Future Indian leader deserves more attention
- Source: Global Times
- [00:01 September 01 2010]
- Comments
This aloofness makes it difficult for those opponents to attack him, and it preserves a certain mystique about his persona.
Rahul's effortless rise despite his lack of political experience points to the power the name Gandhi still has in India.
Yet it also underlines the dearth of alternatives of resourceful young leaders, and a danger that a nuclear-armed world power may soon be led by an inexperienced politician.
After all, the incumbent prime minister, Manmohan Singh, was no charismatic Gandhi, but a quiet and modest technocrat who stoically pushed through reforms that allowed India to rise economically.
But Gandhi will be the first Indian leader to be born after the Sino-Indian War in 1962, and willing to leave past animosities behind.
Rather than waiting until Gandhi is in office, the Chinese government should reach out to him now, strengthen ties to India's future leader and lay the foundation for a lasting, open and beneficial bilateral partnership.
Oliver Stuenkel Visiting Professor of International Relations at the University of São Paulo (USP) and Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin.
