If you think I am being facetious, you are wrong. As someone who has never hidden my embarrassment at an Italian woman being India’s most celebrated politician, I find myself wondering often if she would have made it had she been Nigerian or black American. After giving the subject considerable thought, I have concluded that she would not have, and this saddens me.

This is not to discredit Sonia Gandhi. That she has got where she has is evidence that the “tallest” political leaders in the land are just a bunch of losers who should have retired long ago if they had any sense of dignity. What worries me as a little, brown Indian woman is our awe of the white skin. Sixty years after Independence we should have got over it, and it is my humble opinion that until we do, we will continue to be a nation that celebrates mediocrity and not excellence. Sunita’s is not a mediocre achievement, it is a real achievement, but to think of it as an Indian achievement is not just absurd but embarrassing. She has done her country proud and that country is the United States of America. Not India.