The document discusses the ascent of Sonia Gandhi to the position of Prime Minister of India and expresses deep shame that an Italian woman now leads the country. It argues that Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin will be a divisive issue that inflames nationalist sentiments. It also claims that Congress' victory in the election was not actually a massive mandate and was largely due to wins in one state. The document predicts that Gandhi's leadership will face constant questioning and doubts about her motives and loyalties that could grow violent nationalism and divisions in India.

1. SONIA GANDHI
BY TALVEEN SINGH
You can count on the fingers of one hand columnists who have
openly objected to India having an Italian prime minister. As one of
them, may I make it clear that in my view the ascent of Sonia Gandhi
is a matter of deep shame and not a tribute to our supposedly vibrant
democracy. I am not the only Indian who feels this way. Those who
believe that the question of her foreign origin is now a thing of the
past are quite wrong. The questions will only now begin.
There have been attempts by some of my more sycophantic
colleagues in the media to portray Sonia’s victory as a massive
mandate for the return of the Gandhi dynasty but the truth is that if
Congress had not won those 29 seats in Andhra Pradesh it would have
not got many more seats than the 114 it got last time.
Indian newspapers are replete with hacks of ‘‘secular’’ persuasion
who have not stopped gushing about Rahul Gandhi’s ‘‘youthful
sincerity’’ and Priyanka Vadra’s ‘‘gorgeous looks’’ and concluded
that it was this dazzling combination that made the difference. One of
our financial newspapers passed this off as political analysis. ‘‘The
gerontocracy did not stand a chance. Charisma works absolutely. Mix
it with a liberal dose of Rahul Gandhi’s youthful sincerity and
Priyanka Gandhi’s gorgeous, fetching looks, and the choice was
unambiguous.’’
Alas, if you analyse the results in less obsequious mode you discover
that the Gandhi children did not make much difference even in the
four Hindi belt states. Congress won nine seats in Uttar Pradesh, one
in Bihar, four in Madhya Pradesh and four in Rajasthan. Not exactly a
massive mandate but you would not know it from reading editorials in
the Indian newspapers last week. Kowtowing, a timeless feature of
the Gandhi durbar, has returned with such sickening speed that a
leading Hindi newspaper had a front page editorial saying Rahul
Gandhi was the sort of person India needs in public life because he is
‘‘polite’’.
Personally, I have no objection to Mr Gandhi and Mrs Vadra. They
are Indian and as entitled as any other son or daughter of a politician
to inherit Daddy’s jagir. My problem is that as an Indian it offends
me to be represented by an Italian woman. It arouses in me the worst

2. kind of chauvinistic nationalism and there are millions of Indians who
feel as I do and who believe that if Sonia had even minimum respect
(forget love) for India she would not have humiliated us by putting
herself forward as prime minister. With even former prime ministers
like Chandrashekhar and V P Singh assuring her that she is
completely acceptable and surrounded as she is by a durbar, she may
not notice in the euphoria of becoming prime minister of the world’s
largest democracy that the reaction to her victory has mostly been
shock. Even people who voted Congress now say they would not have
done if they had known she had half a chance of becoming prime
minister.
More dangerous still are the murmurings that you already hear from
Hindutva nationalists. On the day of the election results, I happened to
travel on a flight with a leading light of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
When I asked how he reacted to India having an Italian prime
minister he spat out the word democracy as if it was poison. ‘‘This is
what comes when you give illiterate, desperately poor people the
vote.’’ And, from Pravin Togadia we already hear that it is because
the BJP moved away from its Hindu nationalism that it was defeated.
Those who think having Sonia as prime minister is insurance against
the sort of ugly nationalism that men like Togadia represent need to
think again. When the backlash begins, and it will not take long, you
will see violent nationalism of a kind we have never seen before.
Already, people have started talking about how embarrassed they are
that when talks are next held with Pakistan (somehow Pakistan gets
mentioned more than China) India will be represented by Signora
Sonia. She can wear saris, tie puja threads on her wrist and plaster her
forehead with tika but as India’s prime minister what will stand out
more than ever before is her foreignness.
Her presence in Indian politics is dangerously divisive. During the
campaign, wherever I travelled I asked people if they objected to
having an Italian prime minister and everywhere there was a division
on this issue, so inflammatory that the question would invariably
provoke a shouting match. Those who said it was Indian tradition for
a bahu to consider her husband’s country her own usually lost to
those who shouted them down for being sycophants and traitors.
The divisions will grow, not lessen, with every decision she makes as

3. Prime Minister because whatever she does will be questioned. Doubts
about her motives and loyalties will become particularly unpleasant if
there is a crisis like the Kargil war. But, even peace time decisions
will be doubted and a wiser woman, less surrounded by courtiers,
would have seen this a long time ago.
But, here she is now. India’s first Italian prime minister exalted to this
position by Marxists who have always put India after
internationalism. Please remember that they found the Indian freedom
movement distasteful because it was not in keeping with the
internationalism of their revolution. They have a truly international
prime minister now but should remember as should the others who
support her government that history is unlikely to forgive them for
humiliating India in this way. As for me, for the first time in my life I
feel ashamed to be Indian.