Spoke in Congress wheel, made in Italy

Moreover, as recent polls indicate, Sonia appears to have already become a liability for the Congress. Sick and tired of the BJP’s rabid Hindutva and its greedy, petrol-pump grabbing politicians the Indian voter is showing signs of wanting to return to Congress but then appears before him the image of Prime Minister Sonia and confusion sets in. If the BJP manages to cobble together another government in 2004 it will be almost entirely because of the Sonia factor. She has now been in politics long enough and should be able to see this but wherever she goes she attracts crowds and this can deceive the most seasoned of politicos. Even Mummy-in-law, the original Mrs G, was deceived enough during the Emergency till it was too late to defeat Raj Narain leave alone win India.

Sonia faces another problem that the other Mrs Gandhi did: sycophancy. Wherever she goes sycophants surround her and sycophantic drivel can be found plastered on walls and in newspapers. Only last week, the day after Dr JJ’s sermon, a newspaper from her home state of Tamil Nadu had this little message from H Vasanthakumar, AICC, Tamil Nadu. ‘‘Our Pride is Mother India, Our guide is Mother Sonia’’. And, this does not even count as sycophancy when compared with the adulatory songs that greet her at public meetings and the ‘‘veteran’’ Congress leaders who greet her on their knees every day. How can she be blamed for believing that she is India’s last white hope against the saffron scourge of the BJP?

How can she be blamed for not seeing that, in fact, it is because of her presence as leader of the main opposition party that the BJP still manages to retain a residue of support? In the BJP they are well aware of her usefulness to them which is why that law they promised to bring banning foreigners from holding high office has not happened. The bill, if you remember, was meant to have been introduced many parliamentary sessions ago and if there is still no sign of it you can be certain it is because the BJP’s senior leaders are wise enough to know that as long as Sonia leads Congress it remains less of a threat than it could be.

Even within Congress there are those who recognise that Sonia may not be able to lead the party to victory but that curious thing they call ‘‘Congress culture’’ prevents them from speaking up. In any case they would find themselves out of the party if they even hinted at Sonia’s Italianness as we saw from what happened when Sharad Pawar and Purno Sangma tried to say what Jayalalithaa has just done.

So, if there is an initiative it will have to come from Sonia herself. She will have to work out whether she really wants a job that will bring her nothing but trouble if she ever gets it. From the moment she is sworn in as India’s prime minister—if she ever is—her foreignness will become the only thing anyone sees. She herself will become so conscious of it that she will hesitate to take decisions that an Indian prime minister would take without a second thought.

So instead of sneering at Jayalalithaa for ‘‘flogging’’ dead horses the Congress would do well to think carefully about what she said and to remember some of the slogans from the 1989 general election which Rajiv lost not just because of Bofors but because Sonia was seen as the evil foreign woman. A line from a Hindi song they sang at non-Congress election rallies in North India that year taunted Rajiv for being Italy’s son-in-law: Italy ki daamad tere bas ka Hindustan nahin.

Think of the satirical possibilities that an Italian prime ministerial candidate offers. Think of the farce that India becomes. It’s bad enough being poor and corrupt without also becoming an international joke. Jayalalithaa, for once, is absolutely right.

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