Five decades ago, as India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, began visibly ailing, the nation and the world were consumed by the question: 'After Nehru, who?' The inexpressible fear lay in the subtext to the question: 'After Nehru, what?'
Interpretation
This quote reflects uncertainty and anxiety surrounding political leadership after a significant leader's decline.
Shashi Tharoor's quote highlights the deep concern and fear that arises in a nation when a prominent leader, specifically India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, begins to show signs of failing health. The underlying questions posed reflect not only the worry about who will take over leadership but also the broader anxiety about the direction of the nation without Nehru's guiding influence, encapsulating the idea that the absence of strong leadership can lead to a sense of instability and loss of vision.
In practice
During a discussion on political transitions in leadership, one might quote Tharoor to illustrate the anxiety associated with leadership changes.
Foreigners have a complex set of associations in their minds when they think of America - from Iraq to 9/11, certainly, but also from Coke to jeans. It is entirely possible for people around the world to love American products, American books, American movies, American music, and dislike the policies of the government of America.
The roots of India's soft power run deep. India's is a civilization that, over millennia, has offered refuge and, more importantly, religious and cultural freedom, to Jews, Parsis, several varieties of Christians, and Muslims.
Much of the conventional analysis of India's stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar economic assumptions. But we are famously a land of paradoxes, and one of those paradoxes is that so many speak about India as a great power of the 21st century when we are not yet able to feed, educate and employ all our people.
I believe in an India of pluralism and diversity, not of religious bigotry and caste politics. I believe in an India that is secure in itself and confident of its place in the world, an India that is a proud example of tolerance, freedom and hope for the downtrodden.
I returned to India because I believe in an India of honesty and hard work, not of corruption and crookedness. I believe in an India of openness and straightforwardness, not of hypocrisy and double-dealing. I believe in an India where opportunities are available to all, and not just to a chosen few.
The steep decline in America's image and standing after 9/11 is a direct reflection of global distaste for the instruments of American hard power: the Iraq invasion, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, torture, rendition, Blackwater's killings of Iraqi civilians.
I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who's hitting you? It's about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them.
Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.
The failure of the Russian Socialist Republic will be the defeat of the proletariat of the whole world.
In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.
There's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.
Our government should be entirely and purely secular. The religious views of a candidate should be kept entirely out of sight.
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