Tea-vendor can’t be PMIJ Only privileged canIJ
Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal's remark that a tea-vendor cannot become the country's Prime Minister, would not have merited comment if it had not reflected the broader mindset of a large section of the entrenched political class which considers power to be its exclusive domain and those coming outside the ‘privileged class' as gate-crashers. That the remark should have come from an important leader of a party which claims to be influenced by socialist ideologies, is ironical. In the Samajwadi Party, and in the Congress which Mr Agarwal’s party supports, the stranglehold of dynasty has effectively shut out leaders from outside the family fold from growing beyond a point — let alone aspiring to be the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister — without the family's endorsement. The Bharatiya Janata Party at least does not suffer from the cult of such sycophancy. leaders here have grown in stature and occupied prime positions on merit, whether it was at the State level or on the national stage. It's this robust democracy which has resulted in the proliferation of strong State-level leaders such as Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Mr Raman Singh, Ms Vasundhara Raje and Mr Manohar Parrikar, and ‘outsiders' like Nitin Gadkari who became the national president of the BJP. These are sample examples. Mr Agarwal's jibe was directed at one such leader, Mr Narendra Modi. The BJP's prime ministerial candidate has come up the hard and long way, unlike many in the rival camps. He may have sold tea as a boy to make a living, but that makes his rise even more spectacular and noteworthy; it cannot become a subject of ridicule as the Samajwadi Party leader has made it out to be. Mr Modi's rivals must find better ways to criticise him and not stoop to desperate levels. In any case, isn't democracy supposed to give an equal chance to deserving persons to realise their ambitionsIJ
Mr Agarwal must do some introspection. His party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav may not have sold tea, but he had been known more for wrestling in the village akharas before being inspired by Ram Manohar lohia and drawn to the hurly burly of politics. lalu Prasad was a cowherd until he barged into the country's politics and rose to become the Chief Minister of Bihar and later a Union Minister, no less. MG Ramachandran, NT Rama Rao and Ms J Jayalalithaa were mere stars in tinsel town before becoming heads of Government. There are many similar examples. Since Mr Agarwal finds Mr Modi unfit to be the country's Prime Minister because the latter had been a tea-vendor, what exactly are the motormouth's own credentialsIJ He has been a party-hopper, was a complete disaster when he served as a Minister in Uttar Pradesh, and has no political reputation worth the name. Therefore, he suffers from a complex. By his uncalled for remarks, the Samajwadi Party leader has only handed Mr Modi and the BJP another potent issue with which they can assail their opponents.