Benazir and Indira on the couch

"The mistake we make is to confuse populism for popularity. There is no doubt that both these women had their ears to the ground; as opposed to the sons of the soil, they were the mothers of the earth. This again works well in the Electra Complex where the daughters aspire to replace the mother. In villages and remote towns it can have tremendous appeal. The poor and illiterate in our subcontinent like to be seen as loyal subjects being the benefactors of largesse. Political coquetry is a trait that comes with the territory."

That's a snippet from Farzana Versey's musings yesterday in Counterpunch. Her writing is pretty gooey (e.g., I think she means "beneficiaries of largesse"), but she does a good job of touching on all the uncomfortable realities embodied in a figure such as Benazir Bhutto. In any case, Versey's take is a lot more interesting than most of the stuff that's being churned out on the assassination. Read the whole article here.