In one of the episodes of the Mahabharata, Sage Veda Vyasa meets Dhritarashtra and finds him in a pensive mood. Upon enquiring, Dhritarashtra says, that he was hoping that the Pandavas are discovered in their 13th year of exile when they are supposed to stay incognito. That way, they would again be in exile for 12 more years. Sage Ved Vyasa admonishes him, saying his thinking was flawed and he was being unfair to the Pandavas. Dhritarashtra says, it was better this way because if Yudhishtra was made the emperor, Duryodhana was threatening to commit suicide. Sage Veda Vyasa advises him that as a father and as a King he must admonish Duryodhana because Duryodhana was being greedy and overly ambitious to sit on the Hastinapur throne, while being “ayogya” or incompetent !!
Dhritarashtra laments that Duryodhana doesn’t listen to him and doesn’t follow his orders. Veda Vyasa then asks Dhritarashtra as to what was the punishment meted out to any citizen who refuses to follow the Emperor’s orders and Dhritarashtra replies that “the punishment is death, but how can I mete out that punishment to my own son ?” Sage Veda Vyasa says something profound in reply – “Isn’t your son also a citizen of your kingdom ? The rules that apply to the common citizen also apply to your son”.
I remembered the above episode when I came across the following tweet –
I know that India Today has already or will soon come back with rebuttals about how they have dedicated their cover page to Mr. Modi and to other leaders but my point is not about India Today and who they put on the cover.
The CONgress party and its President-for-ever-and-ever Mrs. Sonia Gandhi seem to be behaving exactly like Dhritarashtra and foisting “ayogya” Rahul Gandhi on us as a political leader and heir apparent. Rahul Gandhi is neither interested in politics, nor is he capable of running a country and he hasn’t displayed any eagerness to learn the ropes. He is forever being launched and in every election they hope that he will evolve, and every single time, he consistently disappoints. We have to hand it to the middle-aged yuvraj that he is persistent in trying and consistent in delivering duds. I certainly hope that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi stops believing in miracles and allows Rahul to live his life the way he wants to – at 50, he deserves to be free to choose his life !!
I decided long back not to waste time writing about Rahul Gandhi, but the above tweet and the Veda Vyasa episode in the re-run of Mahabharata forced me to think and write about the similarities between Duryodhana and Rahul Gandhi. Actually Duryodhana comes out ahead of Rahul Gandhi … he was a true blue warrior, he was a great friend to Karna and was ambitious. They both have an indulgent parent in common and both are hoping to “inherit” positions that they don’t deserve and are incompetent to hold.
Make no mistake, the Kurukshetra war is happening even today, the fight between dharma and adharma, right and wrong, truth and untruth continues in every theatre of life. As in the Kurukshetra war, we are all hoping for dharma to win and because its a different “yuga” time, we also need to help in the war efforts with our weapon – votes !!