Sonia¿s absence

IN Opinion | 13/09/2006

 I am surprised that several newspapers, the Statesman, the Hindu, the Tribune and the Deccan Herald, missed the central point in the absence of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh at the Vande Mataram celebrations at the Seva Dal headquarters. All reports led with how their absence would help the BJP revive itself. The media forgot that it is the Indian National Congress which adopted the song to galvanize the nation around its struggle against the British. It symbolized the cry of a nation for freedom and was with the Congress even before Mahatma Gandhi arrived on the scene.

To divert the attention of the people by raising marginal issues like the date of birth of the song or some old differences among Congress leaders about its origin is to cloud the truth that the two words were a synonym for freedom and irrespective of who wrote it and for what purpose, it was a slogan that the British hated most and preceded the Quit India battle cry by several decades.

Sonia Gandhi is the president of the Indian National Congress and shares notionally a surname with the architect of India`s freedom and Manmohan Singh is the head of a government run by a coalition headed by the Congress. The two ministries that sponsored the centenary are again headed by Congress persons known to be close to Sonia Gandhi. The credit for getting the date wrong goes to the Congress camp. Some Muslims, free not to sing, chose not to join the millions of people who turned the song into a national chorus. This, however, did not take away the national charcacter of the song. Those who preferred not to sing were in a minority.

To treat the absence of the party`s two top functionaries as helping the BJP is cussedness and a senseless transfer of its trusteeship to a party that had no existence before independence. The BJP has no monopoly over the song or patriotism. This was an occasion for the Congress to remind the Muslims that the national mainstream is incomplete without the minorities. It made a mess of the occasion and BJP in its present state of chaos is hardly the beneficiary.

After the event comes the theatre of absurdity. Janardhan Dwivedi says the Congress president and the prime minister were not invited. Do you need an invitation for your own wedding? Sanjay Baru says, "The recital was not meant for party offices. The educational institutions were asked to sing the song." Is not the Seva Dal headquarters part of the party office? Why did no media person remind him of the origin of the song and its close association with the Congress? Obssessed with the BJP?

Ahmed Patel says, "It is not a big issue if somebody does not attend the function due to being unwell or for some other reasons." Is Sonia Gandhi somebody? And, if she was unwell, is it not news to be reported? Another general secretary B.K.Hariprasad says it was purely a Seva Dal function and Gandhi was not expected to attend it. Why, is Ms. Gandhi an untouchable? All these guys got away with the nonsense they mouthed because the media could not see the event as anything but a BJP conspiracy to embarrass the Congress. But a majority of the people who participated in the singing were just Indians and not BJP or Congressmen.

Media persons need to know the history of the country before they write trash. I expected editorial comment on this act of self-denial of a party which, before independence was the voice of India.

Dasu Krishnamoorty

New Vernon, NJ. (USA)

September 11, 2006