Last week's teleconference at Virat-Hindu Sammelan , Dr.N S Rajaram commented below on Sonia Gandhi .


1. The greatest concern of Sonia Gandhi is the safety and
security of herself and her family-- not India, not the Congress. This has repeatedly been demonstrated, for example when she accepted the invitation of the Bin Laden family sponsored Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies where she
indulged in bashing 'Hindu fundamentalism' but said not a word about Islamic terror or Jihad. She knew full well that this would hurt Congress in the Gujarat elections, but her fear of Muslim anger overrode the possible electoral consequences.

2. It is a serious error to interpret the Hindu bashing of Sonia and her followers as vote bank politics. Her real concern is arousing Muslim anger that may lead to a violent backlash. Attacking Hindu and national symbols is simply part of this strategy.

3. She and her family face no threat from the Hindus, but only
from the Muslims. On the other hand only the Hindus of India can protect her-- not Muslims whom is is appeasing and certainly not the Pope or the Italians.

4. She cannot run way to Italy as she did during the Bangaldesh War and tried to do after Indira Gandhi's defeat after the Emergency. This is because, in Italy she gets no security from the government as she does in India. More seriously, Italy is a target of Muslim terrorists because it has
joined the U.S. in Iraq. Italians have been killed and taken hostage by Al Qaeda. Sonia sees herself as a possible target.

The sum total of all this: [b] Sonia is using Indians, Hindus in
particular, as cannon fodder to safeguard her and her family's security. Hindus have to protect her, but also serve as the target of assault to keep Muslims happy. [/b]

This, rather than vote bank politics is what is behind the relentless Hindu bashing we are seeing today. We should not fall into the trap of reading it as vote bank politics alone. That is a red herring.