Sonia Gandhi is the daughter of Stefano Maino, a
building contractor who lived in Orbassano near Turin in Northern Italy. The
Mainos were an orthodox Catholic family and ardent admirer of Fascist Dictator
Benito Mussolini. Paolo Maino was a proud mother who had three beautiful
daughters, Antonio, Anoushka and Nadia. Antonio Sonia Maino was sent to England
so that she could learn to speak English properly. She was one of those girls
who were not students of Cambridge University but lived with families who kept
young girls as household help in return for opportunity to interact with people
who spoke English. These girls would accompany the boys from Cambridge
University on weekends. In that boys group there was an Indian student from a
good family who had an ambition of becoming a pilot, fell in love with Antonia.
He happened to be the grandson of internationally respected Prime Minister of
India Jawaharlal Nehru. When Antonia confessed with her parents about the man
in her life, they were more than overjoyed as their daughter was getting
married to the first family of India. By the time their marriage happened,
Indira Gandhi had become the Prime Minister of India. Very few years after her
marriage Sonia became a Director on the board of Sanjay Gandhi’s Maruti
Technical services which allowed her to have a monthly salary and one percent
of commission on profits.
During the early years neither Rajiv nor
Sonia showed interest in politics. A little discomfort prevailed in the family
after Congress party was defeated in 1977 elections. Sonia had to live with a
depressed mother-in-law, an unpleasant sister-in-law, Maneka Gandhi. This did
not last long as Sanjay Gandhi died in an air crash and Maneka was ousted by
combined efforts of Sonia and Indira Gandhi. This was the time Indira started
grooming her elder son for dynasty rule. She had removed Antonia from Sonia’s
name so that it doesn’t sound foreign. Rajiv Gandhi was nominated as the
President of Congress party. The party won the elections with huge majority
after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. During, Rajiv’s rule he faced lot of
allegations. His family was flamed for taking 64 crore as payoff. Later, a huge
disaster happened in the family. Rajiv Gandhi was brutally killed in 1991.
Undoubtedly Sonia was in deep anguish. The closely held establishment of Nehru
family in the Congress party fell on Sonia’s feet and offered her the
leadership. Thus, Sonia became the President of Congress party. Through years
it is evident that Sonia has been desperately to mould herself in the manner of
her mother-in-law. It was clearly evident that she wanted to rule the country.
She had retained her Italian citizenship for fifteen years after her
marriage. Only because of her political ambitions and her anxiousness to gain
voting rights in India led her to apply Indian citizenship in 1983. Sonia’s
quality of citizenship has always been a topic of public issue. Her eligibility
to contest for MP elections has been questioned through years. Ironically, this
question is raised only at the time of elections. In September 2001 the Supreme
Court considered a challenge to Sonia Gandhi’s election as Member of
Parliament. The main question raised was whether a plea questioning the
citizenship of a candidate is entertainable by the High Court in spite of
candidate holding a certificate of citizenship granted under section 5(1)(c )
of the citizenship act. The Supreme Court pronounced that the court had the
jurisdiction to pronounce the validity of citizenship of an election candidate.
But, the court neither approved nor disapproved Sonia Gandhi’s eligibility to
be an MP.
According
to our constitution, the basic qualification to hold any of the offices under
it is that he or she must be a citizen of India. The Citizenship Act of 1955
says that a person is considered as Indian citizen by his birth, descent,
registration, naturalization, registration, incorporation of territory, and on
the basis of reciprocity. Sonia Gandhi
belongs to the category of people who became citizens by registration.
Registration is granted on application and is restricted to few categories
only. Sonia got her citizenship under the criteria – persons who are or have
been married to citizens of India and are ordinarily resident in India. Whereas,
the recent citizenship Amendment Act (2004) says that an overseas citizen will
be entitled only to the civil rights guaranteed under Article 19 of the
constitution and not civic or political rights. This law once again made Sonia
Gandhi’s ‘foreign origin’ a topic of debate. Sonia Gandhi was born a citizen of
Italy. Under the Italian law, a natural born citizen of Italy can retain his/her
citizenship even after acquiring citizenship of another country. The question
is will a woman continue to be Italian citizen even after getting registered as
Indian citizen by virtue of marriage. According to Article 5 of the Declaration
on the Elimination of Discrimination against woman, ‘Woman shall have the same
rights as men to acquire, change or retain their nationality. Marriage to an
alien shall not automatically affect the nationality of the wife either by
rendering her stateless or by forcing upon her the nationality of the husband.’
Sonia Gandhi might have probably exercised this right.
Sonia
Gandhi has been considered a Prime Minister candidate since 1999. She is
ineligible for any higher office as her citizenship can be cancelled anytime if
she violates the rules under citizenship Act, 1955. Moreover she is not a
citizen by birth; she is a citizen by registration which means she doesn’t
belong to citizen of first class. Like many other foreigners who have seeked
Indian citizenship, many restrictions and conditions are imposed on her too. But,
our law has many loopholes; there is a law which allows Italian citizens to
enter certain public offices. It doesn’t specify whether such citizens can be
PM contenders or not, but definitely allows people like Sonia Gandhi to display
the temerity to aspire for PM office.
There
are lot of incidents which prove there is disconnect between her word and her
action. Though she kept saying that she had no interest in politics and power;
she physically threw Sitaram Kesari from the office. The poor fellow was in the
toilet. His chair was empty. At that time few congress goons bolted the toilet
door from outside and made Sonia occupy his chair. The elderly man literally
wept. As people say this is how she became the Congress president. When media
and opposition questioned her about her friend Quattrocchi being involved in
Bofors scandal, she flatly refused it saying no one could be proved guilty
unless there is sufficient evidence
.
Bofors scandal: The Bofors scandal was a major political scandal that occurred between Sweden and India during the 1980's and 90's, initiated by Congress politicians and implicating the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and several other members of the Swedish and Indian government who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155mm field howitzer.The scandal relates to illegal kickbacks paid in a US$1.4 billion deal between the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors with the government of India for the sale of 410 field howitzer guns, and a supply contract almost twice that amount. It was the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden, and money marked for development projects was diverted to secure this contract at any cost. The investigations revealed flouting of rules and by passing of institutions. The scale of the corruption was far more worse that any that Sweden and India had seen before and directly led to elections. The Swedish company paid 9.4 million US$ in kickbacks to top Indian politicians and defense officials.
Quattrocchi's role in this scandal, and his proximity to then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi through his Italian wife Sonia Gandhi, is thought to have contributed to the defeat of Congress party in 1989 elections. In 1999 CBI named Quattrocchi in a charge sheet as the conduit for the Bofors bribe. The case against him was strengthened in June 2003, when Interpol revealed two bank accounts, 5A5151516M and 5A5151516L held by Quattrochi and his wife Maria, with the BSI AG bank, London, containing 3 million Euros and 1 million dollars, which was a curiously huge amount for a salaried executive. In January 2006, these frozen bank accounts were unexpectedly released by Indian Ministry of law, apparently without the consent of CBI which had asked for them to be frozen. On 6 February 2007, Ottavio Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on the basis of Interpol warrant. The CBI came under attack for putting a half-hearten effort towards his extradition and India lost the case for his extradition as they failed to produce proper legal documents. Consequently, India was asked to pay Quattrocchi's legal expenses.
Apart from such scandals the most diabolical was her illegal entry to Indian voters list. It all began when the electrol rolls of the New Delhi parliament constituency were revised in 1980, with January 1 of that year as qualifying date. The revision enabled people to seek addition, deletion and changes in the list and among those who did so were members of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's household. The family resided at 1, Safdarjung road, and until then had four voters - Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi. In 1980 there was an addition to the list - Sonia Gandhi. She was listed as voter at serial number 388 in polling station 145 of the constituency. This would have passed off as a routine addition, but for the fact that Sonia Gandhi was not at that time an Indian citizen, a fundamental qualification for anyone seeking entry to voters list. The fraudulent entry would have gone unnoticed but for Surya India, a news magazine edited by her estranged sister-in-law, which ranked up the issue. The magazine did a cover story on Sonia Gandhi in October 1982 and asked how a citizen of Italy could be a voter in India.
Even now Congress sees her as saviour of once Gandhi led Centurion party; the Marxists saw in her the prospects of stopping BJP from marching to Delhi. Nevertheless, an Italian Indian is going around and telling how this nation should behave, how the BJP is communal, and how someone else is a castiest and how her family has suffered for the nation. While the Congress and our intellectuals call her Indian, her Italian colleagues see her only as Italian. And that is how the world too sees her.
.
Bofors scandal: The Bofors scandal was a major political scandal that occurred between Sweden and India during the 1980's and 90's, initiated by Congress politicians and implicating the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and several other members of the Swedish and Indian government who were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155mm field howitzer.The scandal relates to illegal kickbacks paid in a US$1.4 billion deal between the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors with the government of India for the sale of 410 field howitzer guns, and a supply contract almost twice that amount. It was the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden, and money marked for development projects was diverted to secure this contract at any cost. The investigations revealed flouting of rules and by passing of institutions. The scale of the corruption was far more worse that any that Sweden and India had seen before and directly led to elections. The Swedish company paid 9.4 million US$ in kickbacks to top Indian politicians and defense officials.
Quattrocchi's role in this scandal, and his proximity to then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi through his Italian wife Sonia Gandhi, is thought to have contributed to the defeat of Congress party in 1989 elections. In 1999 CBI named Quattrocchi in a charge sheet as the conduit for the Bofors bribe. The case against him was strengthened in June 2003, when Interpol revealed two bank accounts, 5A5151516M and 5A5151516L held by Quattrochi and his wife Maria, with the BSI AG bank, London, containing 3 million Euros and 1 million dollars, which was a curiously huge amount for a salaried executive. In January 2006, these frozen bank accounts were unexpectedly released by Indian Ministry of law, apparently without the consent of CBI which had asked for them to be frozen. On 6 February 2007, Ottavio Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on the basis of Interpol warrant. The CBI came under attack for putting a half-hearten effort towards his extradition and India lost the case for his extradition as they failed to produce proper legal documents. Consequently, India was asked to pay Quattrocchi's legal expenses.
Apart from such scandals the most diabolical was her illegal entry to Indian voters list. It all began when the electrol rolls of the New Delhi parliament constituency were revised in 1980, with January 1 of that year as qualifying date. The revision enabled people to seek addition, deletion and changes in the list and among those who did so were members of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's household. The family resided at 1, Safdarjung road, and until then had four voters - Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi. In 1980 there was an addition to the list - Sonia Gandhi. She was listed as voter at serial number 388 in polling station 145 of the constituency. This would have passed off as a routine addition, but for the fact that Sonia Gandhi was not at that time an Indian citizen, a fundamental qualification for anyone seeking entry to voters list. The fraudulent entry would have gone unnoticed but for Surya India, a news magazine edited by her estranged sister-in-law, which ranked up the issue. The magazine did a cover story on Sonia Gandhi in October 1982 and asked how a citizen of Italy could be a voter in India.
Even now Congress sees her as saviour of once Gandhi led Centurion party; the Marxists saw in her the prospects of stopping BJP from marching to Delhi. Nevertheless, an Italian Indian is going around and telling how this nation should behave, how the BJP is communal, and how someone else is a castiest and how her family has suffered for the nation. While the Congress and our intellectuals call her Indian, her Italian colleagues see her only as Italian. And that is how the world too sees her.
