The surest way to occupy the Raisina Hill edifice is to cook food and wash utensils for the top Congress leader, Waqf Amin Khan, Rajasthan's minister of state for panchayati raj has suggested.

Khan says he's got living proof - president Pratibha patil.

"The president (Patil) would cook in her (Gandhi) kitchen and wash utensils when she was out of power after losing the 1977 elections," Khan said at a meeting of district Congress committee at Manpura-Bhakhari village in Pali district on Tuesday evening, according to a report in the Times of India.

"She (Patil) did not ask for anything in return so her services were finally rewarded by Sonia Gandhi," he added.

Immediately drawing flak from the opposition for denigrating the country's first citizen, the junior minister offered that he had meant to drum up the spirit of "selfless service" in party workers.

Khan probably forgot that selfless doesn't exactly mean lessening the self, which is exactly what Padam Singh, a decorated police officer and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati's personal security officer did. Footage of Singh wiping Mayawati's shoes made it to prime time on television on news channels.

Mayawati, known for many indiosyncracies, may or may not have asked the officer to wipe her shoes, but even if she did Singh had the right to refuse (even though that would have meant losing good standing with the whimsical CM).

State Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi proclaimed the act "feudal" (as it actually is, whether Maya plays the lord or Singh plays the eager-to-please serf).

But isn't what Khan suggested the same as well? Gandhis (Indira and Sonia), if what Khan said were actually true, would not be very diffrent from a feudal lord requiring service and a munificent heir rewarding subservient loyalty.

Selfless service doesn't mean moonlighting as an orderly for the leaders. A good leader would rather set an example doing her/his own dishes and other chores. All will do well to remember that the dark ages are indeed past.