Sonia Gandhi's Resignation From Congress Party Presidentship
Sonia urged to withdraw resignation in the hope that she will bring back "Nehru Dynasty Raj" in September.
Interesting Commentary by Shekhar Gupta in Indian Express
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, May 19, 1999 - Anyone monitoring the Indian political scene unfolding in Delhi – where Sonia Gandhi in an imperious gesture resigned the office of Congress President last weekend-will do well to read an opinion piece authored by well known Hindu journalist Shekhar Gupta, in today’s (May 19,1999 issue of the) Indian Express newspaper.The piece – one may not agree with the conclusion – does gain importance specially in light of the reply Sharad Pawar gave yesterday when asked how the three rebel Congress Committee members (Sharad Pawar, P.A. Sangma and Tariq Anwar) whose rebellion triggered the resignation, came together. Pat came the reply in a parallel of the soap opera Amar, Akbar, Anthony theme; "One is a Hindu, another a Christian and the third a Muslim". Not a word on the factional, ideological dynamics and / or ambitions behind the unexpected assertion of doubts – suddenly relized – about the security implications of having a foreign born Prime Minister like Sonia Gandhi who married Rajiv Gandhi in 1968 and after waiting fifteen years became a naturalized India citizen in 1983.
"Persons of foreign origin should be kept away from key posts (President, Vice – president and Prime Minister) and for this the constitution should be amended", Pawar, echoing the BJP line, told reporters in his home state of Maharashtra yesterday where he is the Congress party chief. He added that; "This is an issue of national self-respect and I will stand by it and will not bow down." Perhaps Pawar’s self-respect was finally aroused when he realized that Sonia Gandhi, and not him, would become India’s Prime minister if the Congress party were to win the coming September national elections.
Shekhar Gupta’s thesis in today’s India Express claims that; "India has changed a great deal, and middle class India has grown a great deal, both in terms of its power and spread, from the days when the more illustrious Mrs. Indira Gandhi demolished the opposition and her own party’s old guard in 1969. When the Jhuggi Jhompri colonies were her vote banks and also her muscle power during periods of crisis." Vajpayee gives this middle class comfort he writes." Under him, they feel, even the more negative aspects of the BJP remain in control. They hate the Muslims, they don’t particularly love the Christians and they detest the thought that these minorities, along with the illiterate lower caste types could elect to power leaders who do not have their endorsement."
Gupta goes on to confess that; "It is a perverse argument, but you cannot run away from the fact that today, it is impossible to govern India without the goodwill of the urban middle class. A succession of Prime ministers could tell Sonia Gandhi that The middle class does not like the third front, and for good reason, as that grouping was genetically constructed to be anti – elitist and anti – urban. So it retaliated by making life impossible for H. D. Deve Gowda and Inder Gujral. Gujral our most urbane and elitist prime minister since Nehru, must have committed a genuinly serious crime to score a mere 2 percent, the lowest of all prime ministerial candidates, in a recent nation – wide opinion poll."
Gupta concludes by saying that; "Gujral’s crime was betrayal, that of leading a third front government." His bureaucracy rebelled when he tried to make peace with Pakistan. The same babus now applaud Vajpayee for doing exactly the same thing. As all opinion polls, Internet polls and other indicators of urban opinion show, the middle classes have bought the argument that a foreign – born cannot be the Prime Minister of their nation. Sonia, even if she were to get elected, will be a no hope Prime Minister from day one as this entire, formidable system will work against her. It is this, much more than the BJP’s threat to amend the Constitution, or her own rebels threats, that should persuade her to seek a different goal in her party’s history than the prime ministership of India."
Press reports from India are flooded with stories that the Congress party has launched a disgusting orchestrated campaign yesterday, including resignation, protests, public petitions and hunger strikes etc., to persuade Sonia Gandhi to stay on as Congress party president. The whole exercise seems to suggest, to knowledgeable observers of the Indian scene, that a NURA KUSHTI ("shadow boxing") is in progress. Eventually, most observers agree, the Italian lady, (widow, of Rajiv Gandhi who is the son of Indira Gandhi and grandson of Pundit Nehru) will be prevailed upon to withdraw her resignation so that her daughter Paryanka can keep the Indian "throne" in the Nehru family. SOME DEMOCRACY SOME CASTOCRACY! We Sikhs want no part of this farce. We want a sovereign, independent buffer state of Khalistan stretching from the Jumna river to the Pakistan border.