New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS) A reluctant entrant to politics often dubbed a ‘foreigner’, Sonia Gandhi fought against great odds to emerge as India’s tallest politician, helping the country’s oldest political party to rise again from the ashes.
And even as her critics alleged she was power crazy, she stunned friends and foes alike by declining the post of prime minister in the world’s largest democracy even when it was offered on a platter – more than once.
In the process, the Italy-born Gandhi, re-elected the Congress president for the fourth time Friday, is now widely recognised as one of the most powerful and influential women in the world.
Gandhi’s has been a magical rise even by the standards of India’s unpredictable politics.
‘Soniaji might have been born in Italy but she is more Indian than many politicians. She has made a mark in modern Indian politics,’ Mohan Prakash, secretary of the Congress party, told IANS.
While remaining out of the government, the 63-year-old Gandhi is credited by political analysts with leading the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which has ruled India since 2004.
The widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is considered the moving spirit behind the pro-poor programmes of the Congress-led UPA government, policies which helped it to win elections again in 2009.
Said Madhu Goud Yaskhi, a Congress MP: ‘Soniaj’s leadership is required not only for the party but for the country. Now, she is spearheading legislation for food security.’
The Congress is dismissive of charges that the charismatic daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi is a ‘foreigner’ — and so an outsider to Indian politics.
Asserted Janardhan Dwivedi, general secretary of the Congress: ‘We will make her the party chief 40 times. It is our party’s choice. Others should not bother.’
Dwivedi compared her to Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, icons who were prime ministers for 17 and 16 years respectively.
Sonia Gandhi nee Maino was a small town girl from Italy who moved to India after marrying into the Gandhi-Nehru family in 1968. She became, following her husband’s assassination, the Congress leader two decades later.
Born Dec 9, 1946 in the town of Orbassano near Turin to a building contractor and homemaker wife, she met Rajiv Gandhi as an English student in Cambridge.
Gandhi was bitter when Rajiv Gandhi quit a career as an airline pilot to enter politics after the death of his younger brother in 1980.
And she was distinctly unhappy when her mother-in-law’s assassination in 1984 forced him into the prime minister’s office.
Tragedy stuck the family again when Rajiv Gandhi was blown up by a Sri Lankan Tamil suicide bomber May 21, 1991.
Sonia Gandhi immediately came under tremendous pressure from the Congress to join politics and carry forward the family mantle.
She declined. She did so many times over the next seven years.
She finally joined the party in 1997 and became its president within 62 days — a record.
The mother of two inherited a dispirited party organisation that faced a hostile National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
As the Congress suffered defeats in both 1998 and 1999, many wrote her off.
Her Hindi was weak — and critics harped on it no end.
But the doughty woman did not give up. Providing a leadership the Congress badly needed, she quietly sewed up a nationwide alliance that shockingly unseated the seemingly invincible BJP in the 2004 Lok Sabha election.
It was no joke for a ‘foreigner’ to defeat a party whose most famous symbol was the iconic Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
By then she herself had entered the Lok Sabha from her family’s Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh, eventually switching over to Rae Bareli, which the late Indira Gandhi had nurtured for years.
Sonia is the fifth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to become the Congress president, the earlier ones being Rajiv, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv’s grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru and great grandfather Motillal Nehru.
As her 40-year-son Rahul Gandhi plays a vital role in the party as its general secretary, opponents continue to criticise Gandhi of perpetuating dynastic politics.
She is not bothered — neither is the Congress.
