Does Sonia's birthplace matter? (Part I of III)
K R Malkani
The Economic Times
June 1, 1999
Title: Does Sonia's birthplace matter? (Part I of III)
Author: K R Malkani
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: June 1, 1999
Mrs Sonia Maino Gandhi has vowed to shed the last drop of her blood
for India. The lady is protesting her patriotism too much. India is
not her motherland, it is only her mother-in-law-land. She is Indian
if at all, only in law, and not in fact. Wearing a sari no more makes
her Indian than wearing a suit makes us English.
Italian law permits her to have dual citizenship; Indian law does
not. When Chandragupt maurya married the daughter of Seleu-cus, he
made it dear that neither she nor her progeny will inherit the throne
of India. An Indian lady married an Italian film director and took
Italian citizenship.
Ten years later she wanted to contest a civic election but was refused
per-mission: she was not a proper Italian. And here an Italian is
presuming to become Prime Minister of India!
However, even more serious than her not being an authentic Indian is
the fact that nobody seem to know what Sonia is; whether she has any
social, political, economic thinking. She has never met the Press.
She has never written anything. Her life is a closed book. All that
we know is that she went from Italy to England to learn English and
that she was working in a restaurant in Cambridge while saying with a
local family. When Rajiv fell in love with her, Mrs. Gandhi was not
too happy. Her love for India was so great that she applied for India
citizenship full fifteen years after her marriage to Rajiv - that is
after Sanjay was dead and the way to high office had been opened to
her husband. And she got herself registered as a voter three years
before she had even applied for citizenship. Earlier, even as a
foreign national, she had become Director Maruti Technical Services,
in violation of Indian law. She was also doing insurance business -
an selling road-rollers - from the Prime Minister's official
residence, again hi violation of Indian law on the subject.
Nor was that all. When 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war was looming
large on the horizon, and all IAP, IA and AI pilots' leaves had been
cancelled, Rajiv and Sonia flew off to Italy to avoid any duty in the
war sector. When Mrs. Gandhi lost the election in 1977, Sonia and her
husband abandoned Mrs. Gandhi and sought sanctuary in the Italian
Embassy.
The Raisina Road plot was allotted to Congress to build its Central
Office there. That building - Javahar Bhawan -was illegally taken
over by Rajiv Foundation headed by Mrs. Sonia. Since then countless
crores have poured into the coffers of this Foundation from several
public sector undertakings.
Too little is known about her - and what little is known, is not very
flattering.
Her involvement with Bofors scandal through her Italian friend
Quattrocchi, is well known. Sten Lindstrom, head of Sweden's National
Bureau of Investigation, has said: "All information we had at the time
(1987-88) pointed to a Gandhi link. Sonia Gandhi should place her
cards on the table". She has not only not placed her cards on the
table, she has tried to topple every government that tried to dig into
Bofors.
B. Raman who was intelligence chief in the, Cabinet Secretariat under
Rajiv, has said that "India has important national Security interests
in Italy because of its past arms, nuclear and technology supply
relationships with Pakistan and China" and that, therefore, were Mrs.
Sonia ever to become India's Prime Minister, there would be "serious
security and intelligence concerns."
The objection to Mrs Sonia is not rooted in just her dubious
citizenship but in the absolute unsuitability and utter impropriety of
this Sphinx in a Sari presuming to seize the Prime Ministership of
India.
(K R Malkani, Member of Parliament, Bharatiya Janata Party)
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