Hiranmay Karlekar
The Pioneer
may 7, 1999
Title: The national pride factor Author: Hiranmay Karlekar Publication: The Pioneer Date: may 7, 1999 Perhaps for the first time in Independent India's history, the main issue in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections will be India's self-respect. It will be asked repeatedly during the campaign whether a country with a feeling of national pride can have as Prime Minister someone who is not its citizen by birth. There is no escaping this as an Indian who becomes a citizen of the United States cannot become its President; nor can he become the Prime Minister of Italy, the country of origin of the Congress's prime ministerial candidate, Ms Sonia Gandhi, by becoming its citizen. In fact, constitutions of most countries expressly reserve constitutional positions, like those of the President, Vice-President and Prime Minister, only for those who are citizens by birth. The issue of national self-respect emerged during the eight days between April 17, when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government was brought down by one vote, and April 25 when Ms Sonia Gandhi finally told President KR Narayanan that she did not have the majority to form a government and would not support a Third Front Government headed by Mr Jyoti Basu. Until then, her political career had progressed steadily. Her sobriety and restraint were widely lauded. She seemed not only to have saved the Congress from destruction but set it on the path to revival. Besides, as Congress president, she was seen as being behind her party's responsible and dignified conduct in Parliament. Her repeated assertion that the Congress would not bring the Vajpayee Government down but would wait for it to collapse under the weight of its own contradiction, was widely appreciated. She first stumbled on the question of Parliament's ratification of the proclamation imposing President's rule in Bihar. Despite her announcement on February 19, after her visit to Narayanbigha village, the site of a ghastly massacre of Dalits, that Bihar's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Government had lost the moral right to rule, her party decided to vote against the ratification. Approved by the Lok Sabha, the proclamation was withdrawn on March 8 by the Vajpayee Government which recognised its inability to get it through the Rajya Sabha where it lacked a majority. This led to a virtual revolt among Congressmen in Bihar who felt that the move would destroy their shrinking support-base in the State. Sections of the public felt that the Congress's conduct bordered on the duplicitous and was tantamount to condoning the misdeeds of the Rabri Devi-Laloo Prasad Yadav Government. As was expected, the Bihar revolt ended with a whimper; partymen quickly fell in line with the high command. Public criticism of the party's action, widely attributed to her directive, subsided as people's attention shifted to Ms Jayalalitha's brinkpersonship demanding the shifting of Mr George Fernandes as Defence Minister and the reinstatement of dismissed Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. While neither Ms Sonia Gandhi nor the Congress was very forthcoming on the Empress of Poes Garden's offer to bring the Vajpayee Government down, the party along with the rest of the Opposition disrupted proceedings in Parliament demanding dismissed Admiral Bhagwat's reinstatement and an inquiry by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into his accusations. Ms Sonia Gandhi, particularly, continued to be enigmatic even after her brief chat with Ms Jayalalitha at Dr Subramanian Swamy's tea party on March 29 which suggested that she might after all support Amma's enterprise. Ms Sonia Gandhi plunged into the political arena to claim the prime ministership only after Ms Jayalalitha had withdrawn her support to the Vajpayee Government and the latter had been defeated in the voting on the confidence motion on April 17. Simultaneously, the Congress firmly insisted that it would not go into any coalition but would form a minority Government of its own and the Left Front, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha, the Janata Dal and other parties which considered themselves secular should support it from outside. Until then, Ms Sonia Gandhi's becoming Prime Minister of India featured in the public mind as an abstract possibility-occasionally discussed but sans strong passion because it was not an immediate prospect. Suddenly, as she stridently pressed her claim and the CPI(M), CPI and RJD endorsed it enthusiastically, the country realised with a start that she stood within an inch of becoming the Prime Minister of India. Only the intrepid Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the leaders of the Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party respectively, stood in her way. Two televised impromptu news conferences on the lawns of Rashtrapati Bhavan, brought home to the people the reality in all its starkness. The first was on April 21 when she claimed after meeting the President that she had the support of 272 MPs and would prove it in two days; the other was on April 23 when she said she had told the President that she did not have the required majority and contemptuously dismissed the idea of supporting a Third Front Government led by Mr Jyoti Basu. After this, she no longer appeared to be the dignified, very private and reticent lady one thought she was, but-thanks to her appearance and accent-an Italian and a tough politician making a no-holds-barred bid for prime ministership. Many people started thinking; and many more are starting to think as days go by. Posterity may well regard the two occasions as being decisive to her political career. As Ms Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin becomes a major issue, those opposed to her becoming Prime Minister, including many traditional Congressmen, will vote against her party at the hustings. The bulk of them will vote for the BJP which opposes her strongly; a section will also vote for Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and the FB and the RSP. It is too early to predict the impact of all this on results. According to an Outlook-MDRA survey published recently in the weekly Outlook, 47 per cent of the voters believe that her Italian origin disqualifies her from becoming Prime Minister and 45 per cent that it does not. The belief that her origin does not disqualify her does not prevent one from voting against her party on the ground of her lack of political and administrative experience to become Prime Minister. On the other, had those who believe that her foreign origin disqualifies her have no reason to vote for the Congress; the latter will be in serious trouble if the 47 per cent of the voters opposed to her becoming Prime Minister generate a six per cent swing against it at the hustings. Things might have been different had secularism emerged as the main poll issue. It is unlikely to. The failure of the parties professing secularism to form a Government after the fall of the one led by Mr Vajpayee clearly showed that their partisan interest took precedence over their commitment to anything else. Trying to divert all the blame to Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav for his refusal to give external support to a minority Congress Government will not work. The Congress can be equally faulted for failing to support a Third Front Government led by Mr Jyoti Basu. And whatever remains of the secular plank will collapse if the Congress strikes a poll alliance with the AIADMK, which was till the other day an ally of the BJP. As for Ms Sonia Gandhi, she can still play a useful role in reviving the Congress. She would then be remembered as a lady who served her adopted country well. The President and the Prime Minister are visible symbols of the nation's sovereignty. Sentiments are liable to run high, if she aims at becoming either. The result will be severe damage to her image and the Congress's political future.
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