In response to yesterday's post, about the reported corruption of Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, an Indian-American reader offers this observation:

Since I’m originally from India, I can tell you that finding politicians in South Asia who are not corrupt is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Just about every one of the leaders touted as being great or visionary has some dirty laundry. The difference is usually in the degree of corruption. I think it is only fair that news coverage include all aspects of Benazir Bhutto’s life. That said, I do know that there are people who feel that she would have been a much better influence on the evolution of Pakistani society than the alternative(s). There are moderate Pakistanis who feel that, regardless of her past history, today she would have been a force of moderation in Pakistan’s society and would have likely helped nudge the country away from the utterly ruinous and extremist path it has been on for decades – ever since the founding of Pakistan via its partition from India and the attendant dispute that arose over Kashmir.

One other thought. Bhutto and former Indian Prime Minister (PM) Rajiv Gandhi had developed a good rapport at one time – and her presence gave some Indians hope that there might be a way to resolve the Kashmir problem amicably. There are some strange parallels I should mention as well. Rajiv Gandhi became PM after his mother Indira Gandhi was assassinated in India by some of her own bodyguards (who happened to be some Sikhs who were angrywith her clampdown on Sikh extremists in one of the holiest Sikh shrines in India). Rajiv Gandhi was initially touted as ‘Mr. Clean’ and brought some positive changes, but his image soured after he was linked to some corruption scandals in his Government. He resigned when his party lost an election as a result and when he was campaigning during a following election, he was assassinated by a suicide bomber (a female terrorist associated with the LTTE terrorist group in Sri Lanka, a group that hated Rajiv Gandhi’s position on LTTE’s claim of independence from Sri Lanka).

Posted by Laura at December 31, 2007 11:23 AM