The foreign hand worries them not

While politicians talk of a constitutional amendment which will give only natural-born Indians the right to be prime minister, voters know this will not make a jot of difference to their lives. While politicians shriek that Sonia is “a foreigner interfering in India’s internal affairs,” voters say that a bahu is always an “outsider” who carries on the legacy of a family by virtue of the fact that she has borne its heirs.

The gulf between the people of this country and those who want to guide its destiny has never been more apparent than in their differing perceptions of Sonia. The xenophobic attack on her finds few takers among common voters. Even in an urban area like Delhi, otherwise receptive to the Hindutva slogan, people are not worried about the “foreign hand”. The fact of the matter is that Indians cannot be straitjacketed into “one people, one nation, one culture”. Unity in diversity hasalways been a better slogan for it captures the spirit of a faith which centuries of invasion have failed to destroy. Mahatma Gandhi was a Hindu but he never displayed the insecurity of a creed which needs to erect rigid barriers to keep its flock together.

This does not mean that religion cannot be a mobilising force. In a deeply superstitious country, it has a special place in daily existence. The 1991 polls and the Ayodhya events prove that it can be used for political gains if the symbol is powerful enough. Sonia Gandhi’s speech writers have been shrewd enough to sprinkle her addresses with religious motifs. But unlike the Hindutva brigade, they are careful to broadbase the appeal by harping on universal themes while using Hindu images. The Gandhi doublespeak is subtle.

Ultimately, the attack on Sonia may boomerang. What should have been a Vajpayee-centric campaign blitz, with his “moderate” image as the cutting edge, has turned into a bash-Sonia tirade. The harbingers of a new destiny have beenreduced to fighting the ghosts of an old memory. Swadeshi and nationalism are competing for public attention with syrupy images of shaami kababs in Meerut and mishti doi in Calcutta.

Instead of concentrating on projecting themselves, her opponents’ public pronouncements and ground-level propaganda have become Sonia-centric. Their issues have been overtaken by Sonia’s apologies and they have ended up allowing her to set the poll agenda by reacting to every barb from her.

Aid has come her way from the strangest of quarters. Rajiv Gandhi’s bitterest critic, V.P. Singh, has defended her on the Bofors charge. The Left, which should see red at the mere mention of the dynasty, never tires of saying there is nothing wrong with Sonia assuming charge of the Congress.

The pro- and anti- voices have only helped to make Sonia Gandhi the focus of the campaign and unwittingly turned these polls into a referendum on the Nehru-Gandhi family. In the process, everyone has played into her hands. If bysome crazy miracle, the Congress is in a position to form the next government, Sonia can rightfully stake her claim to lead it. Foreigner or not, whatever the Congress gains will be her victory, despite her not contesting. The entire political spectrum has ensured this by turning what started out as a one-horse race into a Sonia-versus-Vajpayee battle.