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House of the Rising Son

On February 15, at a rally in the Kasturchand Ground in Nagpur, Rajiv Gandhi's son Rahul made his maiden political address to the people. He urged the one-lakh-strong crowd -- in Marathi -- to vote the Congress party to power. After which, MPCC president Ranjit Deshmukh presented him with a pheta. The die is cast... The son has risen in Maharashtra...

All I know about Rahul Gandhi is that he works in London, that his girlfriend is a Colombian, and that, on 30 December, Sonia had called him before formally announcing her decision to save the Congress Titanic. Other than that, Rahul has never shown an interest in taking charge of the family business -- ie, ruling feudal India.

Hmmm... know what, Rahul's Nehruvian genes are going to assert themselves sooner than you think: We will see him as PM in our lifetime. And if he goes about it in the proper manner, I'd have no objections to his taking over the family firm. I mean, he's a native Indian, and he can't be worse than the Scindias, Pawars, Kesris or any of the scum that rises to the Congress top. Willy- nilly, I feel Rahul may be brighter than the hoary bunch: We've already seen that an European has more guts than desi Congressmen... And even among canines, mixed-breeds are smarter than the purebred...

But since we know zip about Rahul, let's talk about la mamma: I think Sonia's hit-and-run campaign would have been hilariously funny -- if it weren't so dangerous. For instance, take:

* her protestations on Bofors. We should be infinitely grateful to her for making us privy to Rajiv's woes that he absolved himself of in their private confessional box. Obviously, Rajiv unleashed his feelings on issues of public import only to her, regardless of the demands of the Democracy. At some point, we should also expect to be told that Rajiv was fiercely opposed to the purchase of Bofors arms and the subsequent Operation Cover-up on Quattrocchi....

* her creativity on the Babri problem: "Just about a month before he was assassinated, my husband had said to me that if ever an attempt was made to touch the masjid he would stand in front of it, and they would have to kill him first." Now picture the blue- jeaned, Ray-Banned pilot standing Christ-like at the masjid's gates... It's all the more piquant as, on the eve of the 1989 election, Rajiv draped himself in pale saffron while addressing a rally at Jagdishpur -- after having authorised the shilanyas...

* her "anguish" over Operation Bluestar: Which was the beginning of India's combat against the terrorism and secession in the border state, a battle that was successfully concluded by the Punjab police, and which "regret" only ridicules the thousands who died so that India should live...

* her apology towards the anti-Sikh riots of 1984: "I feel that this kind of an incident should not have happened, and my husband Rajiv Gandhi felt the same." Yes, the same guy who'd said, "Jab koyi bada peyd girta hai to zameen hilti hai." Strangely, Rajiv had personally cleared Arun Nanda's campaign targeting the Sikh community: One ad asked if people felt uneasy when travelling by taxi -- alluding to the fact that a lot of cabbies are Sikhs. Not to forget the 1984-election graffiti in Amethi, informing voters that the contesting Maneka "sardar ki beti hai."

* her attack on the BJP's prime ministerial candidate: "They said Rajiv Gandhi took commission. I, Rajiv Gandhi's widow, tell you that what Atal Bihari Vajpayee said is a total lie." This, about the man who was unanimously voted India's finest Parliamentarian...

* her reason for campaigning: "Mujhe koi rajnaitik post nahi chahiye. Main isliye aayi hoon ki aapki taklif meri taklif hain." Do you suppose she knows that one of our taklifs is Bofors?

* her love for India: "Yeh mere suhaag ka desh hai aur meri akhri saans tak rahega. Meri mang ka sindoor is zamin mein mila hai." I'm wondering if Subhash Ghai is part of the campaign think-tank...

* her charge against the single largest party: "Now these same forces are posing a danger to the country. Our society will be destroyed by them." All its voters must be maniacal degenerates and not from "our" society...

* her justification of the Congress: "We have the experience to run a government... The politics of division is destroying what was carefully nurtured over the years by our great leaders." (Sorry, I'm too dumb-struck to comment on this one.)

Each time she opens her mouth, pearls of Italian wisdom spill hither and thither... Even if the Congress achieves some immediate gains from this courting of vote banks, the long-term damage to the State's solidarity will be immeasurable. The one who is today just a mascot, is using well the old, European Divide & Rule policy... Tomorrow, she may not be content with that role. The lady's ambitions are increasing with each rally she addresses: At the very least, she's guarding the house of the rising son.

But let's put aside her intentions for the moment. Instead, let's ponder on her spate of apologies to this group and that...

One of the thing that strikes me is, if Sonia is sincere in her grief about the Babri Masjid being torn down, shouldn't she promise to rebuild it if the Congress comes to power...? If she can't/won't promise that, what's the point in claiming that it was wrong to have demolished it in the first place? If she does rebuild the masjid, India should honour her as Babar II -- as the foreign heir of the invader from Central Asia who desecrated Ram Janmabhoomi. Of course, as a non-Hindu and non-native-Indian, this will be very easy for her to accomplish...

As we have seen, it is rather difficult for even a Congressman or a pinko to want to go down in history as the one who restored the monument which an alien intruder built on the birthplace of the nation's worshipped hero, Lord Ram...

I also wonder if, being a Christian, Sonia will apologise to Hindus for the centuries of discrimination from Portuguese, French and British rules in the country -- by which many Hindu temples were defaced, destroyed or taken over by Christians. Too, if she respects all religions as she claims, why not visit Hindu temples and worship our idols -- as did her mother-in-law?

Then, since she's so open-minded about all faiths, let Sonia say that Hinduism is as good as Christianity, and that it's wrong of Christians -- including Catholic missionaries -- to seek to convert Hindus. If you remember, the Church recently excommunicated a priest in Sri Lanka merely for writing that other religions could be as good as Christianity... After all, Christians have an ancient history of religious bigotry towards, holy crusades against and genocide of other religious groups worldwide. And for them to criticise Hindutvawadis -- who have never invaded other countries or used the force of arms to convert anyone - is nauseating, no?

Catholic missionary activists, including of the Mother Theresa type, target Hindus for conversion and prevail throughout our country. In South India, Catholic priests dress up as Hindu swamis in order to deceive the local people into thinking that they are akin to Hindu yogis. Such aankh-micholi was found to be beneficial for promoting conversions... Does Sonia approve of it? Or is she a political version of the same...? For, according to Arun Nehru, Sonia had objected to the home ministry's deportation of missionaries who had overstayed their visas, and was upset about a raid on the Bible Society of India...

Ponder: since Sonia apologised for the riots after Indira Gandhi -- whom she calls her "mother" -- was assassinated, does she blame her own partymen for the anti-Sikh violence that they perpetrated and the absence of punishment they sanctioned...? If you look back, it was only when a BJP government came to power in Delhi, that any effort was made to punish the culprits of the Sikh massacre... Rajiv Gandhi -- he of the tree-falls-ground-shakes philosophy -- did zip in his five years of rule after the event. Too, it's logical to expect Sonia to blame her "mother" for the policies that alienated the Sikhs and caused them to turn against her...

If Sonia does not address any of these wrongs committed towards Hindus and Sikhs, would it be wrong to assume that she is simply projecting a new form of foreign rule, sustaining a Christian missionary agenda, and is as insensitive to Hindu and Sikh sentiments as Babar, Aurangzeb, Clive and Dyer were?

But of course India is a tolerant, secular and slave country. We shouldn't mind being ruled by foreigners and by those following religions that are seeking to displace the primary religion of the land.

Of course, an American or British political party, no matter how liberal and democratic, would never project a foreign-born non- Christian as its leader, merely because of a marital relationship with a previous leader... More fools they, I suppose.

Therefore, India should lead the way and demonstrate how a person's country of birth or religious intention should make no difference in the political world. What really matters is the family name -- in this case 'Gandhi' -- and it's irrelevant where a person actually comes from or truly believes...

Surely, family rule is a most enlightened, modern concept and is the essence of secularism and tolerance... For heaven's sake, guys, don't brand it as casteism, which, in essence, is the promotion of clan interests over all others... Ergo, we should be pleased to have our House of the Rising Son...

At each election time, the House blows the dust off the image of Gandhiji, and plays on the idea that his Vaishnav-jan spiritual sanction rests with the Nehru family's right to rule India. This is not playing the religious card, particularly for rural voters, to whom religious and dynastic rule are inseparable and significant. The image of the Mahatma is used to channel Hindu sentiments into Congress votes, and even while using the Mahatma card, the policies are anti-Hindu... But this is not a scam. It is only a legitimate way to tap the traditional emotions of the country to uphold the rule of the House... Which is why we have Sonia fire-and-brimstoning about the BJP's Swadeshi and Ram Rajya plank...

And we mustn't forget the martyr card, either -- Indira, Sanjay and Rajiv being equally good specimens as the Mahatma... Therefore, we should propose that political parties without principles of martyred dynasties should be immediately banned, and PMs shouldn't be allowed to take office if they have no qualifications of a painful family identity -- that should be the minimum qualification for candidature... That's when India will have true democracy -- when each party will nurture its own house of the rising son...

Varsha Bhosle