Sharrayu Aroskar

I was traveling with my friend from Pune to Mumbai last weekend. She is a Nigerian. The current heated political environment has not spared her as well. She is following the news papers dropped at her hotel room every day. While conveying that she is following the news and that she knows of two big parties against each other, she understood that one of them was communal and the other was led by Sonia Gandhi. She also knew that Sonia Gandhi has two kids who are in politics. Now this was a little interesting to me. I debate and analyze Indian political situation with my colleagues and friends here in India but this was an opinion from someone who was an onlooker.  What does a common foreigner think about Indian political scene?

My friend continued to mention her view points. She thought that one of the larger Non-Congress parties is anti-Muslim. She was astonished by the fact that Indians allowed a woman Italian (foreign) origin to compete for the post of Prime Minister. She was amazed that a naturalized citizen can hold such a responsible position in India and no one would object. She strongly thought that was wrong.  She thought that Sonia Gandhi had raised her kids as Indian and her not returning to Italy after her husbands’ demise was laudable. And the next instance I heard the word Sonia Gandhi…..I thought

Swatynatra Veer Sawarkar, Bhagat Singh, Mangal Pandey, Acharya Atre, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel rebelled against the British in vain. What an average foreigner knows about Indian politics is largely about an Italian face that is dressed Indian. An Italian national was always welcome to be a naturalized citizen of this country as daughter-in-law. She took over the Indian political scene to a level that is no more identified by Indian faces. A certificate in English is the only course that was needed to hold power in this country. This was the power to rule and not govern. I was in some sense helpless and in a state of agony at the same time. Where has this Congress taken my nation to? What is the image that my nation has in the eyes of a young foreigner? What is the difference between what is happening now and the dynasty rule that was apparently abolished hundreds of years a go? Where are the names of my leaders who bleed red for this country? Why can’t I hear the names of Vajpayee, Advani, Sharad Pawar, Morarji Desai, P. Chidambaram, Manmohan Singh etc. from a foreigner? If I have to have my country known by a foreign face sixty years after independence then why did we throw out the British? British or Italian what difference would that have made to the image anyways? Directly or indirectly you are under foreign led rule.

Even when a foreigner feels that having a foreign born person govern the nation can be dangerous the Indian National Congress is not willing to accept that. Short sighted as they are, they do not understand the risk at which the nation and national secrets stand when a naturalized citizen is given such a high office. Though the moral temperament of a person cannot be judged by his or her nationality I think that you put your nation too much at a risk of leaking secrets and prone to partial decisions when it comes to holding a responsible office in India. I can tell you this for my experience. I travel a lot for work. My stay in United States of America has been the longest. Tomorrow even if I take up American citizenship for any reason, my loyalty will always be first towards India. It is natural. It is impossible for a person to leave the citizenship of the country that he/she is born and raised, in sense of its meaning in spite of a few papers being signed and stamped to naturalize to a different nation. So is the case with Sonia Gandhi. She has shown today that it is possible for an international by the way of marriage to a political family or otherwise to rule this country with great ease. It is a little astonishing that our constitution did allow this. We were just off of a British rule when our constitution was written by Mr. Ambedkar.. With all due respect for the great work and the person that he was, in my understanding, an amendment to not let this happen should have been a natural outcome. If not then, then why not now? When we know of the threats our country faces! When we know that we are a capable country of a billion people! When we know that we have people who can lead from the front and when we know we have every resource we need to govern this country on our own. Why did India and why did Congress need Sonia Gandhi.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her body guards. Rajiv Gandhi fell pray to the LLTE master minds. The bases of the Congress were leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar, Rajendra Prasad. There was a structure thought and purpose the party had. With sudden demise of Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi took over. Probably by the time he could instill a sense and organization in the party or may be even understand things unfortunately he was taken away. The party till then did not have a democratic structure to itself. It was always based on worshiping the Nehru Gandhi family. Suddenly the party crippled without a Gandhi name to show. If you may agree, a good structured and well run organization is not as much people driven. It is largely policy, structure, purpose and ideology driven. No doubt it needs good and capable people but never “a person” in specific. It is evident from what Congress did in 1999 that the party did not have a strong foundation to stand on. The only possible foundation this party has is the Gandhi family and the Gandhi lineage. They had no option but to get Sonia Gandhi to lead the Congress. This was in spite of the sects in Congress not agreeing to this completely. She seemed like the only savior to the age old party.

I wonder what made Mrs. Gandhi take that decision either. I have seen some of her photographs with Rajiv Gandhi at election rallies. Rajiv Gandhi was known to be the leader of masses. Mrs. Gandhi I believe has seen that through. She had seen how the reservation and minority politics seemed to have been working in the favor of the Congress. She has seen the power of “Garibi Hatao” slogan from Indira Gandhi. She has seen the vote bank politics within her party. She has seen the shallow nature of principles within her own party. She also knows how easily people can be transformed into vote banks based on false and ambiguous statements with no substance at all. According to me one thing at she has known is to crush the opposition and stay in power. She also knows that the masses here have a very short memory and anything and everything is taken at its spoken value without much analysis. At least by a larger vote bank.  She knows that Congress needs to be a household name till Rahul Gandhi can take up the Prime Minister position to earn his bread and butter for generations to come.

Unfortunately, her understanding of the nation and its political scenario is limited. Not only does she lack the experience but she fails to have the vision and connection necessary to place this country on a path to progress. She does not have the educational background or stronghold to hold a post like Chairperson of the coalition. She does not a vision for this country. I say so because I have never seen her in interviews or anywhere else where she is found talking about her vision for this country. I have never heard her having an intellectual and debatable discussion. I have heard her stoop at levels and talk about things that are deemed unsuitable for a person holding her office. I do not expect such shallow speeches from a leader holding the office and position that she is holding now. Blame game politics is may be suitable at corporation election level. I find her speeches of that caliber. She has no political vision or a strategic one. She however knows the power her last name has. Hence she has instilled the “ji huzur” culture in the Congress. Congress now seems like a place where merit does not matter. It’s all about how close you are to the ultimate family. The very fact that she has continued the vote bank politics and disregarded the merit structure shows her incompetence for the position she holds and her lack inclination to country’s development in true sense of its meaning. I sincerely doubt that she “means well”.

Till late 90’s Sonia stayed out of politics for a reason. She stayed in India for a reason. I do not challenge that. For a woman of any origin to lose her husband the way she did is sympathetic. Thousands of women in this country have gone through her pain with innumerable terrorist attacks that this country has seen. Though, what astonishes me is she markets Congress on the dynasty name and assigns a martyr image to the genocide. Something that happened to Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi was a murder of democracy and an end of an individual era. They cannot be called martyrs. I would not even call people who had to give away their lives in TAJ as martyrs. A martyr is a person who is at the frontier knowing that he is out there to take the first bullet on his chest so that it doesn’t hit his countrymen. I think it’s an insult to my countrymen who fight for my country’s defense at the borders when their contribution is compared to leaders who have been assassinated. If you may agree, there is a huge difference between two. I was ashamed of the Congress when they did not object to Sonia making fun of Mr. Vajpayee’s age and knee problems in the parliament. I was ashamed of my countrymen when they allowed words like “maut ka saudagar” to be used on the parliament floor without much protest. I am shamed that my countrymen accept an Italian non-competitive leadership. I am ashamed that an English certificate holder from Italy who married an Indian politician and came into politics just a decade back has the courage to question Mr. Advani’s contribution to India. I am ashamed that our country has agreed to accept whatever Congress throws in their plate when the country and we as individuals deserve more. I am disturbed that only lineage of Nehru-Gandhi family has had an opportunity in this country, thanks to the opportunistic marketing by the Congress. Where are the families of so many freedom fighters and known leaders like Sardar patel, Maulana Azad, Lokmanya Tilak, Damodar Sawarkar? Are we sleeping to drama that is being played or are we just immune?

What Soniya Gandhi and her aura translate into is more interesting to know. All of us know that taking up Indian citizenship is easier than many other countries in this world. It’s all the more easier by the way of marriage. When the Congress today upholds Sonia Gandhi and the people vote her to power, the message to the world is loud and clear. We have conveyed to the world that a person of non-Indian origin without much baggage of experience capability or service to this nation can hold an influential office in India. We have shown the world that this is easily possible. We have shown the world that the larger masses in India can be fooled to believe that Sonia is an “international level” leader. This is the term used by one of the farmers from Rae Barreli from where Sonia is the elected MP. We have shown the world that people prefer Sonia Gandhi’s persona over veteran services of Sushma Swaraj. We have shown the world that we can be falsely influenced.

Fixing this issue is not a one day job or a subject of election campaigns. The naturalization process in this country needs to be stringent and scrutinized. The issue does not limit and end at Sonia Gandhi. Thousands of people cross borders everyday. They are a burden on our economy and threat to our national security. These are the people who should have been in the jail and not Varun Gandhi. There are other laws to handle Varun Gandhi situation. These people can become citizens easily. Thanks to our porous system. They can very well enter politics. They can become popular leaders and they can hold a high position in office either individually or by blackmailing a larger party in need of support to form the government. Lastly you would know, they had entered to leak national secrets to a foreign country and break this country. We would be fools not to see what Sonia holding office as a foreigner implies. We may be fools not to know that there may be many aliens who enter this country with malign intensions are encouraged by the possibility that a alien can be made into something politically strong and influential.

We need an amendment that stops a naturalized person from holding office at the center. There have to be limits in national interest. The issue does not start and stop at Sonia Gandhi. It just throws open a discussion of implications and challenges that the country will face and the selfishness of Congress leadership by continually denying the existence of these for India. I do not question Mrs. Sonia Gandhi as a person, she may be the finest but what I doubt is her capability and the signal that this nation has given the world with her being in such a strong and influential office.