International - India & World

Row over Sonia's origin dominates British media

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MAY 19. In the end, it took barely 24 hours for India's image here to be transformed from a vibrant and pluralistic democracy to that of a xenophobic nation not willing to accept a foreign-born Indian citizen as Prime Minister.

The Congress leader, Sonia Gandhi's "unthinkable" decision, as one newspaper put it, not to accept the prime ministership because of the controversy over her Italian origin dominated the front pages of many British newspapers.

"Gandhi says `no' to a billion people," was the headline in The Times over a large photograph of a pensive Ms. Gandhi.

In an editorial, "The lady vanishes," the newspaper called her decision an intelligent reading of the "present mood" and a "well-calculated assessment of the political forces lined up against her."

Reports and editorial comments attributed Ms. Gandhi's surprise decision mainly to the "nationalist prejudice" against her foreign origin, and the Bharatiya Janata Party's "vicious" campaign.

The threat by some of its MPs to resign from Parliament if she became Prime Minister, the party's decision to boycott her swearing-in and "inflammatory" remarks of its leaders such as Uma Bharti and Sushma Swaraj were seen as evidence of the "crude" tactics which the BJP appeared ready to adopt to force the issue. "She has so far kept silent as to the reasons. But in the hard language of politics they seem to boil down to this: her foreign origin as an Italian had become too big an obstacle to the negotiation of an effective coalition in Parliament and she lacked the driving ambition herself to overcome the hostility her candidature was arousing," said The Independent.

The Guardian recalled how, in the past, her own party MPs had "openly questioned whether someone of foreign birth should be at the helm" provoking her to resign as party president six years ago until her detractors were expelled. Even The Daily Telegraph, not known to be particularly fond of immigrants, sounded concerned by the xenophobic personal attacks on Ms. Gandhi.

"Throughout the election campaign, Ms. Gandhi, who became an Indian citizen in 1984, had been subject to vitriolic personal attacks from Hindu nationalists and fundamentalists," it said calling the BJP's decision to boycott her swearing-in as an "unprecedented display of political bitterness."

Indian immigrant groups called the BJP's campaign "racist." The Council of Indian Muslims said it was "outrageous" and "bizarre" that a "bona fide" citizen of India had been effectively prevented from becoming the country's Prime Minister.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu