A foreigner to be India's next prime minister ? Is this for real?

[krsna]

Vajpayee To Resign, Party Faced Election Defeat

VOA News

13 May 2004, 09:54 UTC

 

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is expected to resign Thursday as his governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces defeat in parliamentary elections.

BJP officials say Mr. Vajpayee will meet with his cabinet within hours and then submit his resignation to President Abdul Kalam.

 

Votes from India's staggered parliamentary elections are still being counted but preliminary results indicate a strong showing by the opposition Congress party and its allies. Analysts say neither the opposition nor the governing coalition is likely to secure a majority in the 543-seat parliament.

 

But BJP officials conceded defeat and said the party has decided to play the role of the opposition.

 

The move could clear the way for Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi to become the next prime minister of the world's largest democracy.

 

Congress party officials say they are confident that they will be able form a government with the help of left-leaning parties, which also made strong election gains.

 

Mr. Vajpayee called early elections, and campaigned on India's economic gains and improving ties with arch-rival Pakistan. The opposition focused on the nation's poor, and argued that the government has done little to alleviate poverty across India.

 

The elections were held on five different days spread over a three-week period that ended on Monday. Officials say more than 55 percent of India's 675 million eligible voters cast ballots.

 

[krsna]

Gandhi triumphs in India election

 

 

Sonia Gandhi and Mr Vajpayee - about to change roles?

India's opposition Congress party has swept to a surprise victory in the country's general elections.

Congress leader, Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, has yet to confirm she will be India's next prime minister.

 

Her party finished well ahead of the governing BJP-led alliance of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who resigned as early results came in.

 

He called the elections early amid an economic boom and Pakistan peace moves but failed to impress poorer voters.

 

 

The BBC's Adam Mynott in Delhi says it is the huge unspoken mass of Indians, largely ignored by the BJP and who have no electricity, poor sanitation and filthy water who have spoken.

 

ELECTION RESULTS SO FAR

BJP & allies: 182

Congress & allies: 215

Others: 136

Seats counted: 533/543

Needed for majority: 272

 

 

State-by-state election results

Congress delight

 

In an address on national television Mr Vajpayee said he accepted the verdict and said it was a demonstration of India's strong democractic roots.

 

"My party and alliance may have lost but India has won," he said.

 

He has been asked to continue until a new prime minister is sworn in.

 

Sonia Gandhi emerged to speak to journalists as the scale of her victory was becoming clear.

 

"Over the next few days the process of government formation will gather momentum," Mrs Gandhi said in Delhi.

 

She promised her Congress Party would take the lead in forming a stable government.

 

And she said it would be up to Congress members of parliament to decide who would be the next prime minister.

 

She is expected to begin consulting her allies and smaller parties over the next two days, to try and form a government.

 

Pakistan policy

 

Mrs Gandhi also said Congress would continue the ongoing peace process with Pakistan, which began in January.

 

"From the very beginning we have been supporting Prime Minister Vajpayee's initiative vis-a-vis Pakistan," she said.

 

 

Vajpayee lost because he did not pay attention to the needs of the poorer community

 

Ashan, London

 

 

Have your say

Sonia Gandhi: Next PM?

 

In its first reaction, Pakistan said it hoped the peace process between the two countries would continue.

 

"The desire for peace is not linked to individuals," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP.

 

 

Mr Vajpayee called the poll six months early hoping to cash in on the peace initiative as well as an economic boom - but all the signs are that the move has backfired.

 

Nearly 380 million people voted in elections held over three weeks.

 

Mr Vajpayee held a last meeting of his cabinet before driving to the presidential palace to submit his resignation to President Abdul Kalam.

 

The cabinet passed a resolution praising Mr Vajpayee's leadership.

 

"With him as our helmsman, the country made great progress in all spheres of national endeavour," it said.

 

At 79, most observers believe it is the end of Mr Vajpayee's political career, which has lasted over six decades.

 

"It is for you and history to judge what we have achieved in this period," he said in his final address as India's leader.

 

Gandhi dynasty

 

Sonia Gandhi is relatively inexperience politically, something which has been held against her by her opponents along with her foreign birth.

 

 

But Congress' campaign was energised by the entry of her son Rahul, the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to join politics.

 

He won by over 100,000 votes in the constituency of Amethi in north India, a seat once held by his father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

 

COUNTING THE VOTES

 

543 constituencies in 28 states

About 675m registered voters

One million voting machines

Turnout across four phases was about 56%

Main contest between BJP and Congress alliances

Repolling ordered in four constituencies

 

 

Profile: Atal Behari Vajpayee

The electronic vote

 

 

As news of Congress's stunning win began filtering in, party supporters took to the streets of Delhi, dancing with joy and setting off firecrackers, as soon as the first results came in.

 

"We feel vindicated," Congress spokesperson Ambika Soni told BBC News Online.

 

"This result show that this party is for the common man."

 

Congress' surprise showing has been made possible by huge wins in the key southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, where it won the bulk of the seats along with its allies.

 

In another upset, Congress has won 12 out of 26 seats in Gujarat, a state rocked by anti-Muslim violence two years ago.

 

The BJP, whose state administration was blamed for doing little to prevent the violence, was expected to do very well there.

 

Communist parties, expected to back a Congress-led Government, have also recorded their best-ever performance with huge victories in Kerala and West Bengal.

 

Only 539 of the 545 seats in the lower house, or Lok Sabha, are being counted on Thursday.

 

Repolling has been ordered in three seats in the eastern state of Bihar because of irregularities and in one seat in Manipur because of a landslide. Two seats are appointed by the president.

 

 

[krsna]

[krsna]

Great day for democracy, black day for India

 

By Sify News Desk

 

The probability of India being ruled by a foreigner has fast become a subject of intense debate and speculation, not just in the newspapers and on the television channels, but even in the online media and on community sites like Sify Blogs.

A blogger on Sify Blogs, Vinesh V. Nair posted a comment on his web log on the result that the elections have thrown up. “It is a shame for India and nothing but a black day for this country to that an Italian Gandhi may take charge of what a true Indian Mahatma Gandhi fought for - our independence,” he said.

 

That his post struck a chord in many peoples minds is proved by the overwhelming response that it drew, over 300 in just a day. The post drew both flowers and brickbats; though most of the netizens seemed to agree with Vinesh’s views.

- - - - - - - - - -Interactives - - - - - - - - - -

-Interviews with top politicians

- Join Group: Elections 2004 I Infographics

- Congratulate Sonia Gandhi

- Poll Pundit's Blog I Create Blog

- Full Coverage: LS Polls 2004

- Why did India vote the way it did? Join Discussion

 

Sridhar said “Yes, I agree with this article. It is very silly that we can't find an Indian to rule us!”

 

Sanjiv, on the other hand felt that there was no harm in making her a PM. “The moment we decided to give her citizenship is the moment we gave her the right to speak up aloud that she is an Indian and that she can vote and hold any office in the Indian Constitutional processes,” he said.

 

Nithya, who claimed who have unearthed some ‘information’ on Sonia Gandhi which showed her true colours, wrote a detailed comment, adding, “a citizen of such doubtful credentials should not be given such a coveted position of the PM.”

 

Drona, however felt that “it is a sheer coincidence that Rajiv Gandhi’s wife is an Italian. Had she been an Indian no body would have ever raised any voice. This is clearly a mandate for Sonia, come what one may say.”

 

A Nationalist felt that “This is a humiliation and an insult to the vast majority of Indians.”

 

Indian-Banglorian had a different view. “We praise and give away the highest honour to Mother Teresa (a foreigner) and never doubt the work that she did for India.” So he felt that Sonia should be given a chance.

 

Rajan commented that “the Congress which fought against the Britishers has surrendered India to an Italian.”

 

Mukesh, on the other hand, felt that “the author should admire the grit and determination of this lady who despite all caustic slurs and ridiculing continued to fight all odds and touched the heart of the masses.”

 

 

[gHari]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/05/13/india.gandhi.profile.ap/index.html

[theist]

it seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

[krsna]

India colonised again!

 

By S Gurumurthy

Monday, 17 May , 2004, 10:51

 

The unthinkable has happened. The Italian-born Sonia Gandhi will be the prime minister. Many who have nothing to do with politics feared this for long. They have nothing against Ms Gandhi. For them the issue is India's identity, its pride. Will she add to India's pride as its PM? Never, they feel, and rightly. This is their pain. E-mails from hundreds of Indians living tens of thousand miles away from their motherland, in the US, show how they are shocked and pained at a foreigner being the PM. |

 

They feel it is an insult to the soul of India, and to their own souls. Millions and millions of Indians, otherwise apolitical, agonise as they have no one to articulate their inner feelings to. For them, it is no change of government. It is a psychological conversion of India into a colony. Their unaddressed question is: Could we not find one man or one woman from over a billion Indians to lead India? The entire political class is silent. Nor has the intellectual class any answer. The media thinks raising the issue is narrow-mindedness. One needs guts to say today that only an Indian can head India. This adds to their pain.

 

Undeniably, it is national humiliation that a foreign-born will be the prime minister. But Ms Gandhi is not to be faulted for this. What encouraged her even to aspire to be the prime minister of a country, the second-most populous with unprecedented complexities? Ms Gandhi, who came to India as a housewife, must have developed the ambition to rule India in a manner close to how the British, who came to India as traders, developed their ambitions to be the rulers. |

 

The British saw the Indian kings and nawabs vying with one another to invite them to undo each other. This is precisely what happened within the Congress party after P V Narasimha Rao. The Congressmen, who would not allow one among them to emerge as the leader, would rather invite her to be the leader, and did. So to eliminate Rao, Sitaram Kesri designated himself a dog of her family. To finish off Kesri, Arjun Singhs fell at her feet. It is these impotent men who made Ms Gandhi, who must have been a shy and apprehensive bahu in a totally strange country, ambitious enough to rule India.

 

Today, the secular parties are turning captive to Ms Gandhi like the Congressmen to install a 'secular' Government. Now these gentlemen have begun to talk about Ms Gandhi, very much like the Congress itself has been. They all just need short-term political power. That it irretrievably damages the idea of India is no issue to them. Many of them are just interested in power for now and in future for their children. |

 

Viewed critically, she is not the issue. The real issue is the thought that made it possible for her to become what she is. What is wrong if a foreign-born became the prime minister? After all, she is legally a citizen. This constitutes elite and secular India's thinking. That this trivialised India of the rishis, that it demeaned India of a Swami Vivekananda, does not bother them. For them, India is just a geographic construct based on legal and social contract. For them, a Maharishi Aurobindo's conviction that this ancient nation is the physical version of parashakti and its soul is Sanatana dharma is merely a myth.

 

For them, the ancient Indian traditions are a burden, a problem, a baggage to be unloaded. This thought is the issue. Unless, those who believe in the spirit of India, take this thought head on that Ms Gandhi, who will be the first foreign-born prime minister of India may not be the last. Rahul, who like Rajiv Gandhi may become the general secretary of the Congress and is being groomed as the successor to her mother, is set to marry a foreign national. So, this demeaning thought will not stop with Ms Gandhi. |

 

This can be countered only by arousing the spirit of India which was the drive of the freedom movement. In the first freedom movement, we became free to think and act independently, but we never turned the freedom into Independence. Will the spirit of our freedom movement manifest again to make the free India really independent India?

 

 

[Guest guest]

Not by birth, but by qualification. 600,000,000 votes, and they complain? At least india has a democracy, unlike the US.

 

I wish her well, and she is indian, her husband is indian, her children are indian. Now if she were from texas, I might have trouble, but italians are cool.

 

What about that japanese guy who was prez of peru, or all dem german nazis who ran paraguay, uruguay, argentina, etc.

 

Wish her well, mudmon

[Guest guest]

by heritage or only marriage and adoption of the Indian culture?

[Guest guest]

She was born in Bharatavarsa, how much more indian is that. And did yall know that India was born in africa, but ran away back during King Prthus time and slammed right into the himalayas. And it left a few comets behind like Sri Lanka and Madagascar.

 

And marriage is not "just" marriage, it is two folks living as one, so rajiv was Italo-indian, and his wife is italo-indian.

 

Samosas and pizza, who could ask for anything more. 600,000,000 cant all be idiots.

 

Im indian too, nez perce indian, and joseph has culture as well.

 

haribol, mahak

[krsna]

The Puri pandas and not gonna stand for any white western lady to desecrate the temple,are they?

 

She don't look indjin one bit.

 

She looks like a mafia lady married to the Godfather!

[krsna]

Newly elected Congress Party Members of Parliament (MP'S) celebrate and shout slogans

 

Time is GMT + 8 hours

Posted: 18 May 2004 0147 hrs

 

Sonia Gandhi to be sworn in as India's PM on Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

NEW DELHI : Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi will be sworn in as Indian prime minister, it was announced at the end of a tumultuous day Monday in which the stock market crashed and her communist allies opted not to join her coalition.

 

"I am announcing this today that she will be taking the oath on the 19th," said A.B. Bardhan, leader of the Communist Party of India which is allied with Gandhi's Congress.

 

Advertisement

 

 

Speculation had mounted that 57-year-old Gandhi would decline the prime ministership after the communists said they would only support, not join, the government and the defeated Hindu nationalists said they would boycott her swearing-in because she was not Indian by birth.

 

"One TV channel tried to spread the rumour. It is totally wrong," Bardhan told a packed news conference at Gandhi's residence in central New Delhi.

 

Bardhan said that leaders of all Gandhi's allies rushed to her home after the rumour had spread.

 

For two-and-a-half hours, she was closeted with her allies in her house while all 145 newly-elected Congress MPs waited on the lawns outside for "an important announcement".

 

At the end of the meeting, party leaders Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee trooped in and announced that Gandhi would be meeting President Abdul Kalam on Tuesday to formally seek permission to form the new government.

 

The day began with a bloodbath on the Bombay Stock Exchange, which took the unprecedented step of stopping trade twice after a sharp drop on jitters about economic policy under Gandhi, who will rely on communists to maintain a parliamentary majority.

 

The bourse's 30-share benchmark index plunged almost 11 percent soon after opening and after a one-hour freeze tumbled again to 15.52 percent down from last week's close.

 

The market ended the day 11.13 percent or 564.71 points down at 4,505.16 despite a slight recovery after leftists said they would not join the government and Congress assured it supported business.

 

It was the biggest intra-day point fall in the bourse's history and largest plunge from a previous day's close since 1992.

 

Venkaiah Naidu, president of the defeated Bharatiya Janata Party, said outgoing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would be the only party member to attend the oath-taking of Gandhi, who is the widow of slain former premier Rajiv Gandhi.

 

"Had it been any other leader, we would have had no problem," Naidu told reporters.

 

"We are not going to leave this issue. We are going to keep this alive," Naidu said of Gandhi's Italian roots.

 

Bardhan said the defeated Hindu nationalists' position was a "deliberate attempt to destabilise India's democratic and parliamentary system".

 

Arun Jaitley, a senior BJP leader and outgoing commerce minister, said the chaos on the market was due to "certain outlandish statements by leaders of left parties".

 

"The BJP believes that governance is very serious business," Jaitley said.

 

But Ashok Lahiri, the outgoing government's chief economic adviser, told investors there was "no reason for panic" as the economy's fundamentals were "very strong".

 

Arundhati Roy, a leading novelist and leftist activist, had noted that only a tiny minority of Indians invested in the stock market and urged Gandhi to push ahead with her mandate.

 

"It's a blatant game. If you look at the television coverage, I keep on seeing them calling people from the stock market. But I haven't seen one farmer asked, 'Why did you vote for this government?'" Roy had told AFP

 

 

[Guest guest]

"She was born in Bharatavarsa, how much more indian is that. And did yall know that India was born in africa, but ran away back during King Prthus time and slammed right into the himalayas. And it left a few comets behind like Sri Lanka and Madagascar."

 

 

Uh, what are you talking about? I thought Sonia Gandhi was an ITALIAN. Nor do I understand your whole issue with India and Africa, but I'll say this: a foreigner should NOT be leading India. It would never happen in the U.S. It would never happen anywhere else, aside from India.

 

Where's the Indian patriotism, their national pride? There's nothing great about failure for having one of your own people to represent you in the world and lead you on. In this case, this is exactly what has happened, with Sonia Gandhi, a foreigner being the one to represent India, even though she isn't even Indian, only married to one.

 

[theist]

>>It would never happen in the U.S. It would never happen anywhere else, aside from India. <<

 

Well in the US we have a law that the President must have been born here. But we do have a Hungarian born govenor of California.

 

 

[krsna]

 

 

 

Arnie is a Nazi from Hitler's home country.

[theist]

Oh yahhh, that's right. But he is no Nazi.

[krsna]

Sonia Gandhi turns down PM post

 

 

Sonia Gandhi supporters plead for her to become PM

India's Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi says she will not be the country's next prime minister.

"I must humbly decline this post," she told shocked Congress party MPs, just days after a surprise election win.

 

Mrs Gandhi, whose mother-in-law Indira and husband Rajiv were assassinated, said she faced no threat but had never set out to be prime minister.

 

Stock markets have been volatile since the defeat of the governing BJP, which has criticised her Italian origins.

 

Congress party MPs are expected to meet on Wednesday with some reports saying Mrs Gandhi will nominate her preferred candidate for the post of prime minister.

 

It is not clear if the MPs would simply accept her decision or take a vote on it.

 

'Conscience'

 

Mrs Gandhi's emotional announcement late on Tuesday sparked uproar among Congress MPs and there were emotional scenes in parliament's central hall in Delhi as they pleaded with her to reconsider.

 

Mrs Gandhi went into little detail about her decision.

 

 

I never wanted to be the prime minister and that was never my intention

 

Sonia Gandhi

 

 

Gandhi speech - excerpts

In pictures: Indian uproar

The man tipped as next PM

 

She told her MPs she had decided to listen to her "inner voice".

 

"I must abide by the principles that have guided me all along. I appeal to you to understand the force of my conviction.

 

"There is no threat to me from anywhere. I want to give India a secular government that is strong and stable."

 

Angry and upset Congress MPs told her millions of voters had given her a mandate to govern and urged her to ignore attacks over her foreign birth.

 

One tearful MP, Renuka Choudhury, told Mrs Gandhi it was the party's request "that you continue to lead us, because it is the need of the hour".

 

"Not just for women, not just for children, but as a human being who has upheld the finest tradition of what it means to be an Indian."

 

Markets rallied on the rumours of Mrs Gandhi's decision and reports that the architect of India's reform programme, Manmohan Singh, was being tipped as a front-runner to be prime minister.

 

Day of rumours

 

Mrs Gandhi's announcement capped another day of drama in the Indian capital, which began with her going to see President APJ Kalam.

 

You cannot betray the people of India

 

Mani Shankar Aiyar, Congress MP

 

 

Shares rise after pounding

She emerged from the meeting saying she needed more time to form a coalition government, but added she would return to see the president on Wednesday with letters of support from her allies.

 

She said a swearing-in ceremony would take place "as soon as possible".

 

The unexpected delay sparked fresh speculation that she was in two minds about being prime minister - and Congress MPs and party allies fed the rumours all afternoon.

 

Large crowds of Mrs Gandhi's supporters converged on her home in Delhi chanting: "Long live Sonia Gandhi."

 

One even threatened to commit suicide if she refused to become the prime minister.

 

 

 

Sonia - a life in pictures

The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty

The defeated Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has led attacks on Mrs Gandhi's foreign origins, promising to boycott any swearing-in ceremony.

 

One former minister, Sushma Swaraj, even said she would resign from parliament and shave her head as a sign of protest.

 

But non-BJP politicians and the Indian media have attacked the party for its stand. The Times of India said in an editorial that voters had rejected what it described as the BJP's "mindless xenophobia".

 

Shares rally

 

Reports that Mrs Gandhi was considering turning down the job of prime minister were a factor in Indian shares rebounding dramatically.

 

A day after its biggest fall, the benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index recorded its biggest gain in a single day's trading - up 371 points, more than 8%.

 

Monday's stock market crash was a result of investor fears that the Communists would block economic reforms - especially privatisation of state-owned companies.

 

The Congress party has promised the financial community it has nothing to fear.

 

The party's victory in the general election came as a surprise.

 

The BJP and its allies had been widely expected to win on the strength of a buoyant economy and peace moves with Pakistan.

 

Congress has the support of some 320 MPs in the 543-member house. Communists, the party's biggest allies, have said they would back Mrs Gandhi but not formally join her government.

 

 

[Guest guest]

I can't believe how superficial some of this BJP rhetoric is. Pride is one thing, being an idiot is another.

[Guest guest]

To the ignorant who think nationalism, I used the word Bharatavarsa to cleanse you of your small nationalistic, racist, thinking. Bharatavarsa is the entire world, and the ugliness displayed for someone who has lost two family members to your purist ignoraNCE yet still steps up to try to make your nation better just apalls me.

 

Maybe you want hindu nationalists, to fight the muslims who fight other muslims, and then kill christian fanatics and jew fanatics, well, go blow yourself up with your small materialistic consciousness.

 

I think shes a swell person, and dedicated to make the largest democracy on earth work.

 

mahak

[vanamali]

Well anyway, Sonia Gandhi is not going to be PM now.

[gHari]

She's no good to anyone dead.

 

[Guest guest]

"To the ignorant who think nationalism, I used the word Bharatavarsa to cleanse you of your small nationalistic, racist, thinking. Bharatavarsa is the entire world, and the ugliness displayed for someone who has lost two family members to your purist ignoraNCE yet still steps up to try to make your nation better just apalls me.

 

Maybe you want hindu nationalists, to fight the muslims who fight other muslims, and then kill christian fanatics and jew fanatics, well, go blow yourself up with your small materialistic consciousness.

 

I think shes a swell person, and dedicated to make the largest democracy on earth work.

 

mahak"

 

 

Who said I was a purist? Who said I was against someone non-Hindu being prime minister? Who said I wanted someone brown-skinned to be PM?

 

I said none of that, so why do you assume that's what I mean?

 

She isn't Indian though. She wasn't born in India, she may have adopted the culture, and there are no doubt Indians who are far less "Indian" than she is. However, I do think it's odd and rather disappointing that an INDIAN cannot lead their own country.

 

At the same time, if she did become Prime Minister, I wouldn't have been as distraught as you would like to think. I would be accepting of the way things are and just let it be. There is a good side to her becoming PM after all, in showing that India can transcend racial, religious, and nationalist boundaries like no other country has been able to yet.

 

By the way, maybe YOU should think before you speak, since you've jumped to conclusions about me that are way off base.

 

As for this whole world being Bharatvarsha once, where's the proof of that? And why do you call it Bharatvarsha? Are you claiming this whole world to be India at one point? Are you claiming the Vedas are the purest truth? Just what is your reasoning for calling this whole world Bharatvarsha?

[Guest guest]

I think it's sad that there were death threats against her. While I feel she shouldn't be Prime Minister of India, I don't nearly feel it THAT strongly, and I fully recognize the free will given to her to become PM.

 

Even though I find it sad, I can't say I'm surprised by it though. In America, people would go nuts if a JEW let alone an Indian became president. It's considered the land of opportunities, but those opportunities are limited as far as I can see. At least India had a vote and the voters proved they were beyond such petty differences.

 

And I'll agree my desire for an Indian to be PM is materialistic, but that is how the world works anyway at least in this age.

[Guest guest]

where can i find when the prime minister became prime minister its so hard at collage studing it soooo hard

[Avinash]

Do you want to know when Dr. Manmohan Singh became prime minister? Or, do you want to know about any prime minister?