The Case for Sonia Gandhi!

Yes.Her origin is a non-issue.I remember reading a Vir Sanghavi article in which he quoted Manmohan singh.Singh makes this point beautifully. Whether she becomes prime minister or not, lets see. Its not a question of legacy of Congress or failure of NDA.The argument is not about Congess and NDA, it is about Sonia.
Does she have the intellect and the authority to run a nation?I have my doubts. In fact leadership and discipline are the two areas in which the BJP does score over the Congress.

As to Sonia`s commitment to India, I suggest the acid test.

Let us see how long Sonia lives in India after Rahul gets shot and killed.

My feeling is that she will bolt to Italy with Priyanka pronto.

Dost-Mittar,
I`ve come back to Chowk after a long time, and was particularly interested in the responses to your vote for Sonia, as this is something I feel very strongly about myself.
I notice that:
1. Most interactions against Sonia point to her lack of intelligence, to put it in very politically incorrect terms. I personally don`t think so. She knew what she was doing when she married into the First Family of India. And was her reluctance to let Rajiv join politics real or feigned?
2. Did the framers of the Indian Constitution ever envisage a time when a foreign-born person, who decided to become an Indian citizen only when his or Indian spouse was going to become Prime Minister some day, would regard India as his or her personal jagir and try to take it over? Why don`t you find out from any of the people who were born before that time what people would have thought? Now don`t start comparing Sonia Gandhi with Nellie Sengupta, Sister Nivedita and Mother Teresa - as some people have done.
3. What I find particularly strange is that no-one has bothered to respond to this comment from you:
she proved her allegiance to India by consciously choosing to become its citizen instead of moving to the safety of foreign shores despite the very real dangers to her life and the life of her children. Having made the decision, she has done everything to adopt the language, food, dress and culture of the land of her choice and to serve what she believes to be her family legacy.
Would Sonia Gandhi have been able to lead the same kind of royal lifestyle in Italy as she`s always done here, being treated with kid gloves because of the colour of her skin and the family she so wisely married into? Just think of her family background, and think of what she`s getting here. What safety abroad are you thinking of, especially in the country that gave the world the word mafia? The country whose fine...hand has traditionally been seen behind everything that is corrupt and mean and treacherous? Is she serving the family legacy or holding on to the power that the Nehru-Gandhi family is so notorious for? (I don`t exempt Maneka from this either, but that`s another matter.)

Ref harshreality #101

Real question is: what will be India`s relationship with Italy? Will projects be awarded to Italian companies as opposed to French, British or American companies? Has Italy got any technology that is superior to that available from other countries?

Congress is the party that deprives people: of their rights to a decent life, livelihood, environment, etc. After 50 years of Congress misrule, we have rutted two-lane roads to show as our national highways linking our metorpolises. Just the fact that today 4-lane highways are being laid to link the Northeast to the West, the North to the South and the cities of Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Nagpur should be enough reason to vote in the BJP.

Under Congress, India was a country that was on its knees. Under BJP, we can tell the world that we intend to do what we want with our future.

Sonia Gandhi is qualified for the one job she went for in England: an au pair girl. So let her run day-care centers and take care of the bambinos.

you realy gona sanile.r u fool?.wht do u think indian PM post is post of some clark so we can expiriment with it like we try indira and rajiv.this is indira who mess panjab.
ever read book of jagmohan ``my frozen turbulance in kashmir.this is rajiv after nehru who mess kashmir problem.r u know because of rajiv`s shrilanka policy we loss lives of 1800 jawans.ever u read history.may be indira is successfull pm not rajiv.today we see hindu muslim confilct in india its credit go to rajiv.who change court verdict in shah bano case by
amending constitution and then open doors of babari for hindu.
r u know ppl r entitle to know whole life of their PM.
tell me wht u know abt sonia gandhi.where she born ?.where she study.whom r her friends.
which type of food she like.which sport she loved.whom r her relatives.any thing u know.
tell me wht her stand on kashmir.
tell me wht her stand on bado conflict.
tell me wht her stand on bangladesi refugees.
tell me wht her stand on ulfa.
tell me wht her stand on china and pakistan relation.
tell me wht her stand on babri masjid.
tell me wht she think abt reforms.
tell me wht economy she prefer. libaral or social.
wht her stand on reservation.
wht her stand on water linking project.
r u know when vajpai is opposition leader government fear of him.teke him granted on every issues.
there is hunderds of occations when sonia can slaps government hard when she was opposition leader.but she failed.not a single occesion in five year she can emmbressed governmnet.the lady who fail as opposition leader r u think she can succeed as prime minister.we have to elect prime minister not congress leader.
r u forget 3000 sikhs who r massacred in congress rull with full support of police.
but ur mind is mind mind of slave.u cant understand this things.
stop interferes in my country.

gujju (76)
Yup. Precisely.

Faruk #98
Thanks. Those are nice maps but the female literacy one is a disgrace :(.
The literacy information visible there is however, region-wise, not religion-wise.

Re : sadna # 83

Here are some site’s and some maps.
http://cyberjournalist.org.in/census/cenlit0.html
http://www.mapsofindia.com/census2001/literacyrate.htm
http://www.mapsofindia.com/census2001/femaleliteracydistrictwise.htm


Regards,

Faruk

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plats8 #93
I dont think the onus is on Indian public to appreciate the difference. The onus is on Indian public to demand accountability from VHP/BD/RSS.

The BJP gets to speak out of both sides of its mouth/play hide and seek on issues of concern, due to this cohabitation. For example, while mouthing mantras of moderation, BJP gives up not one of its options on RJM/BM via the VHP, without BJP leadership being held accountable for either the hardline proclamations of VHP leaders or for negative fallout of mass activism by VHP. Faayada hi faayada.

And there is the issue of organisational muscle of VHP/ RSS/BD dictating government policy, influencing careers of public servants, getting shielded by resp local justice systems on behalf of their friends in power the BJP, and not be in the least accountable to public for it.

Members of these organisations get to do influence-peddling on behelf of BJP right uptil mohalla level in a sort of vertical chain of command, without needing to stand for even local elections in the name of their organisations, like other parties` grassroots are forced to do. This is a unhealthy way to practice politics and constitutes an open invitation to misuse of organisational power.

And for example, who the heck are people like Sudharshan and Singhal to get so much airtime/facetime when they speak of India and Indians` future without being in the least answerable to said Indians.

Then there is the legal/quasi-legal issue of collecting (tax-exempt?) funds under Indian laws as `cultural organisations` and spending it in service of avowedly political objectives. There is the issue of whether any other set of organisations could have the same record of violence and hate speech against fellow Indians and not be banned.

A person might want to keep the BJP and vote RSS/VHP/BD out of power. But doing so is just not possible.

I just remebered what Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook wrote in his column recently

These days when people who vote for the Congress or dont want to vote for the BJP get together they quietly shed tears at the complete incompetence of the opposition party.

#90 by dost-mittar
I do not agree that the moderates in the BJP are in the ascendancy. It all comes down to the leadership quality of one man, Mr. Vajpayee. If he is removed from the scene, there is no other moderate who can withstand the onslaught of the likes of Modi, Singhal and Tagodia. The fact is that the RSS is the spiritual as well as the physical backbone of the BJP and the BJP neither wants nor can afford to break its umbilical cord with the mother organization, although the RSS is smart enough to know that `Rajneeti` requires certain temporary compromises even if the ultimate aim remains unchanged.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That is certainly possible, but do consider other views. See for example, ``A Late Riser`s Journey`` by Prem Shankar Jha, who in the past has been very critical of the BJP http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040315&fname=Column+Prem+%28F%29&sid=1

I personally think that if Vajyapee is removed, unless some other leader of similar stature is found in the BJP, it may split into two parties - a hardline VHP/RSS backed party and a moderate party. While the VHP/RSS party will have a dedicated cadre, it may not have much popular appeal (like the Jan Sangh of previous years).

#2 gujjubaniya

for the first time i agree with u.old man gona sanile

Sadna #89,

Congress in the past has tried to raise this umbilical cord issue between
RSS/VHP/BJP, but it was more of a whimper than anything else. I also feel
that in the mind of the Indian voting public, there is nothing incongruous about
RSS interfering in governance while the BJP is in power - do you feel that we
are mature enough as a society to appreciate the difference ?

Hossp #88

{{All I did was pointed you to what your prejudices are}}

Let’s see if I’ve got this right. I’m not a public figure in the limelight. You’ve never met me, know me only from a dozen exchanges on Chowk. You seem not to have figured out the wrinkles in my background. You have not walked a mile in my shoes, have little idea what my personal worries might be, what private axes I have to grind. At best you could have gone over my entire Chowk output with magnifying glass and microscope hunting for elusive clues about my inner life. Given your poor reading comprehension, it might not help you very much anyway. I doubt you are gifted with telepathy. Yet you feel quite confident in telling me what my supposed prejudices are. Can you see anything wrong with this picture?

I’ve tried to hint a couple of times that you’re on the wrong track. The first couple of guesses you might make about me based on demographics would most likely be incorrect. You apparently won’t accept any correction or hints. There’s only so much I can do.

{{and you are upset about it.}}

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I don’t mind strong opinions as such. I’m regularly irritated by purblind ignorance combined with arrant presumption congratulating itself on its penetrating insight. Self-righteous moral lectures make the mixture especially noxious. Unfortunately these factors often appear together, as in your case.

{{Obviously, your misplaced confidence in your cranium}}

I’m not the one indulging in risible amateur psychologizing based on fragmentary online evidence. It’s not the first time you’ve tried this either. Just who has misplaced confidence in the egg-white in his braincase?

{{is so much that you just don’t accept fallacies in your own arguments.}}

To begin with, it is unclear whether you can reliably parse a paragraph, can separate the personal from the general, can figure out what is intended as a syllogism and what is a digressive aside, etc.

{{In your opinion, Maneka is not stupid because she supports animal rights, vegetarianism, and environments and she is just eccentric.}}

Is this your distilled essence of my alleged ‘argument for why Maneka is not stupid?’ Your problems start with reading comprehension at the sentence level. Unfortunately they don’t end there.

{{Only Maneka has caught Sonia’s flakiness}}

Only? Only?

{{along with some diehard communalists on this board.}}

Very good. Kindly name the diehard communalists on tbis board. Don’t leave anyone out. Don’t wriggle out of this one, please.

{{We look down on Pakistanis as we think they don’t know democracy.}}

What attention I personally pay to Pakistan starts and ends with the nuisance they insist on being to India. Lack of democracy in Pakistan matters to me only to the extent that it drives the Pakistani regime into confrontation with India. Apart from that, how you run your affairs or cut each others throats is a matter of complete indifference to me. Just don’t land up in India.

{{Even fuzzy logic doesn`t get this fuzzy!!!!}}

Two points don’t determine a unique circle, let alone a parabola. What might help you escape your pathetic befuddlement is not fuzzy logic but lateral thinking. Your first guess is not always the right one; nor your second. Try some less obvious possibilities. And get a clue, for a change.

I thank everyone who read and commented upon this article.
I am in `travel status` these days and my access to the Internet is sporadic, so I am not following chowk on a regular basis.
I expected this article to attract negative comments from most Indian chowkies and, so far, the comments have been on the expected lines. I will try to respond to the comments in a general way now. Hopefully, I will get a chance to respond to individual comments later.
First, I do not think that India is facing a choice between social cohesion and ecomic growth rate. I think that the choice facing India is economic growth with or without social coehsion. India has now reached what the economists used to call a take-off stage. The economy is now largely free of the state`s clutches and there is no real danger of its falling into the bad old ways.
I do not agree that the moderates in the BJP are in the ascendancy. It all comes down to the leadership quality of one man, Mr. Vajpayee. If he is removed from the scene, there is no other moderate who can withstand the onslaught of the likes of Modi, Singhal and Tagodia. The fact is that the RSS is the spiritual as well as the physical backbone of the BJP and the BJP neither wants nor can afford to break its umbilical cord with the mother organization, although the RSS is smart enough to know that `Rajneeti` requires certain temporary compromises even if the ultimate aim remains unchanged.
The Congress has never been free from the communal element and has in the past played the vote bank politics to its hilt. I have in the past been a harsh critic of its apeasement of the muslim obscurantists and continue to do so. Those of you who are accusing me of a Congress chamcha have obviously not read my earlier artilces and interacts; I have indeed been among the harshest critics of the Nehruvian policies on chowk. But with all its faults, the Congress party did and does stand for a tolerant society where minorities are respected.
I agree with those of you who say that my case for Sonia Gandhi is somewhat weak. I would have been on firmer grounds if Sonia had shown a better understanding of the issues confronting Indian society and economy and had clearly enunciated her position on various issues. Though her understanding of Indian politics seems to have improved over the years, I am not so certain about her comprehension of some of the other complexities facing the Indian society. Moreover, I am against political dynasties and am uncomfortable with India`s grand old party associated with a single family [my admiration for Sonia taking risks to uphold what SHE THINKS is her family legacy was a praise for her, not for the party which cannot seem to get over its obsession with a single family]. However, this is something over which we do not have much control. The Congress party has split several times and, each time, the faction associated with The Family has been able to eclipse the others. So, we have to accept the leader the party chooses.
But the case for Sonia Gandhi, I agree, is a largely negative one. Outside the BJP, I am averse to caste-based hulla-bol politics of the likes of Mualaym and Laloo Yadav and Mayawati. The Left Front is a non-existent force. So, we are left with the Congress. And one has to accept the fact that Sonia, with all her weaknesses, is doing a much better job as a party leader than her predecessor, the late Seeta Ram Kesri. And people in the past have risen to the occasion when faced with a challenge. When Indira Gandhi was made a leader of the Congress, Ram Manohar Lohia called her Nehru`s `dumb gudia`, and Rajiv Gandhi was dismissed as a `nausikhiya` when he first came on the political stage. Even Ronald Reagan was mocked as a second-rate actor when he became the Governor of California in 1966. Sonia Gandhi has shown that she can hold a diverse party like the Congress together; with the help of strong advisors like Manmohan Singh, Jairam Ramesh and Salman Khursheed, she could prove to be a good national leader as well.
I once again thank everyone for their comments and apologise for not being able to respond to everyone individually at this time.