Legal bid to expose Sonia Gandhi's faith rejected

Sonia Gandhi was born a Roman Catholic

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• Profile: Sonia Gandhi

A court in India's northern Punjab and Haryana state has dismissed a petition seeking details of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi's religious beliefs.

The court said the religion of an individual was "entirely personal".

A former Haryana police officer had filed a petition under the Right to Information Act seeking the details from the Census office.

Hindu hardline opposition parties have often raised questions about Italian-born Sonia Gandhi's faith.

They have questioned Mrs Gandhi's right to rule a country where a vast majority of the population is Hindu.

Mrs Gandhi was born a Roman Catholic. Her husband, late Rajiv Gandhi, had mixed parentage.

His father was a Parsi while his mother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, was a Hindu.

Rajiv gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia's husband and Indira Gandhi's elder son, was a pilot with the state-owned Indian Airlines.  Unlike his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi, who had entered the hurly-burly world of politics and was enmeshed in various scandals, Rajiv led a low-profile life.  Rajiv is also described as a courteous person with fine manners. Political commentators have remarked that Rajiv's personality was so contrasting to that of his brother Sanjay. Rajiv entered the political world after his brother Sanjay Gandhi's death in 1980 in an aircrash in Delhi. Sonia is said to have been bitterly opposed to Rajiv entering the political world. Rajiv himself is believed to have been reluctant to initially respond to Indira's call. Rajiv "was reluctant to take the plunge into politics even though he realized that he could not deny his mother the help she needed and was asking for," writes Inder Malhotra Ultimately, the subtle and not-so-subtle pressure had its effect and Rajiv joined the Great Indian political circus paving the way ultimately for Sonia's entry into the political arena many years later. Although Rajiv was initially hailed as "Mr Clean" his reputation was soon tainted by a scandal surrounding the procurement of big guns from Swedish defense firm Bofors.

about sonia gandhi

Sonia Gandhi
Leader of the Congress Party, India

Sonia Gandhi is the leader of the Congress Party in India. Although Sonia could have become the first foreign-born Indian Prime Minister, she declined the opportunity.  In the May 2005 Parliamentary Elections to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, Sonia led the Congress Party to victory over the ruling BJP. Sonia's victory was aided by anti-incumbency sentiments as well as the large-scale disenchantment of millions of people belonging to the lower classes, who have been mostly left behind in the economic reforms exercise of the BJP. Sonia's rapid rise in the political arena highlights two interesting aspects of Indian politics - In a country, where Hindus account for a majority of the population, Indian voters have not hesitated to embrace a Roman Catholic Videshi (Hindi word for foreigner). Sonia's quick rise to the top of the Congress party illustrates the weakness of the Congress party and indeed the Indian political system. As political scientists like Samuel Huntington have written, in mature political systems the path to the top often takes decades during which time the leader gains experience in lesser positions and learns the art of governance in the process. Sonia has so far had very limited experience in the rough and tumble of politics and almost no experience in the art of governance. This raises questions of how effective Sonia can be as head of the ruling party of a complex nation like India with its myriad castes and religions and multitude of problems. If Sonia had become Prime Minister, she would have been the fourth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to become Prime Minister of India following in the footsteps of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

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