M.J.Akbar on Sonia in Asian Age
Is this aversion to Sonia Gandhi personal? If it is, it is wrong. Why should, therefore, potential allies of the Congress make Sonia Gandhi into an issue; why not leave it to the Congress to decide whom it wants as leader? The answer is simple. Because she is not of Indian origin. She is an Italian. A passport, acquired fairly late in life, and much after it could have been done, does not make you an Indian. Her daughter Priyanka is an Indian, but not Sonia.
Each time both speak they prove this. Sonia Gandhi does not know a single Indian language; more categorically, she does not think in Indian. What does she think she is going to do as prime minister? Speak to Indians in a kind of English that even the English would consider foreign?
A prime minister has to communicate, constantly, with the people. Sonia Gandhi has no ability to do that. She and her party answer that by pointing out the famous fourteen, the 14 states where the Congress is in power. |
