Emotional crowds sit in dharna outside
Sonia's house
New
Delhi: Frenzied supporters of the Congress party continued
their protests for the second consecutive day on Wednesday
in support of their president Sonia Gandhi urging her to
reconsider her decision after she refused the Prime Minister's
post. Hundreds of them have been camping outside Sonia's
residence, raising pro-Sonia slogans, in an attempt to persuade
her to revoke her decision. Police had tough time controlling
emotional crowds as they thronged a stream of leaders shuttling
to Gandhi's residence for consultations on her nominee.
Congress spokesperson Ambika Soni said party executive quit
their party posts to show solidarity with the party rank
and file. "Last night all members of the Congress Working
Committee and All India Congress Committee handed over their
resignations to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, who along with hundreds
of thousands of supporters are urging her to rethink her
decision of not becoming the Prime Minister," Soni told
reporters.
Fifty-seven-year old Sonia's decision has thrown the party
into turmoil and delayed the formation of a new government.
In Kashmir, party activists shouted-pro Sonia and anti-BJP
slogans, which raised her foreign origin issue. Abdul Ghani
Vakil, vice-president of the state unit of the Congress,
said: "We appeal to her that it is in favour of Jammu and
Kashmir that a member of the Nehru family comes to power.
Since Indira or Rajiv died, the situation in Kashmir valley
worsened." Political pundits say Sonia's children, son Rahul
and daughter Priyanka, asked her to back out in the face
of fears of a threat to her life from Hindu extremists,
opposed to her Italian birth. Rahul and Priyanka's father,
former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, died a brutal death
at the hands of a Tamil suicide bomber while campaigning
for an election in the summer of 1991. Millions of Indians
still remember a grief-stricken Sonia and Rahul standing
pensively as the flames from Rajiv's funeral pyre leapt
into the sky. It wasn't the first violent death in the Gandhi
family, who many say are struck by the "Kennedy curse":
Rajiv's mother, Indira, was shot dead by her own security
guards in 1984.
Sonia
Gandhi, the daughter of a Turin builder who married into
India's first family more than 30 years ago, cradled her
dying mother-in-law's as she was taken to hospital. Nearly
20 years after Indira's killing, the image of a bespectacled
teenage Rahul sobbing in his father's arms at his grandmother's
funeral is still etched in the memory of millions. Indira's
younger son and favoured heir, Sanjay, was killed when the
small plane he was flying crashed. The Gandhi name has always
spelled magic in India. The Gandhi-Nehru dynasty, India's
Kennedys, have ruled India for 35 of the 57 years the country
has been independent: Rajiv Gandhi was the son of former
prime minister Indira Gandhi and grandson of Jawaharal Nehru,
the first prime minister. But Sonia, 57, could not follow
in her husband and mother-in- law's footsteps. As a tearful
Sonia listened to party members pleading with her to reconsider
her decision on Tuesday, her children watched despondently
in the teak-panelled parliament hall with life-sized portraits
of former prime ministers, including Rajiv and Indira. It
also wasn't an easy decision for Sonia as it was the enduring
appeal of the Gandhi dynasty that revitalised India's grand
old Congress party after nearly eight years in the cold.
Just weeks ago, people did not give Gandhi a ghost of a
chance of forming a government in the world's largest democracy.
But the allure of the Gandhi name worked like a charm.
Indira
Gandhi was one of India's most influential prime ministers,
and the once reclusive Sonia seems to have modelled herself
on her mother-in-law. Sonia uses the same "Jai Hind" chant
favoured by Indira to end her speeches, she wears handspun
cotton saris like Indira and even adopts a similar walk,
wave and manner. The entry into politics of her charismatic
children gave the party a boost, but at the end of the day
it was Sonia's tireless campaigning despite relentless attacks
on her foreign origin. Sonia, dubbed the new "Mrs G", as
her mother-in-law was popularly called, always ignored the
attacks and kept up a gruelling campaign pace to prop up
her party's sagging fortunes.
Sonia's inner voice 'bamboozles' Marxists (Go
To Top)
by Gautam Ghosh
Kolkata:
The CPI(M), the largest "secular ally" of the Congress,
has been taken aback by Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi's
decision not to accept the Prime Minister's post despite
unanimity among the parties concerned over her selection
for the top job. The Marxists do not believe that Sonia
Gandhi was solely guided by her "inner voice" in declining
to accept the post. The party, which has been trying its
best to prop up a Congress-led secular government at the
Centre under Mrs Gandhi's leadership, feels there are several
other factors which have prompted her to take the amazing
decision. The Congress chairperson's refusal to become the
country's new Prime Minister has come as a bolt from the
blue to the CPI(M) moderates, particularly general secretary
H.S. Surjeet and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti
Basu. The veteran Marxists, who have an extremely cordial
personal relationship with Mrs Gandhi, find her decision
quite incredible.
While
Surjeet has declined comment on the sudden change in the
Congress chairperson's attitude, Basu has described her
stand as "funny." The veteran politburo member, who told
mediapersons in Delhi yesterday that Mrs Gandhi's decision
was the outcome of pressure from her family members, did
not try to conceal his dismay over the matter on his return
here late last night. "She says her inner voice does not
want her to become the Prime Minister. What does it mean?
We are really surprised," he said. CPI(M) leaders have also
pointed out that "personal security" cannot be the reason
behind Mrs Gandhi's refusal to accept the coveted office.
They take pains to stress how she and her children ignored
their personal security during their hurricane election
campaign. "We have also seen how his son and newly elected
MP Rahul Gandhi offered her flowers in the Parliament to
congratulate her after being elected leader of the Congress
Parliamentary party. Had Rahul and his sister Priyanka any
objection to their mother becoming the Prime Minister, why
did not they say so in the beginning? Why did they raise
objections at the eleventh hour?" the CPI(M) leaders ask.
The
Marxists feel Sonia Gandhi's decision not only indicates
an "abject surrender" to the Sangh Parivar's threat to start
a mass movement over her "foreign origin" but will also
send wrong signals to thousands of Congress workers who
want her to be the country's new Prime Minister. The state
CPI(M) organ, "Ganashakti," in its main editorial today
reminded the Congress that its surrender to the Sangh Parivar's
pressure tactic "will only lend additional strength to communal
forces." The CPI(M) has also taken serious exception to
Doordarshan's direct telecast of the CPP meeting where the
crucial issue was discussed. "It showed how the elected
Congress MPs were being forced to accept a new leader despite
their insistence on Sonia Gandhi becoming the Prime Minister.
The Doordarshan officials have only succeeded in depicting
the Congress as a party ridden with internal conflicts,"
a Delhi-based report, published in the CPI(M) mouthpiece
today, said.
The
Marxists suspect that some major industrial houses and a
section of the BJP leadership manipulated the share market
during the past couple of days to discredit the proposed
secular government dependent on their support. The CPI(M)
is particularly wary of Dr Manmohan Singh becoming the Prime
Minister despite its apparent decision to support the person
the Congress will finally select in place of Mrs Gandhi.
The CPI(M) was extremely critical of Singh in the past for
his role as the union finance minister in the Narasimha
Rao Cabinet. The party used to regard Singh as "pro-World
Bank and pro-IMF" and often opposed the measures he took
from time to time to pave the way for economic reforms which
were later carried forward by the BJP-led NDA government
at a faster pace. The Congress chairperson's decision has
also come as a rude shock to the state party leadership.
"We all want her to put on the Prime Minister's mantle and
lead the country to the path of peace and progress," said
Manas Bhuniya, PCC general secretary. A section of Congress
leaders staged a dharna at the party headquarters here last
night, urging Mrs Gandhi to re-consider her decision. They
also burnt the effigies of BJP leader Sushma Swaraj and
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharati for raking up
the issue of the Congress chairperson's "foreign origin."
Samajwadi Party not to join Cong-led
government (Go
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New
Delhi: Samajwadi Party has decided not to join the Congress-led
government at the Centre but will extend outside support
like the Left parties. SP general secretary Amar Singh told
newsmen here on Wednesday he met CPI-M general secretary
Harkishen Singh Surjeet this morning and told him the SP
would follow CPM in not joining the Government but extend
outside support. Amar Singh said a fresh letter of support
to a Congress-led Government was not required as the party
had already given a letter to President A P J Abdul Kalam.
Manmohan - the father of Indian reforms
(Go
To Top)
New
Delhi: He has neither the charisma nor the political
legacy of the famous Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Yet in a dramatic
twist of events in India on Wednesday, former finance minister
Manmohan Singh, a soft-spoken economist- turned- politician,
emerged as the Congress party's front-runner for the prime
minister's job. Singh's rise came after Sonia Gandhi, the
Congress leader, walked away from the post to protect the
party from damaging attacks over her Italian birth. Sonia,
the widow of slain former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, led
Congress to a stunning general election victory and was
front- runner for the post of premier. As news that the
pro-reform Singh might be the next prime minister filtered
out on Tuesday, India's main stock index rebounded sharply
and recorded one of its biggest gains, a day after its biggest
one-day dive due to doubts about the new government's economic
policies.
Singh,
a 71-year old former bureaucrat who was finance minister
from 1991 to 1996, is seen as the father of Indian reforms,
the man who steered the economy away from socialism to embrace
free market capitalism. He sought to calm markets after
Tuesday's slump, saying the new government would push ahead
with economic reforms and ensure Asia's third-largest economy
grew at more than seven percent. Analysts reacted cautiously
to the prospect of Singh as prime minister. "He is known
to be the architect of reforms, and he did a wonderful job
at the time of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. So they have
confidence in him, because they know him, and because he
has a long track record," said Prem Shankar Jha. Although
Singh has kept a low profile over the past few years, the
grey-bearded economist is still remembered for decisively
changing India's inward-looking economic agenda and taking
the growth rate from two-to-three percent to an average
of six percent.
However, Singh was always an unlikely politician, who was
trounced in a parliamentary election in 1999. In fact, he
has never won an election and sits in the upper house. Instead,
the man who has held a string of plum assignments including
that of central bank governor, has always been seen as a
Gandhi family loyalist. "Mrs. Gandhi is the undisputed leader
of our party... She has done a brilliant job of restoring
people's faith in the Congress party. She would make a very
good prime minister," he said in an interview five years
ago. "She's very rational, straightforward, humane. She's
a good president of Congress." A reluctant entrant into
politics and widely viewed as one of the few honest public
figures in India, Singh was first drawn upon by Congress
leaders to refurbish the image of a party whose fortunes
were sagging due to rampant dissension, cronyism and blind
loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Born
into a poor Sikh family in Punjab, Manmohan Singh won scholarships
to Cambridge and Oxford, earning a doctorate with a thesis
on the critical role of exports and free trade in India's
economy. After more than a decade of teaching at Indian
universities, Singh served a stint at the United Nations,
followed by several top government jobs, including a term
as central bank chief. In 1991, then prime minister P.V.
Narasimha Rao offered him the finance ministry and the chance
to rescue a sickly economy threatened by an acute balance
of payments crisis. Swapping a bureaucrat's trouser-and-shirt
outfit for a politician's home-spun white kurta-pyjama,
Singh as finance minister moved decisively in the initial
years, opening up the economy to foreign investment and
slashing trade barriers. But his drive slowed within two
years as political battles forced the government to cut
deals with various interest groups.
Manmohan's family rejoices (Go
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Amritsar:
Family members of Prime Minister-elect Mammohan Singh
are overjoyed with the prospect of having him as the country's
next prime minister. Seventy-one year old Singh is the most
likely consensus candidate for the Prime Minister's post
after Congress president Sonia Gandhi refused to take the
job. In Amritsar, where Singh has lived for about 15 years,
suddenly woke up to the news that he is tipped as the next
prime minister. There was rejoicement in the family which
has been receiving several congratulatory calls from friends
and well-wishers on Singh likely to be sworn in as India's
first Prime Minister from the Sikh community. "I am feeling
on top of the world. I am feeling great," said Narender
Singh, sister of the former finance minister. Singh's relatives
could not stop raving about the news and said that his getting
elected to the country's top job would greatly benefit the
Sikh community.
"It is a matter of pride that a person of our religion (Sikhism)
has attained such a high post. It will also help us promote
Sikhism. People will be able to know what Sikhism is. And
plus he is a reformist," said Santosh Singh, a relative.
"The 1984 riots were organised riots. By appointing Manmohan
Singh as the next prime minister, it will be a healing touch
to those riots," said Harminder Singh, another relative.
Thousands of Sikhs were massacred in 1984 following the
assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her
bodyguards who belonged to the community. Manmohan Singh,
a member of Rajya Sabha of the parliament, has held the
post of the finance minister from 1991- 1996, apart from
being the governor of apex Reserve Bank of India. Since
its humiliating loss in last week's election, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) has run a bitter campaign against Gandhi
because of her Italian background, with BJP leaders threatening
to quit parliament and tonsure their heads in protest. Left-wing
parties, with more than 60 seats, who are opposed to reforms,
are supporting Gandhi's decision to anoint Singh despite
the fact that he ushered reforms in the socialist oriented
ecomony in 1991 under a different Congress government. Gandhi,
57 and an Indian citizen, would have been the country's
first foreign-born leader and the fourth PM from the Nehru-Gandhi
dynasty that controls the Congress, ruler of India for most
of the five decades since independence.
President invites Manmohan to form Govt
(Go
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New
Delhi: President APJ Abdul Kalam on Wednesday invited
prime minister-designate Manmohan Singh to form the next
Congress-led government. Emerging from a meeting Manmohan
Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had with the President
at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the PM-elect told reporters that
he would inform the President about the swearing-in date
later. Kalam extended the invitation to Singh after a 15-minute
meeting with him and Sonia Gandhi. Singh told reporters
that they made available to the President all documents
with regard to the support extended by various political
parties. Standing by his side, Sonia Gandhi said "I think
the country will be safe under Dr Manmohan Singh".
Earlier,
the Congress party elected former finance minister Manmohan
Singh as its parliamentary Party leader, effectively appointing
him as the next prime minister, state television reported.
Singh's name was forwarded by Sonia Gandhi. The decision
was taken at a closed-door meeting to endorse Singh's candidature
to lead a new coalition government after the shock defeat
of the BJP-led government. Television reports said Singh
meet President Abdul Kalam about 8 p.m., to say he was ready
to form a government after Gandhi, dropped out to protect
Congress from a campaign against her foreign origin. Senior
Congress
leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, before heading for the meeting,
said the members would make last minute efforts to persuade
Gandhi to revoke her decision. "All members of the Congress
party are going to have a one-on-one meeting with Madam
(Sonia Gandhi) to know her reservations and persuade her
to rethink her decision. This will be an informal meeting
and after that there might be a parliamentary meeting to
take future course of action," Aiyar told reporters outside
Gandhi's heavily-guarded house in Delhi. The unassuming
Singh, who launched India's free market reforms more than
a decade ago, has been front-runner to lead the world's
biggest democracy since Gandhi, widow of former prime minister
Rajiv Gandhi, stepped aside on Tuesday. Congress bosses
quit their party posts and trooped to Gandhi's home in a
last-ditch bid to persuade her to accept the job. But Gandhi,
who the Bharatiya Janata Party says should not hold the
top job because of her foreign origin, did not budge. Kalam's
approval of a Congress-led coalition is considered a formality
because the party is assured of the support of more than
320 members of the new 545-seat parliament.
India's
markets, spooked by anti-reform comments by left-wing parties
that are supporting Congress without formally joining its
coalition, welcomed the prospect of Singh's rise to power.
He would become India's first Sikh prime minister. The main
stock index closed 2.65 percent higher, crossing the psychological
5,000 level, on hopes Singh would lead Asia's third largest
economy. The Congress received a further boost after a southern
regional group said it would join its coalition government,
instead of simply supporting it from outside. The scholarly,
71-year-old Singh commands respect for his integrity and
intellect.
