To Be Sonia Gandhi

Roughly thirty six years ago, when Indira Gandhi took over the mantle of leading the congress in the parliament, taking over from her father Jawaharlal Nehru, she was well equipped for the job. She had been carefully groomed by him for years before that, she had been his official hostess for some time during his prime minister ship, had a chance of studying the Indian political scene and what the country needed, at close quarters.

Most importantly, she had taken part in India’s freedom struggle, and knew the people who were power mongers among the crowd of leaders and politicians of the times. Most of the freedom fighters were still alive, and hence she had a distinct advantage.

Then Sonia Gandhi came, as young Rajeev’s bride, fresh from the Italian vineyards, good-looking, correctly behaved, all that a Gandhi son would want. She was special, she wasn’t Indian, and she would make a perfect picture in India’s first and most anglicized family. Indira Gandhi was graciously accepting of her son’s choice and Sonia was welcomed to the first family. She soon became a part of it, behaving like a good daughter-in-law, doing everything that was expected of her in the Indian social setup. Playing second fiddle to mom-in-law while her classy husband did what he liked best- flying.

Indira Gandhi, all said and done, was a very powerful politician and a ruthless woman. Maybe that was the prime reason why she stayed in power for almost 15 years in a democracy like India, where women are paraded naked in villages if they so much as dare to speak for themselves. Her powers of politicking are legendary…. and among the causalities was her own son, Sanjay Gandhi…getting too big for his political boots.

And then Indira Gandhi made the biggest blunder of her career, and it cost her her life. One of the few militant religions of the world, Sikhism, fell prey to misleading propaganda and Indira Gandhi made the mistake of trying to clean up the mess. Some say the mess was of her own making but it backfired so badly that the result was one of the most gory assassinations in the history of independent India.

Indira Gandhi died of the 22 odd bullet wounds she received at the hands of one of her Sikh bodyguards, and immediately the last emotional Indian was in mourning, wiping away tears at the sight of a stricken, suave Rajeev Gandhi, now left alone with his wife and children. The sympathy wave made him Prime Minster, superceding stalwarts in Indian politics. After all he had something they didn’t – the Gandhi lineage. They may be far more seasoned politicians and whatever else, but they were just not in the same league. He was a reluctant PM, and his wife, smiling sweetly, retiring behind him and waving out to adulating crowds, radiant as an Indian wife with her head demurely covered. They made a poster couple. He handsome, sophisticated, decidedly stiff upper lip, she pretty, coy and a contented wife. Both urban and rural India fell in love with them, for different reasons. The vast rural majority sided with them because of a sentiment Indians identify with majorly ...that of a son carrying on the mother’s mantle, and of a wife supporting him wholeheartedly in it.

Life was hunky dory for the younger Mrs. Gandhi till that fateful summer day, in May 1991, her world was blown apart when a Sri Lankan terrorist outfit blew her husband and his rally to smithereens in the South Indian town of Perumbudur. Haunting images of her holding her son and daughter, standing by the burning pyre of her husband still dominate the Indian media.

That one incident made Sonia Maino a Gandhi like never before. She was expected to carry the mantle of leadership which had stayed with the Gandhi family despite black years of hated emergency, MISA, murders, assassinations and political thievery. That she was NOT a politician, made no difference to her or anyone else.

Today, she stands alone, of course aided by her two children, in the cesspool that is the Indian political scene. She successfully lead the Congress to power in the general elections of the world’s largest and most populous democracy, and despite the fact that the ruling party had projected the India shining (under their rule) image, she managed to ensure they lost the elections. Of course, it could be just that this was not just a victory for the Congress and its allies, but merely rejection of the ruling party. Or even rejection of certain key politicians of the rule. Whatever it may be, the net result is that yesterday she was on the threshold of one of the most prestigious and dangerous job offers in the world, that of being the Prime Minister of India, the most disorganized, maniacal social hierarchy, where nothing works, where lives are of no value and where no one has any hope left.

She refused.
The question may arise, why? But isn’t it obvious? For once, Sonia Maino has taken over Sonia Gandhi. She is not thinking like a Gandhi a daughter-in-law. She realized, she may be a charismatic leader (largely because of her magical surname), but she is certainly not fit to lead a country like India. Her husband wasn’t either, but that was purely sympathy, still, one could say he got the gargantuan task of opening up the Indian economy, rolling. She has to maintain the trust of the world’s most populous country, most diverse in its geography, history and political leanings, stay adrift among the much of financial debris, she has to survive. And if she manages to do these jobs, maybe with guidance from her senior congressmen colleagues, she may also go the Gandhi ruler’s way, it may be a bomb, a bullet or a plane crash. But she will not be there for long.

Sonia Gandhi’s historic decision threw the congress into throes of passion, agony, anguish - all sorts of adjectives can be used here. But she refuses to change her mind, and it’s clear why. She does not want to jeopardize her life, whatever respectability she has as Rajeev Gandhi’s widow and the Gandhi family’s daughter-in-law. She realizes she cannot be the highest authority in India, and its got nothing to do with her foreign origins. Its got more to do with her becoming almost completely Indian. She is being a good daughter-in-law to a dead family…she has upheld the Gandhi –Will-Head-Congress tradition. But nothing more. For she knows…she is not Indira Gandhi, and never will be. She is better off as Sonia Maino.