instead of suppressing them, which in turn will come up again with more vigour that leads to global violence and destruction of peace and tranquility around the world.
In a secular country like India, where thousands of religions co-exist, maintaining communal harmony is also very important for the overall development of our country. From the very beginning of the formation of our country, we witnessed several communal riots which resulted in loss of lakhs of lives and destruction of property. As per statistics we lost more people is communal riots in India than in wars fought with our neighbours,
During the last several decades, we witnessed leaders of many political outfits also promoting communal violence for their personal gains. A politician should not be keeping any selfish ambitions, when he is out in the society to serve the people; but unfortunately we are not able to meet very many politicians with that quality. Especially in the last few decades we came across with several political leaders who do not maintain values while executing his responsibilities. Serving the nation and its people is not just another job for making a livelihood of a person; but it is an unconditional service with no demand for any returns. Inorder to have a smooth journey towards progress, the nation has to promote more young talented leaders who will serve the nation without corruption.
Maintaining a good and friendly relationship with all our immediate neighbours is very essential for attaining overall development of our nation, especially in the era of nuclear arms race. After independence we fought several wars, which has resulted only in loss of men and money. To avoid such wars again in the coming years we need a strong leadership which will think and act positively. A leadership which will be acceptable for our neighbours and to the world community, can take our nation to progress by the end of the year 2020. During the last six decades we have spent lakhs of crores of rupees for defence expenditure which might have been used for the development of infrastructure in the nation and for implementing schemes for the welfare of our society. When we cannot neglect the external threat to the internal security of our country, the only way to avoid big losses to our national exchequer is to have a globally acceptable leadership like that of Nehru or Indira; which infact is lacking at present. This is the main reason for the existence of millions of poor people in different parts of our nation like Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.
Gandhiji said, “The soul of our nation lies in the villages and progress of the villages in India will lead to the progress of the nation.” We need leaders who will look into the problems faced by the villages. We need leaders who will consider the poorest man as their “God”. An allout effort for the development of our villages in our country in the next decade will help India become a world leader by 2020. The people of India are looking for a government machinery which will give importance for infrastructure development, construction of roads, giving subsidies for agriculture, giving more employment for women and providing good healthcare for its subjects. The leadership has to give more importance to healthcare, as a healthy society is very essential to become a world leader. So, by the end of 2020, we are dreaming for an India with a society which will be corrupt-free, healthy, literate, employed and above all sincere to the nation and patriotic. Let us be optimistic that more Nehrus, Indiras and Rajivs will arouse from among the existing young leaders, who will absorb qualities from Gandhiji, Nehru, Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi who loved the villages and the poor people of our nation; who spent their whole life and lost their life for the cause of the nation.