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India-Pakistan
Gandhi-Nehru brand tainted by new election humiliation
2019-05-25
[DAWN] A second straight landslide election defeat for opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised serious questions on Friday about his leadership and cast a damaging shadow over one of the world's most prominent political dynasties.

Gandhi, who even lost the family constituency seat to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of arch-rival Narendra Modi, will have to face the music at a meeting of party leaders in coming days.

The election results made grim reading for Congress barons who have relied for generations on the talismanic Nehru-Gandhi name ‐ which rivals the Kennedy clan in the United States and the Bhuttos in Pakistain ‐ to provide electoral success.

The tarnished party was predicted to get about 50 seats, barely improving the historic low 44 it won in Modi's last landslide in 2014. Congress failed to get a single seat in 13 of the country's 29 states.

When asked about responsibility for the loss, Rahul Gandhi told a presser late Thursday: "This is between my party and me. Between me and the Congress Working Committee."

Party spokesmen have insisted the 48-year-old son, grandson and great-grandson of Indian prime ministers would not resign and that strategy was to blame for the defeat.

"We have to go back to the drawing board," Congress front man Salman Soz told AFP.
Posted by:Fred

#7  re #6: I'm pleased to see that you named Turdeau first in your list of . . . . . . well, you know. Extremely correct!
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper   2019-05-25 20:24  

#6  The problem is in the Congress Party, headed by the Gandhi clan (or so people think). Actually the truth has more parallel in contemporary US politics.

The Congress Party is an amalgam of politicians working for bureaucrats, faux-leftists and profiteers deeply invested in robbing natural resources, drying up water tables, mining the fuck out of land and selling out to corporations. This party needs a 'saleable face', a name that India can trust - what better than Gandhi. Synonymous with the Mahatma. Also India first learnt to walk on its legs after being raped and pillaged by the British and the Muslims for 940 years, under the brave Leadership of men and women from this party. But as the govt. was based on absolute power of the few, their dynasty gave in to greed. The last okay leader was Indira Gandhi, the first woman PM of India. That was in the 80s.

Today's Congress Party is just the Indianized version of the democrat socialist pattern to which every 'progressive' asshole fascist subscribes around the world. eg: Trudeau, Merkel, Macron, Obama, Cameron... you know this list.

Many people in India who praise Modi also diss Trump, unaware that they both share an anti-islamist, truly progressive mindset. Both are committed to the furthering of their national interests and both focus on the economy and infrastructure, giving a backseat to puerile social justice and PC shit.

There's a pattern of resurgence of conservative power all over the world I think.
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-05-25 12:49  

#5  Indians I've talked politics with considered the Gandhis to be insanely corrupt. Like the Clintons on steroids and vindaloo.
Posted by: SteveS   2019-05-25 11:58  

#4  I had a Nehru shirt
Posted by: Skidmark   2019-05-25 11:42  

#3  Not quite correct, Chereting Pelosi1889. According to Wikipedia he was born in Uttar Pradesh. Wikipedia adds:

[Jawaharlal Nehru] was also known as Pandit Nehru due to his roots with the Kashmiri Pandit community.
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-05-25 09:21  

#2  Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Nehru was born in Kashmir and thus would never consider its loss to Pakistan.
Posted by: Chereting Pelosi1889   2019-05-25 08:22  

#1  The Indian equivalent of the liberal democrat party loses, spelling doom for marxists, open-borders, islamists, 'diversity' preachers and climate and economy experts.

What's amazing is that Pak PM Imran Khan wished for a win for the conservatives in India.
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-05-25 04:21  

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