IS RAHUL GANDHI CONSUMED BY A POLITICAL DEATH WISH ?

Is Rahul Gandhi secretly batting for L.K Advani ? The very notion sounds preposterous. Yet what can one make of the singularly bizarre way in which he has antagonised virtually every single ally of the Congress.

It is one thing to antagonize allies in states that have already voted or practically completed voting. Irritating Lalu and Paswan by speculating about Nitish Kumar is one thing (although in bad taste). Vitiating the atmosphere in West Bengal where the Congress-Trinamul combine was hoping to make major gains by trying to cozy up to the left is just plain stupid. But for sheer unprecedented imbecility, trying to extend feelers to Jayalalithaa when the Tamilnadu election is still a week away takes the cake.

This is the equivalent of a soccer player putting the ball into his own net in the midst of a tense world cup game. It is now essentially "game over" for the Congress-DMK alliance. Today, Sonia Gandhi has cancelled her rallies in Tamilnadu and DMK cadres have decided to stop working for Congress candidates in the elections.

The DMK-Congress camp was already battling with its back to the wall in the face of the superior electoral mathematics of the AIADMK coalition. The one factor, the only one, going for this combine in Tamilnadu was the feeling among large segments of the population that India's progress depended on a strong national government, one that a motley collection of parties called the "third front" could not possibly provide.

Now what exactly has Rahul Gandhi achieved ?

(a) He has single-handedly demolished the importance of the national factor. Now a voter intending to vote for the AIADMK can rationalize his or her vote as equal to a vote for the Congress (when in fact it isn't !!!)
(b) He has put the Congress in the humiliating position of being snubbed by Jayalalithaa in public and left the Congress rank and file demoralized and running for cover
(c) He has now ensured the defeat of every single Congress nominee in Tamilnadu including Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar.
(d) With the disastrous results now guaranteed in Tamilnadu and probably for the remaining phases in West Bengal, he has virtually done his very best to ensure that the BJP becomes the largest single party and the NDA becomes the largest single pre-poll allliance.

And this is the man who some were calling the future Prime Minister of India. God help India !!

Get ready to hail Prime Minister Advani. And don't forget when that happens the one man who made it all possible -- Rahul Gandhi.