Barack Obama's memoir sends ripples across Congress ranks
- Swapnil Mhaske
- Nov 19, 2020
NEW DELHI: Former United States President Barack Obama's memoir 'A Promised Land,' caused quite a stir among the members of Congress Party even before it public release for casting certain aspersions on their leader Rahul Gandhi.
Matter of fact Obama's memoir has several references to Rahul Gandhi, including describing him as someone who lacks, 'either aptitude or passion to master the subject.' Although Obama praises Congress leader and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claiming that he has admiration and respect for him.
Mentioning about several leaders he had interacted in his tenure, in a kind of biographical sketches, the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh both come across as having a kind of 'impassive integrity, uncommon wisdom and decency.' Obama mentions that Manmohan Singh was, ‘wise, thoughtful and scrupulously honest’ and that he was able to develop a warm and productive relationship with Singh over the years.
Recalling his first visit to India in 2010, Obama recalls that Singh had expressed fears about the rising 'anti-Muslim sentiment” that had strengthened the influence of the BJP. He writes, “In uncertain times, Mr. President, the Prime Minister Singh said, ‘the call of religious and ethnic solidarity can be intoxicating. And it’s not so hard for politicians to exploit that, in India or anywhere else.”
On Rahul, Obama says that he found him, 'Nervous, and of unformed quality.' He writes about Rahul as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject.
Although Obama does consider Rahul as 'seemed smart and earnest,' and also that his good looks resembles his mothers'. Obama has also commented on Sonia’s role in upholding the Gandhi legacy, "A former stay-at-home mother of European descent — had emerged from her grief after her husband was killed by a Sri Lankan separatist’s suicide bomb in 1991 to become a leading national politician testified to the enduring power of the family dynasty.” Obama writes in his book.
The book, which is the first of two volumes, traces Obama’s political career until the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
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