Cong returns BJP volley with a defensive stroke
Political Bureau
The Economic Times
May 13, 1999
Title: Cong returns BJP volley with a defensive stroke
Author: Political Bureau
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: May 13, 1999
With the BJP's low-key sustained campaign against Sonia Gandhi's
foreign roots seemingly telling on the Congress, what was to be an
exercise to clear the air on her status on Tuesday virtually turned
counter-productive where the party was forced to slip into the
defensive mode.
The party, which came out with a detailed suo motu statement
elaborating reasons why the Congress president was being made the
target of a "vicious and petty" campaign, ended up acknowledging that
Ms Gandhi took Indian citizenship because she decided to take a role
in public life.
Faced with a volley of questions on the subject, party spokesperson
Ajit Jogi slipped when reporters sought to know why she chose to
become an Indian citizen after 15 years and not immediately after her
marriage. His contention that Ms Sonia Gandhi did so because "she was
till then not in public and political life but had been performing the
role of a mother and wife" came very close to the charge by the BJP
that she had become an Indian citizen solely due to her political
ambitions.
Ostensibly, today's objective had been to counter, as the party put
it, in its statement, the "inaccurate and incomplete" reports in the
media which attempted to give the impression that Ms Gandhi had sought
to include her name in the electoral rolls in 1981 when she was not an
Indian citizen. But it ended up with Mr Jogi resorting to levelling
counter-allegations against the BJP for raking a "personal issue"
which was not in national interest while seeming unable to come up
with a forceful articulation of the party's stand.
While the party - which also confirmed that she became a citizen of
India on April 30, 1983 after renouncing her status as an Italian
citizen on April 27, 1983 - did not deny that Ms Gandhi was made a
voter in 1981 and 1982, it blamed the lapse on the Election Commission
by resorted to the plea that it had been done by the enumerators.
"The voters list is always compiled by the Election Commission staff.
The enrolment of Ms Gandhi therefore obviously was done suo motu by
them," Mr Jogi said.
"It is false to state that Ms Sonia Gandhi had her name included in
the electoral rolls when she was not a citizen of India. Any such
inclusion if at all, was not at the instance of Ms Sonia Gandhi," the
statement said.
According to media reports, Ms Gandhi's name was struck off the
electoral rolls in 1982 after being discovered that she was not an
Indian citizen. Mr Jogi, however, failed to reply when her name was
re-entered in the voters list except for stating that she exercised
her franchise only after she became an Indian citizen on April 30,
1983.
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