C R IRANI
The Statesman
June 14, 1999
Title: Stop trivialising Kargil, Sonia! Author: C R IRANI Publication: The Statesman Date: June 14, 1999 THE Pawar Congress jamboree in Mumbai did not set the Arabian Sea on fire and some comments in the speeches of senior leaders, including Sharad Pawar himself, raised questions which were either irrelevant or gave the impression of scraping the bottom of the barrel. Pawar wanted to know why Sonia had remained Italian for 15 of the 30 years she had lived in India, why she had not mastered a single Indian language in 30 years and what were her qualifications for becoming Prime Minister. He forgets that he has been a party to all three until he decided to part company the other day. That Sonia chose to remain Italian until she saw the way open for her husband to become Prime Minister is a more telling point than retaining her Italian nationality for a certain number of years. To be fair to her, till Sanjay was around the focus of her attentions was her family and Italy, and Sanjay always used to complain that he had to pay her a great deal of money every month to prevent her from taking his brother away to Italy. It seems appropriate at this point to stress that Rajiv Gandhi concentrated on the good life as much as his wife and showed no particular concern for the country except what he could get out of it; Rajiv's portrait nevertheless hung alongside Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Maulana Azad and Indira Gandhi at the Pawar Congress. As to mastering an Indian language, not being able to do so by itself counts for nothing. It may be an impediment during campaigning, a fact that should be to the advantage of Pawar and other parties in Opposition. As to qualifications, it is a fact that no qualifications are necessary even to contest a seat for Parliament, except requirements as to citizenship and not having suffered a criminal conviction, for instance. If in Sharad Pawar's view she lacks qualifications - and he may well be right - he also has to explain why until the other day he was quite happy saying publicly that everything was being left to Soniaji. Pawar's colleague, PA Sangma makes a more telling point when he discloses that no CWC meeting was held to deliberate over the vote of confidence and evolve an alternative government. This underlines what this newspaper has always held - that the decision to pull the rug was made in a hurry; the day the Supreme Court allowed Ottavio Quattrocchi to come to India for a fortnight to face interrogation in the Bofors case a CWC meeting was convened the same day without notice. We now have Sangma's word that the meeting merely heard Sonia's decision and gave no proper thought to the matter or how to carry it through, with consequences that we see today. SONIA Gandhi's publicity gestures of personally handing a cheque for Rs 1 lakh to the widow of Flt-Lt PV Ravi, a fighter pilot who died in the Kargil operations, while she was on an electioneering tour of Rajamundhry, her contemplated visit to Kargil and the firm decision to send a delegation of Congressmen there a day ahead of the Prime Minister, are beneath contempt. Pawar thinks Arjun Singh and others are advising her; it is difficult to believe that Arjun Singh, a seasoned politician, can have been so crude. It seems more like Sonia's own idea, crafted from the depths of her inexperience and total lack of any feeling for the occasion. And this at a time when the country is traumatised by the disclosure of mutilated bodies of Indian soldiers being returned by the Pakistan authorities. No praise can be too high for the way the Prime Minister is keeping himself and official reactions in check until a decision can be made as to what to do with the visit of the Pakistan Foreign Minister; by the same token, no condemnation can be strong enough for the way in which Sonia is seeking to turn it into a game of one-upmanship. She knows no better; the party on which she has forced herself would be well advised to have second thoughts - before it is too late.
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