| Sajha.com Archives | |
| Username | Post |
| psychodreamer | Posted
on 18-May-04 12:36 PM
- http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/6996_765186,0016005500040001.htm ‘Power for itself has never attracted me... My aim has always been to defend the secular foundation of our nation’ Vir Sanghvi New Delhi, May 19 It was one of the most extraordinary moments in Indian political history —perhaps in the history of any parliamentary democracy. A leader who had fought the odds, who had braved an increasingly personalised and abusive campaign, who had the support of an overwhelming majority of the House, standing up to tell her MPs what they least wanted to hear: she had no desire to be Prime Minister. At a stroke, she made the BJP look foolish and petty. Sushma Swaraj, humiliated by Sonia in Bellary, who had sought to establish her own claim to be a future leader of the BJP by making a vulgar attack on Sonia's ethnicity was now shown up by a woman who already had the Prime Ministership in her grasp — and yet, didn't want it. Narendra Modi, who had raised communal tension so that he could win his election amidst the smoke of funeral pyres was humiliated by the power of Indian democracy — shown up by a woman who walked away from the kind of power he can only dream of. Towards the end of the campaign, when Sonia Gandhi had given an interview to the HT, she had made her position on the Prime Ministership amply clear. She had no interest in the job, she said. That wasn't why she was in politics. Of course, it was difficult for people to understand that because most politicians wanted to reach the top. But she was not like that. She was a reluctant politician. She was in it out of a sense of duty, not because of ambition. But of course, nobody believed her. She had said much the same sort of thing to Shekhar Gupta on NDTV. And during the 1999 elections she gave me an interview in which she suggested that she would never accept the top job. Nobody believed her then. Nobody believed her now. But as she so dramatically demonstrated in Parliament's Central Hall on Tuesday evening, Sonia Gandhi meant every word of it. Why then had she taken the brunt of the attack? Why had she allowed Modi to abuse her and her children? Why had she allowed Venkaiah Naidu to direct semi-intelligible insults in her direction? Why didn't she simply say, "Look, I'm not in the race, don't attack me." There's no single answer to that question. When friends would ask her why she didn't just opt out, she would always say that to do so would be cowardice. It was her desire to fight for the values she believed in — a secular India where people were not judged on the basis of religion or ethnicity — that kept her in the fight. To have fought the battle on the BJP's terms would have been to have admitted defeat even before the struggle was over. But now that the people of India have seen through the campaign of hatred and abuse, Sonia Gandhi has nothing left to prove. The Congress has much to do. The new government has its work cut out for it. But Sonia Gandhi has won. And on Tuesday, she showed us that it was the battle that was important. Not the prize. |
| KaLaNkIsThAn | Posted
on 18-May-04 01:08 PM
Whatever!! :P She can say whatever she wants to say but everyone knows the truth... The truths are Hindu Nationalists protested her foreign birth. The stock market hit the rock bottom in more than 129 years yesterday. Now she is singing a different tune, eh... Power never attracted me... yeah, my butt!! :P |
| psychodreamer | Posted
on 18-May-04 01:20 PM
Stock market in many ways how invester perceive environment, be it any kind. The fluctuation in stockmarket doesnt necessarily mean the country is going downsouth. What da ya say Ashu dai :) Jaya Sambhu |
| darshankaka | Posted
on 18-May-04 05:03 PM
The truth is she is a real coward.. and she quit. However, she does understand the fact that she would not survive as a PM in India. Then she must have thought, had she never married Rajeev Gandhi, stayed back in Italy, would she like someone from India becoming PM of Italy. That's what struck her brain hard.. and she realized that the whole concept of she becoming PM is Totally WRONG. |
| Neural | Posted
on 18-May-04 07:31 PM
.Biswo, what you say? (am null in this field) |
| Neural | Posted
on 18-May-04 07:36 PM
.Ganga Charan Rajput, a former MP from Uttar Pradesh and Congress leader threatened to shoot himself if Sonia Gandhi didn't agree to become the Prime Minister. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/683756.cms 
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| darshankaka | Posted
on 18-May-04 09:28 PM
If these indians have little bit of brain, they rather immediately should amend their constitution to make sure only india-born can become PM and President. Perhaps even MPs. What the heck. |