Speakers at the rally included a former chief minister, several ministers and a representative of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), Mukul Wasnik, but not one person mentioned Dr Manmohan Singh’s very real achievements: his decision to open the economy to private investment at a time when India teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. And, his determined efforts to persuade the world that India was open for business and ready to participate in the global economy.

Instead, they blathered on about the poor and poverty, and shortages of drinking water and electricity as if these were things that happened only because a BJP chief minister has ruled the state for two years. Some speakers even blamed dengue fever and chikungunya on Vasundhara Raje without noticing that by the same rules of analysis their revered patron saint, Soniaji, would have to be blamed for the epidemic in Delhi.

Many of the speakers at the rally were young and what depressed me most was that the speeches they made, the manner in which they made them and the issues they considered important had not changed since the days of Indira Gandhi, when I first covered a political rally.

If these are our future political leaders, then India is going to remain mired in poverty, backwardness and squalor way into the 21st century. How depressing is that?