There was an India before 2014. A India much different than it is today.
There was no Narendra Modi back then. On paper, India’s leadership was in the hands of a former Oxbridge economist and Prime Minister (PM) Manmohan Singh, But this “sheep in a sheep’s clothing” was a mere rubber stamp.
The entire power in a nation of over billion people was concentrated in the hands of a person who was not even born in India. Sonia Gandhi as the leader of Congress, India’s oldest political party, emerged as the most powerful Indian. The widow of former PM Rajiv Gandhi, popularly known as ‘Madam’ in political circles, became India’s master puppeteer.
Congress party’s win in 2004 national elections had created an unprecedented situation. As party leader, Sonia was the natural choice to become India’s first foreign born PM. This would make her the fourth member of Nehru-Gandhi family to take this office. But the office of PM comes with accountability, criticism and spotlight. All that would make things very difficult for Sonia Gandhi.
India’s mainstream media have always focused on Sonia Gandhi’s Indian link. Her being the daughter-in-law of former PM Indira Gandhi, widow of another former PM Rajiv and as an alien lady who made India her home. Any discussion on Sonia’s past life was the ‘Lakshman Rekha” that was never to be crossed. Sonia’s white privilege gives her a near-divine status in India.
This means putting facts under the carpet. Easy in a nation where half the population is functionally illiterate. Sadly, India’s internet revolution changed all that. More Indian were now reading than ever before. They began to question and criticise. The ‘Free Speech’ was the tool that could pierce even Templer’s shield.
So Sonia Gandhi was not Sonia Gandhi. She is in-fact Edvige Antonia Albina Maino. One of three daughter of an Italian Prisoner of War (PoW) who served years in a Soviet prison and a former soldier of Mussolini’s Fascist Italian Army that murdered thousands of Jews during the Second World War. Imagine Gandhi’s India led by daughter of a Fascist and Nazi collaborator!
Sonia was also no Cambridge graduate as she claimed in her election affidavit. She studied in Cambridge not at Cambridge University. In fact, she never attended a university.
But the troubles run deeper. No one is certain as to how Sonia Gandhi was able to “meet” her future husband Rajiv Gandhi in 1965. Except the fact that they were introduced by a German “common friend”. While Sonia worked as a waitress in a local bar, it is rather intriguing why and how she picked Cambridge for her language learning course. It gets more interesting when we consider the fact that Sonia spent much time in Soviet Union where her father spent many years as PoW. The UK had already witnessed Profumo affair involving a 19-year-old Christine Keeler who was linked to Soviet espionage.
It was a time when Cambridge was a hotbed of KGB and Soviet spies. When Sonia began dating Rajiv Gandhi in the majestic settings of Cambridge, India was battling a war with Pakistan. PM Lal Bahadur Shastri led India to a spirited victory dampening the Prime Ministerial ambitions of Rajiv’s mother Indira.
But what a coincidence!
PM Shastri is found dead in Soviet Union right after he signing the Tashkent Declaration. His death widely believed to be a case of poisoning considering Soviet expertise in the matter.
So when Antonio Maino entered India, she was now daughter-in-law of India’s Prime Minister. Antonio Maino became Sonia Gandhi. The family name that is used by Nehru family for years as a camouflage to create a flawed link with Mahatma Gandhi.
Riding on the emotional wave after her mother’s assassination in 1984, an inexperienced Rajiv became the PM and led India to its worst years. In 1989, he too was murdered. After her initial hesitation, Sonia Gandhi became party President within 62 days of taking Congress membership. This paved the way for Sonia’s rise to national leadership after Congress led coalition secured a victory in the 2004 general elections.
Sonia was the ultimate power authority in India between 2004 and 2014. Through her carefully selected and trusted bureaucrats led by Pulok Chatterji, she replicated a British Empire style of governance where erstwhile princely rulers were replaced by caste based political clans. Their survival was protected as long as the family was ensured its lion’s share in financial misappropriations.
All this while, Sonia’s links to KGB continued to emerge. Though not holding any government post, she didn’t waste any time in making her maiden trip to Russia in 2005. Using the private jet of an Indian billionaire, Wikileaks exposed how the trip was a cover for the collusion between Sonia and Russian government to silence her rivals in domestic politics. In her book, Russian investigative journalist Dr. Yevgeniya Albats exposed how Russian Foreign Intelligence Service admitted the possibility that KGB could have been involved in arranging profitable Soviet contracts for the firms controlled by Rajiv, Sonia and Sonia’s mother Paola Maino.
Most of these uncovering were spearheaded by Subramanian Swamy, a former close associate of Rajiv Gandhi who served as Law Minister in his government. Yet each exposé was dismissed as a conspiracy theory by mainstream media.
Sonia picked her widely ridiculed son, Rahul, as the heir leaving daughter Priyanka as the spare. Sonia continued to expand her influence from economy to media. Her family is regularly accused of being the fountainhead of various corruption scandals and scams. Foreign publications have named Sonia among the richest politicians in the world. But despite the collusion of powerful media, the rise of Narendra Modi in 2014 was an act that ultimately saved India.
Sonia has to realise that her main enemy is not Narendra Modi. Her nemesis are the inquisitive young Indians that challenge her divine status. Congress party still wields much influence on the mainstream media but websites, podcasts and social media are beyond their control. The custom of tackling questions with deafening silence is becoming unsustainable.
Despite the best efforts by pro-Congress media that treats her like a royalty, Sonia Gandhi is no more above questioning. This means her only defence is declaring every question to be politically motivated and every criticism as trolling.
Sonia Gandhi’s biggest baggage is her poor understanding of India. Though she has spent decades living in India, she continues to treat Indians with contempt. It might be Sonia’s upbringing in a Fascist household under a white supremacist father that fuels her disdain for Free Speech and criticism.
But here is a lesson for Indian political class. Be it Modi or Sonia. Free Speech is now the essence of India’s democracy. Even as media has nearly collapsed as an institution, the right to questioning is no more limited to a journalist. Any attempt to inflict censorship is bound to fail in this digital age. The input of human opinion is a free speech issue.
Sonia Gandhi’s crusade against those who dare to question her is bound to meet the same feat as Mussolini’s monstrosity.
