BOMBAY: The initial trepidation that a sympathy wave could build up following the assassination gave way to jubilation in BJP circles here when Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s unanimous election as Congress (I) president was announced in New Delhi on Tuesday evening.

Her rejection of the offer is being seen as a typical Congress (I) gimmick to orchestrate support from pliant party-men and then to announce that she had come around in deference to overwhelming support.

The state BJP leaders felt certain that Sonia Gandhi would not be able to cash in on the sympathy factor. For one thing, she is completely devoid of charisma.

It took the BJP little time to draw up a strategy to counter whatever sympathy the widowed leader would command. The first point would of course be the moral bankruptcy of a 106-year-old party which had to depend on yet another member of the Nehru Gandhi family to take them through the hosting’s.

The BJP propaganda mill was to expose the fact that despite all the talk of stability and experience the party couldn’t find a single seasoned leader to fill the void left by Rajiv Gandhi’s untimely death.

The party also thought of pointing out to the public that for all its bravado the party had to nominate a person with virtually no experience or understanding of politics to lead a party which was instrumental in getting the country its freedom and had been in power for over four decades.

The plan also envisaged playing up the dynastic factor and the lack of inner-party democracy in the Congress. The next point of course, was to be her citizenship. The party planned to drum up the tact that Sonia Gandhi accepted. Indian citizenship only to facilitate her husband’s entry into the corridors of power The party also planned to question why she did not accept Indian citizenship till 1980 even though she had been married Rajiv  Gandhi since 1968, “does this not make her loyalty to the nation suspect”, was the question the BJP wanted to pose to the electorate.

An alien personality

Subsequently, the BJP also wanted to point out to the nation that being a foreign-born and until 1980 (well past her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi in 1968) an Italian citizen, Sonia Gandhi had no comprehension of the complex nature of the Indian society and its multifarious social cultural and political issues.

Besides these two factors, the BJP top brass did a quick research of the various Italian connections and attendant scandals. These details were to be placed’ before the electorate through the BJP”s comprehensive propaganda machinery.

Prominent among the controversies would be the contracts offered to Snam Progetti and other Italian firms during Rajiv Gandhi’s regime primarily because of the interest shown by his in-laws. The BJP had also thought of exploiting the proximity of the representatives of these companies to the Gandhi’s when they could enter and leave the PM’s residence at will despite it being a high-security area.

The BJP’s industrial and wade cell experts also prepared detailed account of the companies (where Sonia Gandhi’s sisters’ husbands were involved) interests in the country and the manner in which they bagged two major contracts the HBJ pipeline from Bombay to Hazira and the fertilizer unit in Uttar Pradesh,

No wave expected

However, the BJP top brass in the state is at pains te point out that they were not really expecting a full-fledged wave like in the 1984 polls. Senior party leader Dharamchand argued unlike then there is an alternative available before the people. At that time it was after Indira who? Which is not the fact now Today we have leaders like L.K.Advani A.B. Vajpayee, Chandra Shekhar and V.P Singh who are in the forefront of national politics and are accepted by the general public.

Secondly, the genetic lineage was in Rajiv’s favor which is not so in the case of his wife. Also Rajiv Gandhi had been involved with the Congress for four years and was its general secretary when his mother died.

BJP leaders also point out Mrs Gandhi was killed for a cause that the people of the country identified with and approved of the Operation Bluestar which was seen as an action to ensure the unity of the country.

They also add that in 1984 Rajiv Gandhi was the acting Prime Minister and had full and’ total control of the official electronic media. This was not the case today as Chandra Shekhar, was unlikely to allow the exploitation of the media by Sonia Gandhi.

Choradia adds, today the Congress (I) cannot stand on the plank of stability when they couldn’t find a leader from within worth the name, When we go to the polls it is the BJP which has the best chance of offering a stable and efficient government through its rank and leadership.

When it was pointed out to the leaders that Sonia Gandhi had refused to lead the Congress (I) BJP functionaries were unperturbed. It is part of the Congress (I) process says a veteran leader and adds that it was just a temporary phase and it won’t be long before the sycophants in the Congress orchestrate the support and hysteria to force the lady to change her mind. She will accept the offer and lead the party. The Congress has no other option today.

Choradia asserted we are uniting for the announcement to come through.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 31, 1991