Asian Window

In Mail Today, Manoj Joshi argues that the travails of the Congress seem to be deepening as the darkness descends on the political landscape of the country

JUST eight months or so ago, everything seemed to be going well for the world. The global economy was ticking along; the US, was headed for an election whose winner felt she was predestined; following a spectacular 2007 when its economy did even better than before, Beijing was readying itself for its coming out party, the 2008 summer Olympic games. In New Delhi there was a government which was beginning to believe that given the disarray in the ranks of the principal Opposition party, and the country’s buoyant economy, the next election was a cakewalk.

Then came the Year of the Rat and everything seems to be in turmoil. Things are not looking too good, not for the world, not for India. Super-billionaire Warren Buffet has declared that the US is now in a recession, one that could last for several years. Having managed to beat down the pro-Tibet agitation, China has been struck by a natural calamity of enormous proportions. The May 12 earthquake has taken 100,000 lives and caused widespread destruction and has brought a pall of gloom over the country which the Olympic celebrations will not lighten. As for India, it is gripped by a different kind of a crisis, a madness, if you will, that is impelling our political class to wantonly undermine, squander, and even destroy, every opportunity and advantage the country has been blessed with.

more

Similar Posts:

• India’s latest engineering goal: create Olympians
• Indian Communist chic
• The timebomb ticking in “mini-India”
• The Hindu divided family
• Indians continue to rock the Forbes billionaire list