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Why Sonia skipped Communion - The Telegraph
Posted By Krishnakant Udavant (kkant@bom2.vsnl.net.in)15 September 1997
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Author:
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: September 15, 1997
Is Sonia Gandhi playing down her Roman Catholic origins? And if she is
doing so, then is this a prelude to a full-fledged entry into Indian
politics? The questions were raised after she refused to partake of a Holy
Communion at the memorial service for Mother Teresa at Netaji Indoor
Stadium on Saturday.
It is traditional for the priest to ask the congregation to join in
partaking of bread and wine - symbolising the flesh and blood of Christ -
after a Mass. However, Cardinal Sodano, the priest conducting the memorial
service, had only planned to offer Communion to the clergy. This plan was
hurriedly revised when France's First Lady, Ms Bernadette Chirac, asked for
her share of Communion. The priests then offered Communion to nearly a
hundred persons, including Sonia Gandhi. But Ms Gandhi politely declined
the offer.
Her behaviour in Calcutta is in sharp contrast to the enthusiasm with which
she greeted Pope John Paul II on his visit to India, when Rajiv Gandhi was
Prime Minister. On that occasion, Ms Gandhi's parents flew down from Italy
to be with her when she met the Pope. That visit attracted its share of
controversy. Mr Arun Nehru, then one of Rajiv Gandhi's advisers, has
claimed that Ms Gandhi turned against him because he tried to limit her
access to the Pope. Mr Nehru claimed that he prevented Ms Gandhi from
going to the airport to receive the Pontiff because she would have had to
kneel on the tarmac and kiss his ring - an act that was certain to attract
negative domestic publicity. In 1989, Mr Nehru's interviews indicated that
most of his problems with Rajiv Gandhi stemmed from the former's insistence
on action against Christian missionaries. According to Mr Nehru, Ms Gandhi
objected to the home ministry's deportation of missionaries, who had
overstayed their visas and was upset about a raid on the Bible Society of
India.
Neither Rajiv nor Sonia Gandhi ever responded to Mr Nehru's allegations but
Ms Sonia Gandhi is believed to have been irked by the charge that her
religious beliefs make her a controversial figure. Since the Pope's visit,
those beliefs remained private. She has never been photographed attending
Church. There was also no Christian component to her daughter Priyanka's
wedding earlier this year.
In fact, she has been known to snap at those who she believes are treating
her as a Christian. A former Rajiv aide recalls wishing her "Merry
Christmas" a few years ago not because he thought of her as a Christian but
only because he wished to give her entirely secular compliments of the
season. He was startled when she snapped back, "Why are you wishing me? I
am not that Christian".
The BJP has reacted to Ms Gandhi's entry into the political arena - she
became an ordinary member of the Congress a few months ago - by focussing
on her non-Indian origins. The old slogan of "Ram Raj versus Rome Raj" has
been revived, and should she contest the next general election, the Italian
and Roman Catholic issues are certain to resurface.
Ms Gandhi's response has been to emphasise her Indianness. She wears only
saris in public and her infrequent speeches are delivered in fluent, if
accented, Hindi.
New acquaintances who attempt to address her in Italian are firmly rebuffed
as she always responds in English. She has often said she likes only
Indian food now and finds Italian cuisine too bland.
Despite these efforts, the potential for embarrassment remains. Her
critics seized on the fact that her son-in-law is called Robert his mother
is a foreigner- though the match was not Ms Gandhi's idea. The Congress is
also apprehensive about the response that will greet the Italian restaurant
that Priyanka and her husband are expected to open in Delhi.
There are other causes for concern. It now appears certain that a chunk of
the Bofors pay-off to Ottavio Quattrochi, who is one of Ms Gandhi's oldest
friends. There is no evidence that the Gandhis shared the money, but the
Italian connection is an embarrassment.
Sometimes, critics seize on things the Gandhis take for granted. Three
years ago, Ms Gandhi edited Rajiv's World, a coffee-table book comprising
photographs shot by Rajiv Gandhi. Detractors gleefully noted the many
pictures of her Italian relatives as well as several informal shots of her
in Western dress, and pointed out that the only Indian whose picture
appeared in the book is Amitabh Bachchan.
In the circumstances, it is not difficult to see why Ms Gandhi was
unwilling to partake of Holy Communion in the glare of the television
cameras. Though many of those who accepted the bread and wine were not
Christians, Ms Gandhi probably recognised that what for others was an act
of solidarity and sympathy with Mother Teresa would be interpreted as a
purely religious - and therefore, political - act when she did it.
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