The Hindu : Jayalalithaa rakes up Sonia's foreign origin issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 29, 2002

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Jayalalithaa rakes up Sonia's foreign origin issue

By Our New Delhi Bureau

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo by V.V. Krishnan

NEW DELHI AUG. 28. T he Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today made a surprise attack on the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, by raising the issue of her foreign origin and saying that having her as the prime minister would be a "disaster."

Though taken aback by the diatribe, the Congress today dismissed the development and attributed Ms. Jayalalithaa's "180 degree somersault'' to her need to "ingratiate herself with the Vajpayee Government to get herself extricated from a number of criminal cases''— particularly, the TANSI case, listed for final hearing this week.

In fact, according to the Congress, Ms. Jayalalithaa had not missed any opportunity in the recent past to endear herself to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP itself seemed anxious to reopen the debate and suggested that there was need for "action in the matter.'' And that the matter could be dealt with through legislation.

Bringing up the issue on her own at a press conference here, Ms. Jayalalithaa said the AIADMK was firmly committed to supporting only an "Indian" for the office of Prime Minister. "All right thinking and patriotic Indians should support such a move.''

That she had come with the intention of making the "personal attack'' on Ms. Gandhi was evident from her offer to explain her refusal to align with the Congress in the next Lok Sabha elections.

Also, she described as a "crying shame'' and an indicator of "moral bankruptcy'' the fact that the Congress was projecting Ms. Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate.

Asked why she was raking up the issue now after having supported the Congress claim to form the government under Ms. Gandhi following the fall of the Vajpayee dispensation in 1999, Ms. Jayalalithaa shot back: "When have I supported Sonia Gandhi's candidature as Prime Minister? Even when I withdrew support, I did not agree to support Sonia Gandhi; I was in favour of Jyoti Basu,'' adding that Ms. Gandhi had "scuttled'' the move then.

In fact, her party was prepared to bring in a bill barring people of foreign origin from holding constitutional posts, provided other parties were prepared to support it.

Responding to a question, Ms. Jayalalithaa said that even though the Congress had governments in 14 States, the people there had voted for an "Indian Chief Minister.''

On court decisions confirming Ms. Gandhi's Indian citizenship, she said that in other countries, Indians acquiring citizenship could not aspire to occupy such political posts.

Ms. Jayalalithaa also gave on her own her views on Ms. Gandhi's statement opposing the Representation of the People (Amendment) Ordinance without any prodding from the media.

"Aren't you going to ask me about Sonia Gandhi's turnaround on electoral reforms,'' she asked and went on to read a statement on the issue to back her contention that Ms. Gandhi's claim of there being no consensus on the ordinance was "nothing but a classic case of back-tracking, as an afterthought.''

Even as the Congress maintained that the foreigner issue was a settled one — describing Ms. Jayalalithaa's statement as "flogging a dead horse'' and "sympathising'' with her compulsions — its spokesman, S. Jaipal Reddy, said that it was Ms. Jayalalithaa who had taken the initiative to destabilise the Vajpayee Government in 1999 and lend support to the leadership claimed by the Congress.

Meanwhile, at a press conference, the BJP spokesman, Arun Jaitley, said the foreigners' issue was on the NDA agenda. Though the Constitution Review Commission had not taken it up, there was a view that only a simple change in the law was needed to debar people of foreign origin from occupying a constitutional office, while the second opinion was that an amendment would be needed, for which this Government did not have the requisite strength. Did the BJP favour a simple law on this? Mr. Jaitley was non-committal.

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