Even before runaway skeletons made her India’s most controversial Presidential candidate, Pratibha Patil earned fame as the most lustreless aspirant to this high office. Barring the slavish Congress party, none could whip up any enthusiasm for this ‘gender rabbit’ pulled out of the hat by the domineering UPA chairperson. Political parties supporting her nomination simply said the post belonged to the dominant coalition partner. A deafening silence greeted announcement of her name; in the furore that erupted after serious scandals grabbed national attention, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar made a formal defense, largely because the vanguard led by Priyaranjan Dasmunshi hugely offended public sentiments.
In the circumstances, the Gandhi family’s diminutive satellite was forced to speak for herself. As she boasted she was not a rubber stamp and aides revealed she twice refused to sign the Rajasthan anti-conversion bill (winning accolades from Pope Benedict XVI); as she denounced purdah as a consequence of Mughal atrocities while imitating the sartorial elegance of Indira Gandhi’s election time attire, one wondered if she was truly a dark horse or a Papally pre-ordained contender for whom the path was cleared by clever manipulation.
Among the early names ‘sounded’ was Harvard academic Amartya Sen, who won the Nobel Prize for obsolete intellectual posturing, the Bharat Ratna for getting the Nobel, and the gratitude of the Gandhi clan for protecting the secrets of Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s academic status. But Prof. Sen’s greatest asset proved his greatest liability – his wife is a Rothschild and the presence of a foreigner in Rashtrapati Bhavan would aggravate hostility towards Congress’ Northern Italian supremo.
After serious thinking while falsely projecting Mr. Pranab Mukerjee and Mr. Shivraj Patil, Ms. Gandhi decided she couldn’t take the risk, especially if she plans to get rid of Dr. Manmohan Singh and seize power directly, as the UP elections have shown that the dynasty is unlikely to get so close to power again. Interestingly, the British committee that decided Mr. Salman Rushdie’s knighthood – rightly perceived as an insult by the Islamic world – was also headed by a Rothschild. With hindsight, it is obvious that after the Second World War, the West quickly reorganized its intellectual, diplomatic and political-military arsenal to continue its quest for world dominion.
To return to Ms. Pratibha Patil, her USP is that she has no nationalist credentials and no empathy for India’s foundational ethos and native culture. Her sensitivities extend only to the faith of her Roman Catholic leader, to please whom she denied assent to the anti-conversion law, despite strong provocation by the Immanuel Mission in Kota and evangelists in Dangs. Ms. Patil was aware that similar laws have been passed by Congress regimes, the latest being Himachal Pradesh where conversion sprees and drug-laced moonlight parties by White tourists are polluting the environment. Her anti-Hindu act elevated her status with the Vatican and New Delhi.
Although the issue of Maharashtrian pride, originally mooted for Mr. Shivraj Patil, is being invoked for Ms. Patil, Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray would do well to consider if Ms. Patil has any regard for Maratha yuga purush Chhatrapati Shivaji and Sant Ramdas. As one facilitating an evangelist agenda, how can she receive Mr. Thackeray’s affections?
The issue of the veil has many dimensions. As a vestige of Hindu accommodation of and subordination to Islamic rule, it is an intra-Hindu affair. In south and east India, where Islam did not rule too long, Hindu women neither veil themselves nor cover their heads. Purdah/ ghunghat survives in the north where Islam was either dominant or where Hindus reluctantly came to terms with it.
The Muslim veil is rooted in Islamic culture, and has to be tackled by Muslims themselves. It has never been a problem in India, even among advocates of Muslim women’s rights in sensitive matters like divorce and rape. It is Europe, especially Britain and France, that has made the veil an international political issue. As Muslims feel politically cornered and culturally humiliated, the veil is being adopted by increasingly younger girls as part of identity politics. The controversy touched India when Ms. Shahbana Azmi raised it after receiving an award from the British House of Commons. She was seconded by Mr. Salman Rushdie, who has now been knighted. As the only Hindu woman to raise the issue, Ms. Patil has demonstrated an amazing tactlessness.
Such insensitivity is not new to her. Way back in 1975, after the Emergency was imposed and family planning became the national mantra, Ms. Patil told agitated Muslim leaders to keep their religion at home and make family planning their public creed.
Of course, one can guess the mantra invoked when the Shri Sant Muktabai sugar factory she founded received a Rs. 5 crore loan from the Mumbai Central District Co-operative Bank in 1994-95. It does not appear as if Ms. Patil made any effort to repay the same for over a decade; when she quit to become Rajasthan Governor four years ago, the accumulated interest and non-repayment had swollen to a staggering Rs 17.70 crore. She was sufficiently family-minded to hand over the cooperative to her brother G.N. Patil, and the default may never have become a public scandal but for the fact that the Congress president chose her for President just a week after the bank moved to recover bad debts. Bad luck!
Worse, G.N. Patil is accused of the murder of Jalgaon District Congress Committee president V.G. Patil in 2005. The alleged assassin, Raju Mali, reportedly confessed that he was hired by G.N. Patil before dying in mysterious circumstances earlier this year. It was this that prompted Mrs. V.G. Patil to write to Ms. Sonia Gandhi in March 2007 and follow it up with a meeting. Ms. Gandhi now owes the nation explanation for fielding a candidate with such a dubious family background. This is doubly shameful because the Jalgaon district and sessions court has allowed the CBI to file a supplementary charge-sheet involving G.N. Patil.
It boggles the mind that Congress should reject the much-respected Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for a non-entity like Ms. Patil, unless the objective is to swear-in Ms. Gandhi by hook or by crook. It is time for all political parties to rise above partisanship and come to the aid of the beleaguered nation.
The Pioneer, 26 June 2007