Love for one's own country a natural instinct: Pawar
Posted by Ashok Chowgule (ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
The Economic Times
May 21, 1999
Title: Love for one's own country a natural instinct: Pawar
Author:
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: May 21, 1999
Virtually kicking off his election campaign, the expelled Congress
leader Sharad Pawar said it was only "natural and right" to continue
to have strong emotional ties with the country of one's origin, even
after accepting the citizenship of another country.
Mr Pawar, who addressed a full-capacity audience at the Vasant
Vyakhyanmala (spring lecture series) organised by the Kesari Maratha
Trust, said, "the pull of the native soil is strong and natural; it
should not be the cause for controversy nor should it have been
brought out into the open," in a reference to the letter the three
expelled Congress MPs had addressed to the party president which was
eventually leaked to the media.
He cited the example of an Indian social worker in Italy, one Ms
Sonali Dasgupta, who lived there for 30 years, married to an Italian
and had accepted Italian citizenship but was not allowed to contest
elections there.
Mr Pawar said Ms Dasgupta had then approached the Indian embassy,
seeking its intervention, only to be told that it was an internal
matter and the Italian law .
"My answer to all issues that face the country today is the need for
an alert voter and society," the Maratha strongman said.
In a veiled reference to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's style of
functioning, Mr Pawar harked to the times of the country's first Prime
Minister, Jawaharlal Nehrul who respected differences of opinion. He
said the Congress ruled undisputed for the first three decades after
Independence because its central leadership under Pandit Nehru
understood and respected regional aspirations.
The meetings of the central leadership involved all the regional
satraps, with Nehru accepting opposing views and allowing them to be
aired.
The former state chief minister said the growth of regional parties
and regionalism had occurred as the Congress was unable to fulfil the
aspirations of the people. He said there was a need to take along all
sections of the people, especially the newly empowered who want to be
a part of the decision making mechanism.
"Reservations will no longer fulfil their needs; they want a share in
the power through an active role in the decision making process," he
said.
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