Kanika Vaidya thread

[bujilover]

Good to know about Kanika Thanks PKB.

Will she be representing India?

[PKBasu]

She would like to, but can only do so if the NDA comes back to power! She has an OCI card, and a Singapore passport, but continues to represent India.

[jayakris]

PKB, are you sure this will change if NDA comes back to power? We aren't sure if they care either, right? Jay

[PKBasu]

The NDA approach to overseas Indians is quite different: they embrace them wholeheartedly, particularly because they think of them as a huge wellspring of support. The NDA was, for instance, pushing for dual citizenship -- something that petered out once UPA came to power. Congress (and the bureaucracy) has a narrow definition of nationality (although they are quite happy to have carpet-bagging foreigners like Sonia and Jean Dreze re-tagged as Indians.. ).

[Atithee]

Sonia is a carpet-bagger PKB? What more would you like her to do to accept her as an Indian? I am no fan of hers but your constant belittling of her is puzzling to me. Is she not an Indian citizen yet?

[PKBasu]

Nobody has subverted our constitution the way Sonia (or rather Antonia) Maino has. There were good reasons why she couldn't be Prime Minister of India: her family business (conducted by her sister and her) was smuggling Indian antiques to Italy. When exactly she became a citizen of India -- for which she needed to give up her Italian passport but never provided proof of doing so -- is unclear. Her son and daughter also appear to have Italian citizenships, and Rahul has certainly travelled as Raoul Vinci (and worked under that name for the Monitor Group in London). The Indian Constitution does not allow dual citizenship, primarily because the Congress Party is opposed to it!

She nominated a President of India (Pratibha Patil) who had been censured by the RBI for grand theft in a Cooperative Bank Patil founded (and which had made more than than 80% of its loans to individuals and families connected to her own family). She appointed a Central Election Commissioner (Navin Chawla) who had been excoriated by the Shah Commission as "unfit to hold any office under the Constitution of India" but who had wormed his way back to favour with her personally by doing various services for the Catholic Church in India, including writing a eulogistic biography of Mother Teresa -- services for which he received one of Italy's highest national honours. Chawla was appointed CEC in the middle of the 2009 General Election, despite the previous CEC strongly opposing his appointment (and, naturally, calling into question his impartiality). She appointed a Central Vigilance Commissioner who had been found guilty of corruption. And now she has appointed a Comptroller & Auditor General who was formerly Defence Secretary under the UPA and participated in the latest round of scandalously corrupt purchases -- and is instead trying desperately to come up with trumped-up charges against the incorruptible Gen VK Singh.

I can go on. But this list is worth noting:
http://www.clicktop10.com/2013/05/top-1 ... s-in-2013/

[mehtakrishna]

PKB --I have been reading the board since Jay started it in the 90's and rarely post. I am big fan of your posts and you knowledge of all things related to tennis and otherwise. However, I would request you to refrain from writing such strongly opinionated posts, which have nothing to do with tennis.

I will not comment on your rants against Sonia Gandhi except to say that is is somewhat one-sided. I do take high umbrage to your calling Jean Dreze a "carpet bagger". I had the good fortune of working with him first as a student at Delhi School of Economic, and then as a RA at Kaushik Basu's Center for Development Economics. Jean is somebody I can only dream of becoming in many lifetimes and is certainly no "carpet bagger". He used to stay in jhuggi when he had access to a completely furnished apartment ( where he let me stay rent free). I remember one day he just picked up a homeless boy from the street who had slightly hurt by a speeding car and spent the night nursing him. I remember the humility and simplicity with which he conducted himself. His Economics I might not totally agree with , but if this is what a "carpet-bagger" looks like -- maybe we need more.

PKB, this is nothing personal. I continue to be a fan of your writing and will look look forward to waking up to your posts for a long time to come -- just keep it to tennis.

[prashanthm]

A healthy debate in all we need here on the forum, irrespective of whether it's related to tennis (or any other sport) or not...

@mehtakrishna, If you think PKB's rants on Sonia are one-sided, everyone here would like to hear about the other side of the picture... Does she have a Godse like personality (that most of the people don't know about Nathuram) in the background that no one knows about? We would definitely be interested in hearing that and it will probably make me happy to hear if Sonia is doing anything good for India...

@PKB, on the main note, do you think NDA will get the 'Dual Citizenship' back into reckoning if they win the elections? I was trying to look for anything related to Modi and Dual Citizenship and all I could find out was his allegations on Sonia & Rahul's citizenship claims...

[Atithee]

@mehtakrishna -- thank you for your response and some concrete examples. Honestly, I do not even know who Jean Dreze is but I will look it up now.

@prashanthm -- the question is not merely if Sonia is doing any good for India. The question is if she is significantly worse (or better). All politicans are more or less the same. Some have good ideas, some actually put plans in action, and some achieve success. A big part of the success is the world macro-economic climate, so to a certain extent it is luck too.

@PKB -- For most of the factual data in your response, you have used words like unclear, appear to whereas in lamblasting her actions, I do not see where she is any worse that others. It is how all politicans work. Can you name any other politican who hasn't committed similar transgressions? In India, court cases and convictions are mostly a joke at these levels. We know that they are all corrupt or biased at the least. It would be helpful if you took your personal hatred of Sonia out of the arguments and then respond. At the very least, Sonia has lived in India for ~40 years, lost her husband and mother-in-law to politics driven deaths, and lost her brother-in-law in an airplane accident. She speaks Hindi, dresses in a saree, and perhaps demonstrates other acceptance of Indian ways. I'd cut her some slack. Dual citizenship has been debated for many years before Sonia entered the politics. There is some emotional attachement to this issue among Indians (and I am actually not supportive of dual citizenship as an option for any country) and Sonia (who can only benefit from it personally) may indeed be opposed to it, though I doubt it is Sonia who is in the way.

P.S. Isn't this "incorruptible" VK Singh the same guy who was caught in the age drama?

[Prashant]

Regardless of the veracity of the other allegations against Sonia, it is manifestly unfair to call her a carpetbagger. She didn't move to India with a view to profiteering. I'm not saying she hasn't profiteered, but that is as a politician, which as Atithee points out, puts her squarely among the general class of politicians, be they in India, Italy or most other countries. Carpetbagging implies that her entire life in India was part of a grand plan to profit at the expense of India - that seems ridiculously revisionist given what we know about her history.

Again - I am not a Sonia fan, but this particularly insult just doesn't fit.

[prashanthm]

At the very least, Sonia has lived in India for ~40 years, lost her husband and mother-in-law to politics driven deaths, and lost her son in an airplane accident.

WHO?
Atithee, I see that you've got Sonia meddled up with Indira

[Atithee]

Oops! I knew something was wrong as I was typing. Yes, should be brother-in-law. Thanks for pointing out. I have edited the post.

[Atithee]

Again - I am not a Sonia fan, but this particularly insult just doesn't fit.

Yes, that is what that got me all worked up too.

[PKBasu]

I don't think we should clutter up this page any longer. Believe it or not, I was a fan of Sonia Gandhi at one time -- and there is a letter to The Telegraph from around 1997 as proof. I was just like most of India's chatterati then, putting "secularism" above everything else and stoutly defending her as the paragon of secularism.

But her actions as Congress leader over the past 9 years have deeply subverted our Constitution in ways much worse than anything Indira Gandhi was excoriated for. Indira was a nationalist and patriot, Sonia manifestly is not an Indian patriot. She may not have married Rajiv to get rich, but she did start smuggling Indian antiques soon afterwards (and long before becoming an Indian citizen). Rahul did live and work as "Raoul Vinci" in London, as I have been told by the person who was Monitor's boss at the time. I remain broadly a fan of Rajiv Gandhi. Nehru created democratic institutions, Indira was our best strategic leader on foreign policy (but generally bad on the economy). Sonia's legacy is nothing but fiscal profligacy and high corruption.

On Jean Dreze, I am sure he is a wonderful human being. But his socialist experiments on India are destroying our economy and the prospects of the poor he seeks to help. More on that elsewhere some day...

[jayakris]

I don't think we should clutter up this page any longer..

Oh, feel free to clutter it up. I will move the posts elsewhere soon.

I am enjoying this, as I have never been a big fan of Sonia Gandhi -- for precisely the reason prashanthm had - that I can never find anything good that she has done for India, or seemed to even want to do for India. But I also agree with Atithee on politicians being like that; though I won't agree that all politicians are like that. There are some who at least WANT to do things right, though our system will not let them. But then, I also don't know if she can be considered the "evil incarnate", like RSS and sympathizers do (and I am one sympathizer too, so to say). Still my general opinion on Sonia - negative.

Jay