Does Sonia's birthplace matter? (Part III of III)
Mani Shankar Aiyer
The Economic Times
June 1, 1999
Title: Does Sonia's birthplace matter? (Part III of III)
Author: Mani Shankar Aiyer
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: June 1, 1999
Birth is an accident; citizenship a matter of deliberate decision.
For most people, citizenship comes as a consequence of birth. For a
few, citizenship comes as a consequence of choice. Sonia Gandhi is
among the few who chose to be an Indian. As there are many million
Indians who have chosen to become citizens of other nations. It is
such volition that creates loyalty. To suggest that birth confers a
higher level of loyalty is to argue that Dawood Ibrahim is a more
patriotic Indian than Sonia Gandhi.
An Indian is an Indian. Our nation is one of the very few that does
not base nationhood on ethnicity. Our civilisation is a millennial
celebration of unity in diversity. That is how in a geographical area
the size of Europe, we have one nation, the Europeans some 43. To
deny equality of civic rights to naturalised citizens is to deny the
genius of our civilisation.
This, of course, cannot be under-stood by those - like the sangh
parivar - who reject the composite heritage of India and parody the
oldest religion of the greater majority by imposing upon it a Semitic
straitjacket quite out of keeping with its native character. It is
they who seek now to make patriotism a quality of the womb, an
umbilical cord that comes with nativity.
There is only one democratic country with a constitution which bars
naturalised citizens from the highest office. It is a nation of
immigrants -which guaranteed life and liberty to all who settled there
from elsewhere, but not the native inhabitants whose lands were
expropriated, who as a people were obliterated in the most brutal
genocide known to world history. It is not an example for a great and
liberal civilisation to emulate.
The coming elections are putting a 20-party coalition against the
single-party government on offer from the Congress. Polls taken in
the worst possible week for the Congress - the week following its
abject failure to form an alternative government show the Congress, at
worst, as being already 65 seats ahead of where was hi the last Lok
Sabha, and the BJP-led coalition as being, at best, no more than 27
seats ahead of the Congress. So tight a contest throws up a myriad
issues of substance to discuss. In such circumstances, to focus on
Sonia's origins to the detriment of the real issues betrays a poverty
of politics unmatched in 12 previous general elections. The people
are choosing between the 20 beads of Vajpayee (even Ravan had only
ten) and Sonia Gandhi's promise of good governance through stable
governance by one-party governance, as in 45 of the last 52 years of
Independence. If anyone imagines that the fact of seven non-Congress
Prime Ministers in seven years of non-Congress rule can be disguised
in polemics over where Soma Gandhi was boon that mould be to insult
the intelligence of the electorate, and invite from the electorate the
rebuke it deserves.
Those narrow of mind and constricted of heart had found within the
Congress three their ilk. The three have been smoked out. The
Congress has dealt with its traitors, casting them out and moving on.
Over the past 15 years, I have travelled with Soda Gandhi to virtually
every state of the country, its great metropolitan centres, its
villages and hamlets, the remotest of tribal dwellings, the most
abject of its teeming bastis. Nowhere, never have I seen her being
rejected. Everywhere and every time I have seen her being taken to
the bosom of Mother India as one of our own.
It is those millions of voters, not netizens punching their newest
toy, who will decide who wins. I cannot see them adopting the
despicable racism of the BJP and its camp followers.
(Mani Shankar Aiyer, Secretary, Indian National Congress)
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