Sardar Patel and Karl Rove

Today, I wished an uncommon wish. I wished Sardar Patel would have lived past December 1950, maybe another 5-10 years, all active in politics. "History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme." - Mark Twain. These days, history class turns me on. Sardar Patel was a balancing force to Pandit Nehru, who was bent on pushing his socialist agenda via planned development. Sardar Patel was a proponent of the free market. He wanted capitalist forces to take their own course. He was against excessive Government control in the private sector. After his demise, the equations changed and socialism ruled. So followed a couple decades where entrepreneurial efforts were discouraged, considered with suspicion or micro-managed by review committees consisting of self-proclaimed experts. A country of a billion plus would have been very different today if Sardar Patel spent the 1950s in the halls of the ministerial offices. But his time had come and he had already contributed more in this nation's political arena than most others can dream of.

Sardar Patel might not have continued in the 1950s in India, but there is relief, in the United States, Bush's brain has finally moved out of his White House Office. Karl Rove, the supposed master Republican political strategist, was a mere shadow behind George W. Bush, but apparently he pulled all the strings in the White House. The Valerie Plame (CIA agent) case and the firing of U.S. attorneys are representative of a career chequered with political manipulation. Karl Rove has finally decided to call it quits, hopefully, making the world a less dangerous place to live in.