Domestically Mrs Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister served mostly to create huge problems in Punjab and Kashmir without solving those that already existed in the Northeastern states. When Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister one of the first things he did was to try to bring peace in these troubled states. Had he been wise and allowed a free election in Jammu & Kashmir in 1986 we may not have had a Kashmir problem today. But, he was young and Mummy’s old advisers told him to force an alliance with the National Conference, which turned into a political suicide pact for both parties.

If during this time of terrible political instability dear Dream Prime Minister had been building up the Indian economy through wise policies and through simply paying attention to the changes taking place in Southeast Asia we may still have been alright. But, even as our old enemy China opened its moribund communist economy to foreign investment and capitalist ideas,

Mrs Gandhi kept India’s wrapped in red tape, state controls and central planning. It was such a bizarre time that industrialists who produced more than the quotas allotted to them were treated like criminals. Her devoted daughter-in-law recently said bank nationalisation was the reason why India had not been affected by the international financial meltdown. This is nonsense. Bank nationalisation kept Indian banks in a prolonged dark age until foreign banks arrived to show them how much they needed to change.

The poor found it just as hard to get loans from nationalised banks as from private ones. Only governments benefited and they borrowed and spent recklessly. Mrs Gandhi’s family continues to speak of the ‘the poor’ as if they were the only ones who cared for them. The truth is that if Rahul Gandhi were truly in touch with life in the real India he would not need to spend the night in a Dalit hut to find out how bad things are.

... contd.