http://babyurl.com/frIUss
RASHMEE Z. AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2004 12:05:00 AM ]
LONDON : An Italian in a sari, screams France 's
Liberation . Born in Italy , ready to rule India ,
The Vancouver Sun tells the Canadian province of British Columbia , which became the first to have a premier of Indian extraction. From Italian housewife to reluctant Prime Minister, says Britain 's
Daily Telegraph .
Across the West, the press is deeply unsure if Gandhi's win is a simple return to dynasty or a sign of India 's unique political inclusiveness. So it has largely plumped for the dynastic connotations of Gandhi's win while highlighting her foreign origin as an oddity.
The reference to Gandhi poised to become the fourth PM from her family is every where. It's there in
The Times ,
The Guardian ,
The Independent and even in the
The Scotsman . France 's
Le Figaro , Switzerland 's
Le Temps , Germany 's
Die Welt , Dublin 's
Irish Times ,
The Boston Globe ,
The Baltimore Sun ,
Seattle Times and
Montreal Gazette all recall the dynasty's grip on India .
And in a front-page piece by Salman Rushdie ,
Italy 's La Republica describes the win as a victory of hope.
But it is
Le Figaro that offers the most interesting twist. "It was the Italian woman's revenge," says the paper, referring to unceasing attacks from Hindu nationalists over her origins.
And it commends her for accomplishing what seemed an impossible feat. For good measure, it adds that even Gandhi's "closest associates doubted the ability of ‘Sonia the Italian' to defeat the nationalist camp".
And
Le Temps , published out of Geneva , contrasts Sonia's confident win with the days after Rajiv's assassination, when she was walled in by dumbness and sorrow. Praising her as methodical and untiring, it records her journey across far-flung parts of India , beating the drum of uneven economic development. And it salutes her shrewdness in playing the dynastic chart by launching into the political arena her two popular children near the very end of the campaign period.
The Vancouver Sun — with its huge, mainly Punjabi population — offers five stories on the elections, adding in one of them that the Congress party has support in the British Columbia community.
Britain 's sage and relatively better-informed press, meanwhile, took upon itself the task of advising Gandhi and the new coalition. With three of four leading broadsheets running first editorials on the shock win, the consensus was Gandhi deserved it.
The Guardian saluted her doggedness, suggesting it wasn't a bad place to start the process of governing India . And the
Daily Telegraph wondered, along with more than a billion Indians, how does the Catholic daughter of an Italian contractor find herself on the threshold of becoming their PM.