
May 9: Sonia Gandhi today lashed out at Narendra Modi, who had taunted her on her Italian origins, and said what she has always wanted to say in public: "I was born in Italy and I am not ashamed of it, but India is my home and my country."
The outburst comes amid a campaign against her by the BJP on the AgustaWestland deal and a day after Modi alleged that an Italian court had named her in the case. The Prime Minister was quoted by PTI as asking at a rally in Thiruvananthapuram: "Madam Soniaji... Do you have anyone known to you in Italy? Do you have relatives in Italy? Have you gone to Italy?"
Sonia's answer came at an election meeting in the same city: "Yes I was born in Italy. I came to India in 1968 as the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi. I have spent 48 years of my life in India, this is my home. This is my country.
"For all of my 48 years here, the RSS, BJP and other parties taunted me to shame me for my birth. I was born to proud and honest parents. I will never be ashamed of them. Yes I have relatives in Italy. I have a 93-year-old mother and two sisters. But it is here in my country India, it is in its earth that the blood of my loved one is mingled. It is here that I will breathe my last and it is here that my ashes will mingle with those of my loved ones.
"The Prime Minister... cannot take the truth away from my commitment and my love for India, my country."
Sources close to the Congress president said she has been deeply upset by the "realisation" that her opponents did not appear keen to get to the truth on the helicopter deal but were using it to run a campaign against her centred on how someone born in Italy had allegedly compromised national security.
A source close to Sonia told The Telegraph that the Congress chief had said she would not let them (BJP-RSS) take away her " jama poonji" (wealth) of the good name and goodwill she had earned through "integrity, sacrifice and suffering".
The sources said that after Rajiv Gandhi took over as Prime Minister in 1984, Sonia and her children almost gave up their annual holiday to Italy. Instead, Sonia's sisters Anushka and Nadia would visit Delhi along with mother Paola Maino. Paola was spotted many times buying vegetables at Khan Market with granddaughter Priyanka.
The sources also recalled that when a visiting Italian dignitary spoke to Sonia in Italian on a visit during the UPA years, she responded in English and signalled to the interpreter to translate her words into Italian.
In the past two years, Sonia's mother Paola has been in and out of hospital in the US and then in Italy but Sonia has not been able to spend much time with her other than a meeting in the US.
For old-timers, Sonia's outburst at Thiruvananthapuram was a reminder of her first "political speech" days after Sharad Pawar, P.A. Sangma and Tariq Anwar had raised the banner of revolt against her on the grounds of her foreign origins.
On May 25, 1999, Sonia had told Congress workers at Delhi's Talkatora stadium: "I became a daughter-in-law, a mother and a widow in India." She had added: "When my opponents say I am a foreigner, I don't reply. I believe the Indian public will give them a fitting reply."
Seventeen years on, Sonia said she was confident the people of Kerala would "understand her feelings".
Till late tonight, Congress leaders were wondering if the emotional outburst would make a political impact in the May 16 polls in the state where the party is pitted against the Left Democratic Front.
Sonia dedicated the bulk of her speech to attacking Modi, and spoke only briefly about the Left.
"I'm told he (Modi) questioned what development has taken place in the last so many years here. I challenge him to show us at least one BJP-ruled state that has a better health and better educational achievement than Kerala," she said.
"Prime Minister Modi has been in government for two years, but we never hear any precise account of the BJP government's achievements.... He promised lakhs and lakhs of jobs, he promised money in your bank accounts, he promised that he will decrease prices of essential commodities. Not one of his promises has been fulfilled. Two years ago, the price of Dal was about Rs 70. Today it has touched Rs 150," she charged.
On CPM-led Left Democratic Front, which is the Congress's main rival in the state, she said: "The threat to the future of Kerala is not only from the Modi government but also from the LDF. The LDF believes in violence, in disruptions, it has done everything possible to prevent the success of the UDF government but failed.... Their politics of violence, of brutality had crippled industry, had disillusioned the people, but today the people of Kerala have seen a government which can govern, a government which works."