Date: 4/20/2004
Foreign origin not the only issue against Sonia
The New Indian Express http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEU20040413034053&Title=Election +%2D+2004&Topic=%2D303& P.Parameswaran
KOCHI: Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram director P.Parameswaran on Monday said that foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi is not the only issue that disqualify her from occupying high official positions in the country but her deliberate non-involvement with the spirit and soul of India. There are deeper and more fundamental issues compared to which legal and constitutional questions are secondary.
The cultural heritage of India is too liberal and all embracing that it had been always willing to accept even people of foreign origin provided they totally and unconditionally identified themselves with the soul of India. Parameswaran said that instances of people like Sr. Nivedita, Annie Besant and Mother of Aurobindo are before us. In spite of their foreign origin, they were wholeheartedly welcomed and their services were treated with reverence by one and all. They came to India to serve and never in search of power or position. They imbibed and internalized the culture of India, studied Sanskrit and they wrote extensively on the Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita. They were treated on par with any Indian-born spiritual masters, Parameswaran said. In spite of Sonia's long innings in the country, there is no evidence to show that she ever made any earnest effort to study the language or imbibe the culture of this great country. She has not been able to convince that her umbilical cord with the country of her birth and the native faith has been cut once and for all, P.Parameswaran said. When Sr. Nivedita insisted on coming to India with the plea that she had great respect for Swami Vivekananda, Swamiji told her 'forget about me, you love India and serve India'. Nivedita and Annie Besant loved the soul of India. Sonia Gandhi's love was strictly personal. Posts like President and Prime Minister should be occupied by people who would defend not only the territory of India but also - and primarily – the honour and spiritual heritage of country. How can one do so unless one understands it, feels proud about it and is willing to suffer and sacrifice for it? Sonia Gandhi doesn't measure up to this criterion even by the most generous judgment. This is why the nation will not accept her, whatever her connections may be or whatever psychopaths may say, he added.
[Very well and simply put.]
Sonia in politics - A national disaster
By S Gurumurthy
http://sify.com/news/politics/fullstory.php?id=13456082
It is certainly not a matter of pride to have Sonia as the Prime Minister. You cannot be electing a person as Prime Minister and not feel proud of having elected her. When someone wants to lead this country, it must be a matter of pride for its people to have that person as their leader. Imagine the depths to which this issue has descended.
"What is wrong if she is the Prime Minister," is an argument that comes not from the ordinary people of India, but from the educated Indian. This comes from the Chidambarams and from the Rajdeeep Sardesais of this country; this comes from editorial writers sitting in cities. So let us analyze this issue with all its implications for a country like India, which has an unbroken civilization continuity.
India is indeed a civilization behind the facade of a nation. It is now facing the might of the nation-state, which has evolved in the west. The nation-state mechanism in the west is basically aggressive, violent, conquering, invasive, dominating, imperialistic. It is a concept, which the Indian mind cannot internalize, understand, or exhibit in its attitude. So, now we are conceding that foreigners can become prime ministers and presidents of India, provided they hold a citizenship certificate.
Odious comparisons are being made by a few who are bent on justifying Sonia as the prime minister. Look at Sister Nivedita, they say. She rebelled against the British for India. And her name was Margaret. Swami Vivekananda called her Nivedita because she had surrendered herself to this country. Where then is the comparison?
Compare Nivedita with Sonia Maino. She came to India marrying a very good-looking man. When she came to India in 1968, she was wedded to an Indian who was the son of that country's Prime Minister.
People say it is our tradition that when a woman enters her husband's home, she becomes part of that family, and so Sonia too is an Indian. It is a sentimental attitude. Look at the acts. Sonia did not apply for Indian citizenship in 1968 when she married Rajiv and came to India. It is what any good Indian wife would have done.
Why Sonia delayed citizenship: Rajnath Singh
Ranchi, April 18 (PTI): Senior BJP leader and Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the "delay" by her in adopting the country's citizenship.
"The people should know why Sonia Maino Gandhi had not taken the citizenship even after 16 years of marriage with Rajeev Gandhi," he told reporters here on Saturday.
Where is Sonia's heart, ‘at home'? asks Jaitley
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday poked fun at Congress president Sonia Gandhi's revelation that she had a house in Italy, saying it took her 17 years to relinquish Italian citizenship and 37 years to come out with this information.
While taking a dig at its main political rival, the BJP also sharpened its attack on the Congress for not clarifying its stand on common agenda and leadership. The Congress president had revealed assets worth Rs. 74 lakh in an affidavit while filing her nomination from Rae Bareli. These include an ancestral house in Italy worth Rs. 12.45 lakh, a bank balance of Rs. 26.20 lakh, three bighas of agricultural land in Dera Mandi, Delhi, and 13 bighas in Sultanpur - valued at Rs. 2.19 lakh each. She also has investments worth Rs. 1.53 lakh in SBI bonds, Rs. 1.29 lakh in NSS and Rs. 13.02 lakh in PPF, and possesses jewelry worth Rs. 14.71 lakh.
She has loaned Rs. five lakh to her daughter Priyanka. BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley said: "It took her 17 years to relinquish the citizenship of Italy and now after 37 years this information," he said sarcastically. To a query, he said it was legitimate to have a house abroad but added: "In this case, heart is not where the home is." Criticizing the mention of poverty alleviation in the Congress Vision Document released on Wednesday, Mr. Jaitley said the party had accepted that it had failed to fulfill its promise in 34 years. "They are repeating the rhetoric of the past. Anyone can have a vision document but not necessarily will the document have a visionary element in it," he said.
He said the growth in the past had a narrow base while the one registered now had a wide base and that there was growth across various sectors like nine per cent in services and 7.5 per cent in the manufacturing sector.
Urging the Congress to announce its common agenda with allies and its leader, Mr. Jaitley said the party was resigned to its fate that it was unfit to rule. "If that is not so, why is the Congress not spelling out its coalition and coming out with the common agenda," he wondered. Not only about its own form of politics, but the Congress should also make public its views on security, foreign policy and other related issues, Mr. Jaitley said.
He said the Congress had insulted thousands of people who came to India as refugees after Partition by calling them foreigners. They will avenge this humiliation in the coming elections, he asserted.
False affidavit, says Swamy
http://www.hindu.com/2004/04/08/stories/2004040805921400.htm
NEW DELHI, APRIL 7. The Janata Party president, Subramanian Swamy, has alleged that the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, has submitted a ``false affidavit'' about her education while filing her nomination papers in Rae Bareli on Tuesday.
In a statement issued here today, Dr. Swamy alleged that Ms. Gandhi's submission that she had done a certificate course in English from Lennox Cook, Cambridge University, was false. The University of Cambridge did not have an institution called Lennox Cook.
He said the Lennox Cook School in the city of Cambridge was a teaching shop that closed down in 1971. It had a six-week English language course for European girls. Ms. Gandhi, he said, had made a ``false claim in her biography published in [the] Lok Sabha's Who's Who but had to retract [it] after I gave the Speaker a letter from the University of Cambridge denying that she was ever a student there.''
Sonia flunks the PC test - reports www.rediff.com
"Tiruvengadathan Rajagopalan" <trajagopalan@hotmail.com>
The following is an article from rediff.com. She cannot handle even a press conference properly. How can she correctly address the nation and its issues both in the country and world forums? Is she capable? The issue is not only she is foreign born but also totally unfit to become the PM. She simply cannot represent a nation of over 100 crore people. If this is the case with her, what about her children? The answer is a resounding "no" to them too. They are too young to become even members of parliament as of now. On a lighter side, I would say that she and her children can join tuitions for some years and let Laloo Yadav give her some coaching on governance. Article from rediff.com
Stepping into the water may be the best way to learn swimming, but nearly seven years after she took the plunge Sonia Gandhi continues to be a novice in politics.
The Italy-born president of the Congress can barely explain the party's stand on various economic and political matters, and still finds it hard to handle PCs [journalese for press conferences]. Her lack of intellectual wherewithal was on vivid display once again on the day the Congress election manifesto was released at the party headquarters. Gandhi sat flanked by former Union finance ministers Pranab Mukherjee and Manmohan Singh. After the preliminary statement, which she duly read out, the floor was thrown open to questions. And Gandhi fumbled and faltered, responding in monosyllables or unhelpfully short single sentences.
Asked why son Rahul had been named the party's candidate in Amethi and not Rai Bareilly, Sonia Gandhi merely said the latter constituency was once represented by her mother-in-law and before that by her father-in-law, the late Feroz Gandhi, and so she and her children decided that she should contest from Rai Bareilly. The obvious follow-up question -- does she regard herself as an inheritor of Indira and Feroz Gandhi's legacy -- was ignored. Likewise, there was no convincing reply to the question why she had chosen Rahul to enter the electoral fray and not Priyanka or both. Did it mean Rahul had been anointed successor to the family's political legacy? Response: No, it is not true. It will be wrong to say this. Period. But it was her failure to elucidate the claims made in the party's manifesto that exposed Gandhi's lack of understanding of economic issues. The Congress manifesto promises to create ten million new jobs every year, just like the National Democratic Alliance's manifesto had done in the last election. A questioner asked how the Congress intended to achieve this. Her answer was all of three words -- "by accelerating growth." When a reporter asked which policies of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government her party would discard if it came to power, Gandhi pointed towards Mukherjee. Another question about divestment was likewise referred to Dr Singh. But if there is one thing you have to give Gandhi credit for, it is effort. She comes fully prepared with notes to every press conference. Her backroom advisers, including her children, brief her completely. Further, friendly scribes are primed to ask questions so that she can come up with rehearsed answers. Yet, she lacks the understanding and confidence to field questions. No wonder her conduct invariably leaves senior Congress politicians exasperated. Of course, in front of her they feel obliged to commend her on an 'excellent job done.' Taste of India
The Congress wants its leader to be treated "differently". The demand has a subtext: she is not one of us; she is not just another Indian politician. And look what is happening now. Professional Sonia-watchers have already sighted the coming-of-age of the new Mrs. Gandhi, as if all that requires for the making of a leader is the ability to read out the script to the delight of the ghost. The original Mrs. G had a harder training. And the Vajpayee aura is the culmination of an arduous journey. Why is it that Sonia alone needs to be protected from the usual rhetoric and scrutiny of a campaign in which a politician's past is as important as what she says and does now? Look at the other big democracy that is going to the polls later this year and you see that biography is as crucial to the making of a credible candidate as any slogan or the vision statement. Courtesy her protectors, a Sonia preserved in the glass jar of desperation looks foreign.
There is a rule in the Tirupati mandir that one who is not a Hindu should sign a register that he/she respects Hindu dharma before he/she is allowed to enter the mandir. People like Farooq Abdullah have signed it. However, when Sonia visited the mandir some time ago, she did not do so, even though it was agreed with her minders who had come to organize the visit. It is to the credit of the pujaris at the mandir not to make too much of an issue on the subject. However, one can just imagine the disgust these pujaris must have felt for the lady. The Hindus are FOOLED by Sonia KHAN who says, "I am Catholic first and then Indian (NOT Hindu). Sonia Khan of BOFORS CHOR, the Mother of Nation for Hindus.
Jaya questions Sonia's 'Pati Bhakti'
http://headlines.sify.com/3233news3.html?headline=Jaya~questions~Sonia's~'Pati~Bhakti'~
Madurai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa late Monday lambasted the Congress President Sonia Gandhi for aligning with the DMK Front for the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a well-attended election meeting, seeking support for her party nominee for Madurai constituency A K Bose, she questioned Gandhi's 'Pati Bhakti' for teaming up with those "tainted" by the assassination of her husband Rajiv Gandhi.
Slide-Show: When politicians hit below the belt
Jayalalithaa charged Sonia with betraying her assassinated husband for grabbing political power. Accusing the Congress president of committing a 'Himalayan blunder' by joining the "unprincipled" DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance comprising the DMK, PMK, MDMK and the Left, the Chief Minister said Rajiv's soul would never forgive them.
Ridiculing Sonia's "justification" that the DMK had not been indicted by the Jain Commission in its final report, she said the panel had neither absolved it. The very fact that the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency was still investigating the role of the DMK in the assassination, was proof that the DMK was yet to come clean on the issue, she claimed.
Jayalalithaa asked the electorate to choose between the son of the soil, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee or Sonia Gandhi, a ''political novice'' from abroad, to head the nation.
An Egyptian Belly dancer is aspiring to be India's next PM
N.Krishna, BSc(Eng), DBM, DITM, PGDTQM, PGDEM, MIE, CE, MIHospE (UK),MemASHRAE (USA), ISHRAE Ex Senior Scientific Officer, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay P.O.Box 1055, Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad 50029 Email: krishnaj@vsnl.net
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
To, The Editor
6-4-04
Sir,
India's next PM is an Egyptian Belly dancer
Seeing the way the politics are going on in India, I have decided to make an Egyptian Belly dancer as our next Prime Minister. It will be very easy to make her very popular among our people with the most exciting belly dance. All I have to do is to go to Egypt and marry one belly dancer to make her an Indian citizen. It will be a song to get the best belly dancer to agree to this. Our previous experience with them was in the eighties, when my friend, an ex chief engineer of Cochin ship yard went to Egypt for recruitment along with the Arab head of department of the Dubai Government. My friend went on interviewing engineers, but the final selection list was made by the Arab who interviewed all the belly dancers sent to him by the Egyptian candidates. I always thought that an Egyptian belly dancer is a better bet than a UK barmaid. . I am sure that my belly dancer wife will be made the president of the most influential political party once she is in India. There could even be mergers of all other parties to work under my beautiful belly dancer wife. The Arabs will be thrilled by the newfound co-operation between India and Egypt and terrorism will be a thing of the past. In case I fail to make my belly dancer wife the Prime Minister due to some obstinate and old bachelor politicians, there is still a chance for my grand children to become the future Prime Ministers of India. I would ask my sons to marry the daughters of oil rich Sheikhs, so that my sons can offer to the Indian public free petrol and diesel like what is happening now with the free power offer for votes. The Sheikhs will be too thrilled at the prospect of his grand children ruling India one day and will supply the petrol free. Unfortunately my idea is not original and in modified form is already in operation in India. N. KRISHNA
WHAT WAS THE NAME OF RAJIV'S PATERNAL GRAND FATHER?
Sonia's congress party has gone all time low. I ask her to give full name of her son and daughter why is she and media hiding their Christian names. Rajiv Gandhi kept his Christian name secret from people. His full name was Rajiv Robert Gandhi.
We as Indians are proud of our freedom fighters and Congress party of India today is in hands of a lady whose father was a follower of Mussolini of Italy and Sonia grew up under the influence of dictatorship which must have influenced her and I fear grave danger from her and her vagabond son Rahul who is a play boy by any standard and has nothing to do with Indian culture so we must defeat these rotten people. Congress President Sonia Gandhi's does not have "competence" for the Prime Ministerial
Congress President Sonia Gandhi's does not have "competence" for the prime ministerial post, as "she has never been able to speak in Parliament without a written text." Apart from the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins, the people should be worried that she might eclipse the development of Bharat. "During her four and a half years as Member of Parliament, she has never been able to speak in Parliament without a written text. Without a written speech, she has been neither able to speak in Hindi or English. I am only challenging the competence of a person," party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters here. In the Lok Sabha members are allowed to read from written text for their maiden speech in the house but it cannot be so for all speeches.
"Congress defends the cause citing technical reasons for the delay but what are the technicalities. Those should be disclosed before the people," Singh said, adding the foreign origin was still a debatable issue.
Subject: [BEF] Sonia: Get out of India.
....................000000000
[_private/ftarc.htm]