SONIA, THE NEW QUEEN VICTORIA

One did not expect Left-liberals, geographically and culturally displaced as many of them they are, to join the dots crying to be put together. But the fact that their poor cousins across the fence have not noticed, or have pretended not to, gives an indication of how decisively the balance of power has shifted and got concentrated in the last few years.

The Wikileaks on Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are far more significant and, at a fundamental level, much more disturbing than appears at first glance. They confirm the belief of many that under the unquestioned leadership of the duo, a paradigm shift has taken place in the very idea of India. This change, cleverly disguised as political, is actually deeply cultural, even civilisational.

Although she rules India and has been in the spotlight for a long time, little is known about what and who Sonia Gandhi really is as a person, and what her beliefs and ideologies are, except that she an Italian by birth and a Roman Catholic by baptism. As per the leaked American Embassy cable, after meeting Sonia Maria Shriver comes away with an impression that she “presents an intriguing enigma of a warm private personality that remains concealed and is available only to her closest confidants and family members.” The same can be said about Rahul Gandhi too; few Indians know what his views are about anything, much less what his vision for India is, if there is any that is.

Vir Sanghvi, the belatedly exposed and disgraced on-hire “dresser” of stories, had, a few years back, given India a tiny first-hand peek into Sonia Gandhi’s mind when he quoted her as telling him that she abhorred the Hindu right. At that time it was only logically viewed by most as a continuation of the inherited political viewpoint of the secular Congress party, battling the BJP to rule India. But the same cannot be said now.

Shriver has unpeeled a very telling layer of Sonia Gandhi’s personality, one that explains why she took Indian citizenship only after Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, when her husband Rajiv Gandhi suddenly became India’s Prime Minister. As per Shriver, “despite her carefully erected India persona, her basic Italian personality is clearly evident in her mannerisms, speech and interests.” (italics mine)

The saree, the pallu, the well drafted speeches in Hindi and the few carefully choreographed interviews, then, are manifestations of political compulsion, not genuine interest in or understanding of India; Sonia's "Indianness" remains as notional as it was before 1984. Her “inherent opposition to the social conservatism of the Hindu right” likely flows from her European and Christian moorings. She is almost the new Roman Brahmin; her view is not simply political. But since it fits nicely with the manufactured secular-communal divide that is the bedrock of Congress party’s political strategy, the deceit has remained unnoticed by all except trusted Indian courtiers who have not talked.

Rahul Gandhi, Wikileaks all but confirms, is more a chip of the Italian block than of the family whose surname he carries.

Little is known about the young Gandhi’s religious and cultural beliefs. Publicly he has been saying that he is blind to religion and that the Indian flag is his religion. But, a couple of months back he gave a glimpse of his leanings when he shocked the whole nation by equating the RSS with the banned SIMI that eulogises Ghaznavi, rejects democracy and secularism, and aims, with the help of Pakistan and terror, to establish an Islamic state in the whole of India. A furore followed but died quickly, helped by a pliant media and the widespread perception that Rahul Gandhi is still a “baba”, who has much to learn.

But, this was not an isolated and immature political remark made to garner Muslim votes by playing down SIMI’s agenda that mirrors that of state sponsored/protected Pakistani outfits like the LeT. Rahul’s exaggerated abhorrence, as it were, for the Hindu right would have remained under the wraps but for Wikileaks. As per a leaked cable, US ambassador Roemer recalled Gandhi saying to him over lunch in 2009. "Although there was evidence of some support for Laskar-e-Taiba among certain elements in India's indigenous Muslim community, the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalised Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community."

This is difficult to believe, much less swallow. The Prime Minister and others have been saying for years that the greatest threat that India faces is from Maoists. The whole world is grappling with the threat of Islamist terror. India has been battling it for over two decades and thousands of innocent Indians have lost their lives in numerous terror attacks, the worst being 26/11. How can any informed Indian, much less a future PM, one who has access to information not available in the public domain, say – and that too not to Indians but a foreigner -- that a few radicalised Hindus are a greater threat to India than the LeT helped by some Indian Muslims, SIMI, IM etc? The only ones who will readily share this view are the Pakistanis and, let it be said, aggressive Christian missionaries, not to forget the liberals who are often – some unsuspectingly – the secular mask of the latter.

Arundhati Roy, daughter of a Hindu father and a Christian mother, articulates openly what Sonia and Rahul Gandhi cannot, for obvious reasons. Roy says India is not a sovereign, democratic, secular republic. She calls it is a corporate, Hindu satellite state, or an essentially upper caste Hindu state. The hatred for all things Hindu is unconcealed in her speeches and writings. She equates Hindu organisations – the “socially conservative” Hindu right of Sonia -- working for the upliftment of the tribals in Maoist affected areas with Nazis. She has not one to say word against the Christian NGOs and missionaries either doing the same and/or converting Hindus – Muslims they will not dare -- to Christianity in the jungles of Dandakaranya or anywhere else in the country. That is why she projects Maoists as fighting against a “Hindu” state, as she does Kashmiri Muslims, who she has convinced herself were discriminated against by their Hindu king before 1947.

In a similar vein, Digivjay Singh, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, and reportedly right hand man of Rahul Gandhi, has also been vocalising what the latter cannot in as many words. Initially, he mindlessly repeated what the original plan of Pakistan and some Indians was: 26/11 attack was a RSS conspiracy. Mind you, had Ajmal Kasab not been captured alive, this is what would have been passed off as the truth by the Congress party, much to Pakistan's glee. Although Singh backed off in the face of severe criticism, he continues to allege that ATS chief Hemant Karkare was under threat of and was shot by Hindu terrorists. He was snubbed by Karkare's widow and failed to provide any evidence of his claim that Karkare has rung him up about the danger he was facing. But this ex-royal has so lost his mind and integrity to his master that, tacitly encouraged by Rahul, he continues to try and make the RSS look a far more lethal and anti-India terror organisation then any that Pakistan has been able to produce till now, perhaps even more dangerous than the Al Qaida.

This battle is clearly not political and is not limited to the RSS or the Sangh parivar. The leader-inspired hatred is visceral, the kind no one today exhibits even for Pakistan which, in fact, is now being almost fawningly courted with an eye not just on Muslim votes but also to ensure that the deeper war against Hinduism itself is not challenged or deflected either socially or electorally. The message is unambiguous: if you speak of and for Hinduism beyond the four walls of your house, you are not just communal, you are radical, you are anti-national, you are a bigger threat than even the LeT to the new 'India' that Sonia is attempting to forge.

In sum, under Sonia’s rule, Hinduism is being subtly projected as oppressive, fascist, backward, anti-secular, even anti-Indian. No wonder Roy believes, and rightly so as is now evident, that Sonia and Rahul -- the “People’s Prince” as she calls him fondly -- are not part of this Hindu state. They are here to rid India of the Hindu tag. That is the new definition of secular. That is why things have come to such a pass that the moment anyone utters the word ”Hindu” positively, he becomes an untouchable; to pass muster as a secular Indian, you have to openly criticise everything Hindu, see no good in the religion, and do exactly the opposite in respect of Islam and Christianity. That is why, to give an example, the moment a Hindu swami is found having consensual sex, the media plays the tapes 24/7, hitting at the religion through the person. That is why when the entire Western media is full of news about pedophile Christian priests and questions the Pope on his handling of many such cases, the media, crawling and corrupt, blocks out the news totally. India’s tragedy is that its smug, deracinated, copy-cat zombies who influence public opinion either cannot see, or do not wish to, the insidious dynamics at work.

Sonia’s limited connect with, and interest in, India is manifestly driven by her desire to rule it, whatever it takes, and ensure that her son wears the crown. She has no time or respect for its ancient culture or any or its religions. May be a coincidence, but Priyanka’s husband is Robert, whose mother was of Scottish origin; the names of her two children, Raihan and Miraya, are not Indian. Rahul’s girlfriend, the one he is likely to marry, is a Columbian. The Nehru-Gandhi family is, for all practical purposes, now a European family. That is why, aided actively by a media populated by similarly cross-bred journalists, and a few Rajput royals, among others, selling their — and India’s -- souls again, another attempt is being made to uproot India from India, to erase it from this land, may be even partition it once again. Unbridled, unprincipled plunder, the tried and tested grease of the invader and coloniser, is again being effectively employed to create, buy, keep firmly in line greedy, myopic, even motherless tribal chieftains, and the throne secure.

Sonia, make no mistake, is the new Queen Victoria.
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