Bull's Eye

People say the next election will be fought on the swadeshi versus videshi question.They wonder how Sonia Gandhi will fare. Well, it is time for some plain speaking. It istime to take a stand.

The bjp opposes Sonia because it thinks she is too videshi. I oppose her because Ithink she is too swadeshi. Consider her record.

At Pachmarhi she said that Hinduism automatically ensured that the country would remainsecular. What a smug, oversimplistic and arrogant statement! Does it not betray adisgustingly swadeshi attitude?

Sonia has no experience of public life. She has never been in Parliament. She doesn'tknow how to deal with national problems of governance. Yet she hadn't the slightesthesitation trying to become prime minister. She believes that family connections and thesycophancy of Congressmen are enough to justify her elevation to India's most powerfulpolitical post. Can anything be more swadeshi than that?

She hasn't become even an MP yet. But already she has started grooming her children tosucceed her. She takes Rahul and Priyanka to her public meetings. Would any foreign leaderof a developed country behave like this? It happens only in India. It's totally swadeshi.

Sonia has welcomed back into the Congress tainted leaders like Buta Singh and KalpnathRai. Past misdemeanours are forgotten. It's all in the family. There's no accountability.There's only whimsicality. Isn't that typically swadeshi?

Venod Sharma was removed from office because he is Manu Sharma's father. Yet P.J.Kurien's alleged criminal acts against women are overlooked and no action is taken. Isn'tthis hypocrisy of the highest order? Like our current brand of swadeshi?

Last but not least comes the question of loyalty. Sonia Gandhi is like her latemother-in-law. Indira Gandhi thought that India was Congress and Congress was Indira.Sonia Gandhi thinks that India is Congress and Congress is Sonia. Her actions andutterances repeatedly prove this. It is clear that she puts loyalty to her party aboveloyalty to the nation. Isn't this a swadeshi trait that has plagued Indian history forthousands of years?

Therefore I must say this with regret. Despite her foreign origins, Sonia Gandhidoesn't fool me. She is totally swadeshi. She is unfit to lead India in the twenty-firstcentury. She should merge her party with the bjp.

Let's not have videshi,
On whom we must fawn!
Let's support swadeshi - 
Even a political pawn!