The foreigner index

It's always been much of a red herring. But, looking back, there was a time when Sonia Gandhi8217;s foreignness, or her Indianness, looked ...

It8217;s always been much of a red herring. But, looking back, there was a time when Sonia Gandhi8217;s foreignness, or her Indianness, looked like it was a political issue.

Most recently, it was in 1999, when Mulayam Singh Yadav claimed to have 8216;8216;saved8217;8217; the country from 8216;8216;foreign8217;8217; power by refusing to lend unconditional support to a Sonia-led alternative once Jayalalithaa pulled the plug from the BJP-led government. And then later in the same year, when a very deliberate confrontation was staged in Bellary 8212; 8216;8216;swadeshi8217;8217; Sushma vs 8216;8216;videshi8217;8217; Sonia.

Then, after Sonia won the vote, despite Sushma, kumkum, bangles, jasmine et al, the issue was put down by its campaigners, albeit reluctantly. Ever since, it has become a weathervane and a barometer. Noises made about Sonia8217;s degrees of foreignness point to the direction in which the political winds blow.

Mulayam Singh Yadav8217;s certificate of Indianness to Sonia Gandhi, issued all the way from Etawah, is far more interesting for what it says about the changing political lay of the land than for any additional legitimacy it might confer on the Congress chief.

Yadav now thinks that Sonia is a 8216;8216;true Indian8217;8217; who has 8216;8216;imbibed the spirit of the country and its culture8217;8217; in 8216;8216;totality8217;8217;. In other words, he is confirming what everyone has already gauged ever since he met Sonia Gandhi for the second time in three months, just a day after Rashtriya Lok Dal chief and estranged NDA ally Ajit Singh met with her: That the Samajwadi Party is edging towards an alliance with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, to cobble an alternative to the embattled BJP-BSP coalition. That such an alliance, once it is in place, may hold for the general elections in 2004 as well. That it may lead to a grand new contest: BJP and allies vs Congress and allies. That Mulayam Singh Yadav, leading light in the now deceased United Front and the stillborn People8217;s Front, has given up on yet another revival of the Third Front.

Of course, Yadav8217;s testimonial underlines that other truism as well: Relationships are impermanent in politics. So, given other heaves in the political terrain, here are some possible combinations in the future: Mulayam and Mayawati, Jayalalithaa and Sonia, Laloo and Nitish, the possibilities are unending. Rule out one or the other at your own risk.