That
SSR would have set himself ablaze if the coalition he led had lost the 1967 general elections as Burty David said yesterday at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute. I can't even imagine that he even said that. Why? Because
Seewoosagur was an extraordinary leader and extraordinary leaders simply don't burn themselves down because there's a hump in the road. No, they don't. They persevere until they succeed. And they certainly don't attribute stuff their dad had little to do with to their father.
It also doesn't tally with his personality: he enjoyed life way too much to even think about taking his with a gallon of whatever. People who knew the Old Man better than me are also very skeptical that he would have said such a thing.
Not so hard to believe if we take it from another standpoint. SSR was a born leader and he would certainly have set himself ablaze in the sense that he would have intensified his efforts to achieve his ends. Fortunately for the country this was not needed because the price could have been high. In fact he did set himself ablaze after independence by engaging tough battles to bring the country together on the road of modernity and economic development.
ReplyDeleteKozemotande, SSR died of a natural death.
ReplyDeleteHe did a lot but he didn't do everything. For example he had very little to do with free education. Something that Navin can't seem to be able to come to terms with. It wouldn't be a bad idea if he stopped talking about his dad day and night and started solving the problems of Mauritius. No wonder he want many more mandates to do the work that could have been done in his first one.