May 31, 2009

The Man Who Could Revolutionize India

Sudip Mazumdar, Newsweek

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A revolution is underway in India. The man leading the charge is neither a fiery ideologue nor a gun-toting guerrilla. Instead, he is the scion of one of the world's most famous political families. But Rahul Gandhi, 38, has set out to disrupt the very system that created his power. At first glance, he is simply trying to restore the 125-year-old Indian National Congress"”a party once led by his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, his grandmother Indira Gandhi and his father, Rajiv Gandhi, and now run by his mother, Sonia Gandhi"”to its once lofty position as India's dominant political group. But his tactics are game-changing: insisting on grassroots activism, building deep connections to rural India and trying to democratize the hierarchical Congress party itself. If he...

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