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'It is better to have a foreign born PM than so called Indian born Jayalalitha or Laloo'
E-mail from readers the world over
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Mon, 17 May 1999 21:30:05 PDT I strongly denounce the statement issued by Pawar and others objecting that a "foreign" person cannot hold office as PM. Sonia belongs to a minority -- foreign born Indian citizens! The Congress party with its high "secular" ideals, can only support the high status accorded to individuals just because they belong to the minority group. Narender
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Tue, 18 May 1999 00:44:51 -0500 I am unable to convey my outrage at these Congressis behaving like the sky has fallen just because Sonia, a semi-literate foreigner with no clear ability to relate to India, cannot handle legitimate criticism and wants to sulk and slam the doors shut. How bad can it be? In no other democracy do we see a national party begging some foreigner like this. The Congress is so great an embarrassment that I hope it gets wiped out, and the Gandhis move to some place outside India and save the nation another round of this trauma which will recur endlessly otherwise. I say this for the good of everybody, including the Gandhis, who we must assume have some concern for India's dignity. Pradip Parekh
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Tue, 18 May 1999 09:34:16 +0530 All the political drama in the Congress party is meant for power (the seat of prime minister). Sonia came to the Congress because she wanted to become PM. If she had not come into the party, the obvious nominee would have been Pawar. I think Sonia's entry into the party itself raised negative thoughts in the mind of Pawar, ie, a big hindrance in his way to the top position. But he didn't raise any opposition in the interest of the party. But now that the party is strong enough to fight a good battle, he does not want to miss the chance. The Italian origins of Sonia is just an excuse to hide his intentions. Ravi Kumar Tadysetty
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Tue, 18 May 1999 02:15:12 -0500 I really don't understand why CWC, people and the media think Pawar has revolted against the party when all he did was express his opinion about the Congress president. If somebody does not keep mum they are branded as rebels? What a great culture and democracy we have? Krishna Mohan
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Tue, 18 May 1999 12:04:14 +0400 Most of the developed countries in the world have a rule in their Constitution that only a natural-born-citizen of the country can hold the highest government post. It includes the US as well.
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Mon, 17 May 1999 19:06:56 EST5EDT Sharad Pawar and his friends are angry because they don't have the top job. They are anti-Congress, anti-Constitution -- which gives the right to every citizen despite their race/origin/colour/caste to be prime minister. Sonia is an Indian citizen and should not be treated as a second class citizen. Is she going to win? All that should be left to the people of India and not greedy politicians like Sharad Pawar and his gang.
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Mon, 17 May 1999 15:49:33 -0600 The matter of Sonia Gandhi is needlessly being framed as a citizenship issue. No doubt, a country such as ours should be able to come up with a "true Indian" candidate. But that isn't the issue. The issue is that Sonia Gandhi has absolutely no credentials for the job, save her relationship to the Nehru dynasty. In the past, that has been enough. But as we saw with Rajiv Gandhi, familial ties don't assure competence. In Sonia's instance, she is even less capable. What significant political or administrative office has she held? Actually, I have no objection to a "non-Indian" becoming our prime minister, if that person has proved his/her statesmanship over many years. Murli
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Tue, 18 May 1999 10:34:44 +0800 Dear Editor, I appreciate your attempt to provide a balanced array of political viewpoints. But how can any respectable publication publish the senseless garbage that pours out of Gupta's twisted mind? Kachcha, sorry, Kanchan Gupta's writing was quite bad till he was last employed as a journalist by The Pioneer, and has progressively worsened since the BJP. I'm sure there are more articulate writers in the BJP than Gupta, please get them to write instead of him.
A Prakash
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Mon, 17 May 1999 23:00:12 -0400 (EDT) I, in USA feel ashamed of being called an Indian with people writing such garbage. I am a proud to be an Indian but not in India. The attitude and thought process of such species as the author takes us a 1000 years back. No wonder India will need a couple of centuries to get over the mentality of the author. What have the so-called Indian born leaders done for the country? And what are they doing now? It is disgusting that Rediff On The NeT should allow such authors who have no understanding of what they are writing and are short sighted. Does this man realise an Indian is an Indian whether natural or with granted citizenship? Politically ambitious people like Sharad Pawar and company want to reserve the President, VP and PM's positions for natural born Indians, and talk about the grass-root politicians taking such positions -- they mean to say that if an infant is born in India and leaves the country when 2 months old and comes back to India to win elections, he is eligible to be PM? Fantastic. Not that I favour Sonia Gandhi, but if she is an Indian legally and meets all other requirements for being the PM (incidentally, it was Sharad Pawar who wanted her to contest the election -- but now has a problem with her being a PM). Let her contest, yes, but if the rules are being bent for the same then she has no right to be a PM, lead a party, or contest election.
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Mon, 17 May 1999 14:57:36 -0700 Kanchan Gupta cites Alexander, Napoleon and Hitler as examples of foreigners who ruined the countries they ruled. Kanchan Gupta's reasoning is faulty. All the examples he cites cannot be applied to Sonia Gandhi. One must bear in mind that Alexander was from Macedon, the periphery of Greece; Napoleon came from Corsica, the periphery of France and Hitler came from Austria the periphery of Germany. Italy, the last time I checked, is not on the periphery of India. Kanchan Gupta's analogy works better if it is applied to L K Advani. L K Advani is from Pakistan, the periphery of India. Joachim Fernandes
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Mon, 17 May 1999 15:24:47 -0400 I support all the points in Kanchan Gupta's article, given that I share his political leanings. However, I should point out that he errs when he discusses Alexander, Napoleon and Hitler in the Sonia context as "foreigners heading countries not of their origin." In the three cases, the person concerned cannot really be called a foreigner. Although Alexander came from a tiny principality of Macedonia -- ethnically, culturally, and politically he was as much a Greek as one born in Athens. Greece was not a nation but an agglomeration of small principalities, none of which dominated the others till Alexander. Napoleon was born in Corsica but technically he was a French citizen because Corsica was under French control when he was born. Furthermore, he went to a French military academy and started his career in the French army. Finally, Hitler was an ethnic German (ie, Teutonic) just like Prussians and citizens of the Austo-Hungarian empire were Germans. Many Austrians believed in Pan-Germany as was evidenced by the massive support for the Anschluss. Kanchan Gupta can sustain this logic if he talks about L K Advani's rights to being India's leader. Note Advani was born in Karachi. However, this logic fails in Sonia's case because Italy has no ethnic, cultural, social or political ties with India.
Indrajit Sinha
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Mon, 17 May 1999 12:05:09 -0700 (PDT) To Kanchan Gupta: How dumb do you think your readers are? Anyone who has read your recent articles on Sonia has figured out by now that her maiden name is Maino and not anything else. You have made your point that her last name was Maino ... so move on. And if you think your readers need to be constantly reminded of her maiden name, I am not sure you would want readers with such short memory. If they can't remember her maiden name after so many references to it, they probably will not remember what the heck you were talking about by the time they finish reading the article.
Arindam C
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Mon, 17 May 1999 12:12:43 -0400 It is better to have a foreign born PM than so called Indian born Jayalalitha or Laloo as PM.
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Mon, 17 May 1999 02:36:39 EDT The real reason why the Congress/Gandhi family supporters want to foster Sonia as PM is because the family will lose special protection ten years after Rajiv Gandhi was last PM in 1989. Then it will become costly and difficult to maintain the luxurious lifestyle in New Delhi at personal cost. I do not see this debate in the media. Special protection rules provide protection for 10 years for the PM and family from the last date of being PM.
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Sun, 16 May 1999 16:30:44 -0400 It is heartening to see that some responsible, presumably equally ambitious, members of the Congress, are able to see the writings on the wall. After having picked up the courage to raise the issue of Sonia's foreign origin now, it would be suicidal on their part to make any compromise, as part of any 'deals' which will inevitably be looked upon as yet another blatant example of horsetrading, to sell off the country. The die has been cast, and the three leaders deserve praise and encouragement by all patriots in the country. If Sonia is wise enough, she would heed the warning implicit in the three leaders' opposition. She is likely to get back some of her respect, if she now acts democratically, within the party, and allows all Congressmen to express their genuine views, openly. As suggested by Pawar, Sangma and Anwar, she should be the one to bring forward the amendment to the Constitution to bar 'persons of foreign origin and birth' to occupy the positions not only of the President, vice-president, and the prime minister, but also of the Chief Justice of India, and any of the three chief's of the three services. If she does that, and accepts the role assigned to her by the party, she will immeasurably gain the esteem, sympathy and affection of the Indian people; and in the bargain raise the stature of Congress in the eyes of the people. As a party functionary, she would be far more acceptable and credible to the people. Pawar, Sangma and Anwar have done yeoman service to the nation, irrespective of their motives. Sonia would do the same now, by accepting the realities gracefully, and saving the nation and the people an avoidable controversy, and possibly further break up of the Congress. Will she pass the test?
Rajendra Aggarwala
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