Media castigates BJP for raising storm over Sonia's foreign origin

Supporters of India's Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi hold a placard saying "No Sonia, No govt (government)" during a show of support for her to become India's new prime minister, in front of her house in New Delhi yesterday. Some fans threatened suicide as Sonia has declined to become prime minister, throwing the Congress Party into "crisis," party leaders said. PHOTO: AFP

In an editorial entitled "Oppose, don't distract", the Indian Express said the protests from members of outgoing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) to Gandhi succeeding him stemmed from a "desperate search for relevance."

"The idea is to ignite an incendiary sense of disgust in the public -- that why-cant-one-billion-Indians-find-one-Indian-to-lead-them feeling -- which could feed upon itself and yield possible dividends in the uncertain times ahead," the paper said.

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The comment referred to remarks by BJP leaders ranging from a threatened boycott of parliament to launching a nationwide agitation if the widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi were sworn in as premier.

On Monday, BJP president Venkaiah Naidu said his party and their allies would boycott the expected swearing-in of Sonia to show opposition to a foreign-born person taking the helm.

Vajpayee, however, would attend the ceremony in "keeping with the tradition," he said, but ruled out a parliamentary boycott of the incoming government.

Media reports said outgoing parliamentary affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had gone a step further saying she would shave her head and become an ascetic to protest Sonia's inauguration.

"The day she takes oath, I will tonsure my head, put on white clothes, sleep on the floor and eat only roasted grams," she was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.

Swaraj's colleague, Uma Bharti, a fiery Hindu nun who governs the central state of Madhya Pradesh, held a closed-door meeting with President Abdul Kalam Monday.

Bharti told reporters at the weekend that she would, "go to any length" to prevent Gandhi from getting the top job.

Another BJP leader, Babulal Marandi, called for a "national movement" to ban people of foreign origin from holding high office in India.