|
|
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
|
|
"PLEASE, SIR.... BEFORE I ASK AGAIN, WHAT IS THAT LINE FROM 'BLAZING SADDLES?'"
This gentleman is obviously distraught. The reason? He's a supporter of Sonia Gandhi, whose Congress Party won a spectacular upset in India's national elections last week. No one, but no one thought that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party would lose its grip on power. I, myself fancy myself something of a BJP man.
But it happened. No one is quite sure why yet.
Anyhoo,this lead to something of a political dilemma. You see, Sonia Gandhi, the widow of late Prime Minister, Rajiv and daughter-in-law of the late Prime Minister, Indira, is not a born Indian citizen. She's actually Italian, which poses the obvious question: Why would Indians vote for an Italian? Italians haven't done that commendable a job running Italy for the last 50 or so years. To be a successful politician in Italy, you need some sort of support from the Communist Party.
Which brings the discussion back to Sonia. Since, like all countries with names that begin with the letter I, India has more political parties than it has people, Congress did not win an outright majority. No single party has in decades. So to form a government, Gandhi's Congress agreed to form a coalition with, you guessed it...the Communist Party. I think you can imagine how the Delhi financial markets reacted to this. If you imagined, "Not well", you win!
For the past two days, Congress members have been giving backrounders to the press that Sonia would not accept the Prime Ministership of India. Thus the above pictured gentleman's distress. I should note that his demonstration is a shocking breach of Indian political etiquette. Ordinarily in India, the use of firearms is strictly reserved for reserved for AFTER a Gandhi takes office. You see, Indira was shot to death in 1984 and Rajiv was shot to death in 1991.
Turns out Sonia turned down the gig. I wonder if the dude capped himself.
|
|
|
| |
