[bhav]

India: Italian-Born Gandhi Defies Odds In Tradition-Bound Country

By Jeffrey Donovan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Sonia Gandhi, once derided by a political rival as "an Italian dog," is poised to become India's new prime minister. Recent elections have put to an end to a debate about whether her foreign birth would keep the widow of Rajiv Gandhi from ruling the world's largest democracy.

Prague, 14 May 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Daughter of a Roman Catholic building contractor, Sonia Maino was born 57 years ago in the northern Italian town of Orbassano outside Turin. Now, she is set to take over as prime minister -- of India, that is.

Italian-born Sonia Gandhi addressed reporters in New Delhi yesterday after watershed elections finally put to rest a decade-old debate about whether her foreign birth would prevent her from ever presiding over the world's largest democracy as head of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. "Over the next few days, the process of government formation will gather momentum," Gandhi said. "The Congress Party will take a lead to ensure that our country has a strong, stable, and secular government at the earliest."

Gandhi, widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, overcame a vicious personal campaign against her to lead the Congress Party to an upset win over a Hindu nationalist-led coalition that had insisted she was unfit to rule. Although Congress is likely to lead the next government, it still needs an alliance with other parties -- and whether all would accept a foreign-born prime minister isn't clear. Still, if Gandhi follows in her mother-in-law Indira's footsteps and becomes prime minister -- as many expect she will -- it will have capped off a remarkable journey for an Italian woman in traditional India.

It's hardly what she expected when she arrived in 1968, a 21-year-old bride who didn't care for Indian food. "I had a vague idea that India existed somewhere in the world with its snakes, elephants, and jungles," she has written of her days at Cambridge University in England, where she met Rajiv.

Politics was never the aim for Gandhi, who became an Indian citizen in 1983. But when Congress officials were desperate for a name to help rebuild the party after her husband's 1991 assassination, Gandhi was thrust into the fray. Slowly, but surely, she has become a presence.

The big question mark was being Italian-born. Even as Gandhi assumed the customs, clothing, and comportment of her adopted land, one political rival called her an "Italian female dog." In February, Gandhi told New Delhi Television that her foreign birth might hurt her with voters, but that she was no outsider. "I never felt they look at me as a foreigner," she said. "Because I am not. I am Indian."

And most voters agreed -- although not all Indians are enthusiastic about the idea of Ghandi heading the government, as New Delhi resident Vinay Bharadaj told a Reuters reporters yesterday. "I don't think Sonia can be a good prime minister. But what can we do? Whether we like it or not -- she will be," Bharadwaj said.

Analysts say the success of Congress was due partly to a desire for change, especially among the country's poor, for whom Gandhi emerged, according to the "Times of India," as a wronged widow and savior. Still other Indian commentators say Gandhi's success has shown how tolerant and open Indians are, despite their deeply held religious beliefs and customs.

In Italy, reaction to Gandhi's political rise was muted. The news failed to make the front page of the website of "La Repubblica," the nation's best-selling daily paper. But some people were pleased. Italy's undersecretary of foreign affairs, Margherita Boniver, quipped: "Hooray! Finally an Italian woman as prime minister, because in my country there's never been a female premier."

Avtar Singh Rana is an Indian-born politician serving, coincidentally, on the city council in Gandhi's small Italian hometown of Orbassano. Rana told RFE/RL that Gandhi's success is in part a result of how well she has adopted to the ways of his homeland. "I had the chance to meet her about two years ago at her house in New Delhi," Rana said. "I can say with pride, since I live in Italy, that her dress and manners were completely Indian. And everything that we talked about -- and naturally, we didn't talk about politics -- was in the Hindi language, which she speaks perfectly."

The Indian elections have been a source of local pride in Orbassano, with Mayor Carlo Marroni expressing "great satisfaction" over the outcome and saying the town will be watching development closely in the days to come. Meanwhile, Rana said there's a new joke around town: "That's the joke here in Orbassano. They like to say that the town may have given Sonia to India, but India has given Orbassano Avtar Singh Rana."

[bhav]

in other breaking news the new INDIAN goverment has closed off the recently opened CAR market to foriegn companies. So, if you are in India all you can buy is FIAT!

[jackal969k]

Hi bhav! Thank you for the info. I hope she does well and succeeds in helping her people.

Oh well, Fiats aren't that bad!

[AcaCandy]

I'd be really skeeerrrrrrred if I were her

[bhav]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

I'd be really skeeerrrrrrred if I were her

well she may be scared or not, she sure did scare off the investors - may i say foreign investors too! italian chick scarin off the westerners!


Indian stock market shut down
May 18, 2004 - 8:05AM


Political uncertainty and financial panic swept India as the stockmarket was shut down after its worst-ever plunge and two powerful communist parties refused to join a new government alliance under Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi.

Gandhi, 57, will meet President APJ Abdul Kalam to discuss formation of the government, senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh said after the Congress president received a formal invitation from the president.

She would take the oath of office on Wednesday, AB Bardhan, general secretary of the Communist Party of India, one of several leftist parties that have agreed to support a Gandhi-led coalition government in the parliament, said.

The market crash, which began when election results were announced last week, has cost Indian investors more than 2 trillion rupees ($A65 billion)).

The communists refused to join Gandhi's coalition but were expected to influence it from the sidelines. They said they would back her ascension as prime minister in the coming days, but not from within the coalition ranks.

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"The entire left will support the government from the outside," D. Raja, spokesman of the Communist Party of India told The Associated Press.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist also declined to join, saying her new alliance could force them to concede too much to India's right wing.

As she prepared to seek formal approval from the president for the formation of what will now have to be a minority government, Hindu nationalists added to the turmoil with street protests against Gandhi's bid to become the nation's first foreign-born leader.

And investors feared Gandhi would have to backtrack on her pledge to go forward with India's economic liberalisation, or that the leftists, with 62 seats in the 545-member parliament, could block key reforms such as the privatisation of state-run companies.

That triggered the worst ever sell-off in the history of the Bombay Stock Exchange's 129 year history.

Regulators twice halted trading at the main bourses when share prices tumbled more than 15 per cent within in 90 minutes. Share prices began recovering when markets resumed trading for the third time.

The Sensex closed at 4505.16 point, down 11.1 per cent. The Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange, the country's largest, which opened in 1994, plunged 12.3 per cent.

By midday, both the Congress party and the leftists were declaring their support for a business-friendly environment.

"We would like to appeal to all those who have any doubts that we are for ... stable economic growth," said Jyoti Basu, senior leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

Gandhi needs the leftist parties to secure a majority in parliament. Even with the backing of the socialist Samajwadi Party, which announced Monday it would join the alliance, the Congress would have only 257 seats, short of the 272 it needs.

© 2004 AAP
Brought to you by

[jackal969k]

Well I guess it is a no go now.


NEW DELHI, India -- Sonia Gandhi has withdrawn her name for consideration as India's next prime minister.

"I must humbly decline this post," she told a meeting of Congress party lawmakers, who reacted angrily to her decision.

"I appeal to you to understand the force of my convictions," Gandhi said, fighting to make herself heard above indignant shouts from her supporters in the central hall of Parliament.

"I request you to accept my decision and to recognize that I will not reverse it. ... It is my inner voice, my conscience."

Gandhi did not say who she wanted to see lead the new government.

But party sources said Gandhi has endorsed party official and former finance minister Manmohan Singh for the post.

Singh had been expected to serve again as finance minister. He was the architect of India's economic liberalization program during the last Congress-led government in the 1990s. (Singh profile)

Gandhi, an Italian-born Roman Catholic, met Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Tuesday. But she left the presidential palace saying another day of talks was needed before her party could form a new government.

The president's office did not comment on why Kalam had not named her prime minister, as had been widely expected.

Local media reported Gandhi as saying she refused to accept the title of prime minister because of personal attacks over her faith and Italian origin.

"There are rumors that her children are against her becoming prime minister, maybe because of security reasons," AP quoted Somnath Chatterjee, an elected Parliament member from the Communist Party of India-Marxist, as saying.

Gandhi, 57, would have become the nation's first foreign-born prime minister, a move which has sparked scattered protests across the country, most notably from the outgoing ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Some BJP members have said they would never let a foreign-born person become prime minister in the Hindu-majority country.

Analysts said earlier that any tough line could be part of a bargaining ploy to shore up support before claiming power.

Meanwhile, supporters gathered outside Gandhi's home and tried to convince her to keep vying for the top spot.

One man stood on the roof of a car, held a home-made gun to his head and waved a stick to deter people trying to calm him.

"Call Sonia Gandhi! Tell her I will kill myself if she doesn't become prime minister!" Reuters reported him as saying before he was disarmed.

Investors were initially unnerved that a multi-party coalition could slow or halt reforms in the world's largest democracy, and Indian stock markets suffered their worst-ever meltdown on Monday.

Despite fears of more losses following "black Monday," reports that Gandhi might not accept the leadership post prompted India's stock market to soar Tuesday.

India's biggest stock market -- the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai -- closed 8.25 percent higher at 4,877 points. (Indian stocks stage comeback)

Brokers estimated that India's capital markets have bled some 2 trillion rupees ($45 billion) since Thursday, when Gandhi's party won a shock win over the country's ruling Hindu nationalists.


Singh is widely viewed as an economic reformer in the Congress party.
Analysts are worried any new government would only be able to rule with support from pro-labor, anti-privatization Communists, which may block or slow key reforms in Asia's third-largest economy, especially the privatization of bloated state firms.

"They (the Communists) said we have nothing to do with privatization, that the privatization/disinvestment ministry should be shut down," said John Elliott from Fortune magazine.

"All very dramatic stuff that was bound to worry the markets."

Analysts expect the markets will continue to be nervous in the immediate future.

With investor confidence dented, traders are looking for policy announcements from the new government to get economic reforms on the fast track again.

While the leftist parties, with more than 60 of the new parliament's seats, have decided not to formally join Gandhi's coalition, they have pledged to support her from outside.

They will likely vote with Congress on most issues, including confidence motions, and help draft a joint economic blueprint.

It is common in India for parties to support a government from outside a formal coalition.

In becoming prime minister, Gandhi would also follow in the footsteps of her husband Rajiv, assassinated in 1991, and her mother-in-law Indira, slain in 1984. (Gandhi: Fairy tale and tragedy)

CNN's Ram Ramgopal, New Delhi Bureau Chief Satinder Bindra and producer Suhasini Haidar contributed to this report

[AcaCandy]

Smart woman

[bhav]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

Smart woman

why do you say that?

[Cédric]

Originally Posted by bhav

India: Italian-Born Gandhi Defies Odds In Tradition-Bound Country

By Jeffrey Donovan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Sonia Gandhi, once derided by a political rival as "an Italian dog," is poised to become India's new prime minister. Recent elections have put to an end to a debate about whether her foreign birth would keep the widow of Rajiv Gandhi from ruling the world's largest democracy.

Prague, 14 May 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Daughter of a Roman Catholic building contractor, Sonia Maino was born 57 years ago in the northern Italian town of Orbassano outside Turin. Now, she is set to take over as prime minister -- of India, that is.

Italian-born Sonia Gandhi addressed reporters in New Delhi yesterday after watershed elections finally put to rest a decade-old debate about whether her foreign birth would prevent her from ever presiding over the world's largest democracy as head of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. "Over the next few days, the process of government formation will gather momentum," Gandhi said. "The Congress Party will take a lead to ensure that our country has a strong, stable, and secular government at the earliest."

Gandhi, widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, overcame a vicious personal campaign against her to lead the Congress Party to an upset win over a Hindu nationalist-led coalition that had insisted she was unfit to rule. Although Congress is likely to lead the next government, it still needs an alliance with other parties -- and whether all would accept a foreign-born prime minister isn't clear. Still, if Gandhi follows in her mother-in-law Indira's footsteps and becomes prime minister -- as many expect she will -- it will have capped off a remarkable journey for an Italian woman in traditional India.

It's hardly what she expected when she arrived in 1968, a 21-year-old bride who didn't care for Indian food. "I had a vague idea that India existed somewhere in the world with its snakes, elephants, and jungles," she has written of her days at Cambridge University in England, where she met Rajiv.

Politics was never the aim for Gandhi, who became an Indian citizen in 1983. But when Congress officials were desperate for a name to help rebuild the party after her husband's 1991 assassination, Gandhi was thrust into the fray. Slowly, but surely, she has become a presence.

The big question mark was being Italian-born. Even as Gandhi assumed the customs, clothing, and comportment of her adopted land, one political rival called her an "Italian female dog." In February, Gandhi told New Delhi Television that her foreign birth might hurt her with voters, but that she was no outsider. "I never felt they look at me as a foreigner," she said. "Because I am not. I am Indian."

And most voters agreed -- although not all Indians are enthusiastic about the idea of Ghandi heading the government, as New Delhi resident Vinay Bharadaj told a Reuters reporters yesterday. "I don't think Sonia can be a good prime minister. But what can we do? Whether we like it or not -- she will be," Bharadwaj said.

Analysts say the success of Congress was due partly to a desire for change, especially among the country's poor, for whom Gandhi emerged, according to the "Times of India," as a wronged widow and savior. Still other Indian commentators say Gandhi's success has shown how tolerant and open Indians are, despite their deeply held religious beliefs and customs.

In Italy, reaction to Gandhi's political rise was muted. The news failed to make the front page of the website of "La Repubblica," the nation's best-selling daily paper. But some people were pleased. Italy's undersecretary of foreign affairs, Margherita Boniver, quipped: "Hooray! Finally an Italian woman as prime minister, because in my country there's never been a female premier."

Avtar Singh Rana is an Indian-born politician serving, coincidentally, on the city council in Gandhi's small Italian hometown of Orbassano. Rana told RFE/RL that Gandhi's success is in part a result of how well she has adopted to the ways of his homeland. "I had the chance to meet her about two years ago at her house in New Delhi," Rana said. "I can say with pride, since I live in Italy, that her dress and manners were completely Indian. And everything that we talked about -- and naturally, we didn't talk about politics -- was in the Hindi language, which she speaks perfectly."

The Indian elections have been a source of local pride in Orbassano, with Mayor Carlo Marroni expressing "great satisfaction" over the outcome and saying the town will be watching development closely in the days to come. Meanwhile, Rana said there's a new joke around town: "That's the joke here in Orbassano. They like to say that the town may have given Sonia to India, but India has given Orbassano Avtar Singh Rana."

Obsolete news! She actually resigned yesterday, or more precisely, she refused the job. Loads of nationalist pressures apparently and fears she could be murdered .She decided to end the family doom. Sad news that such a courageous woman gave up the fight.

[AcaCandy]

Originally Posted by bhav

why do you say that?

She helped get her party elected, and is letting someone else take the chance for assassination

[bhav]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

She helped get her party elected, and is letting someone else take the chance for assassination

usually there is a reason why politicians get assassinated just like her husband and mother in law

overall i guess it might be a good decision on her part. let the turbaned guy be pm for couple of years and when congress wins again with full majority take the top job - so she doesn't have to worry about the commies then!

[plschwartz]

The Hindu nationalists which comprise the majority of the opposition BJP would have given her no mercy and no room to negotiate with Pakistan.
The appointment of a sikh was a brilliant move as he can be a much better "fair broker" as well as healing the remains of Sikn resentment against Congress for their taking the Sikh golden temple some years ago. His pro-capitalist economics brought the Indian stock market right back (thank goodness)

[AcaCandy]

Originally Posted by bhav

usually there is a reason why politicians get assassinated just like her husband and mother in law

Ya, like the other side wants to get their people in

[plschwartz]

Nice article here
Suggests she is being a wise and future looking mom
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FE20Df05.html

[bhav]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

Ya, like the other side wants to get their people in

i don't follow ???????????