Rahul Gandhi's `satyagraha'

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, January9, 2007 : It’s going to be the largest international jamboree of its time, reminiscent of the good ol’ days when size mattered, with none other than Congress President Sonia Gandhi later this month going to play hostess to prime ministers and presidents, Nobel laureates grassroots leaders.

Still, here’s the big secret hovering over South Block that no one has the audacity to either confirm or deny : Rahul Gandhi, son and scion and MP from Amethi, is likely to be ``relaunched’’ in front of a star-studded international audience marking the hundredth anniversary of the Mahatma’s `satyagraha’, on January 29-30, the anniversary of his martyrdom.

Some say the `satyagraha’ conference (www.satyagrahaconference.com) is a conscious attempt at merging the mystique of the Nehru-Gandhis with the awesome mantle of the Mahatma.

Maybe that’s why when Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma, invited Sonia Gandhi to his latest book launch on his grandfather only the other day at Gandhi Smriti, she was happy to attend.

Certainly, this is going to be Sonia Gandhi’s show all the way. Especially since she personally wrote to world leaders like Bangladeshi Nobel Laureate Mohammed Younus, South African leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Asfandyar Wali Khan (grandson of Frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan), besides a few score other leaders from the world over, inviting them all to attend.

By all accounts, the capital event will be a huge affair. Lech Walesa of Poland, Ahmed Kathrada of South Africa, Navinchandra Ramgoolam of Mauritius, Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk of Bhutan have confirmed.

So have leaders from Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Indonesia (Megawati Sukarnoputri), Nepal (deputy PM K P Sharma Oli), Cuba, Moldova, Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Sierra Leone.

Perhaps this conference, coming on the eve of elections in Uttar Pradesh, is New Delhi’s way of atoning for its latest love-in with America. Perhaps, more and more Congressmen and women were beginning to feel that India shouldn’t have abandoned its Cold War friends that easily.

To be sure, Gene Sharp, an America `satyagrahi’ (latest book, `Waging Non-Violent Struggle : 20th century practice and 21st century potential) is also attending.

As for young Rahul, just like his father, Rajiv, his grandmother Indira Gandhi and his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, all of whom had a natural appetite for foreign affairs, South Block’s secret will have the persistently shy MP from Amethi come out of the national closet at the `satyagraha’ conference.

After all, his only official trip abroad so far has been with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Kabul. And, of course, part of a bumper delegation to the UN General Assembly last year.

So this will be just like the time when the Non-Aligned Summit was held in New Delhi in 1983 – the time when Fidel Castro publicly hugged Indira Gandhi and called her ``my sister’’ -- and Rajiv Gandhi, then a mere general secretary in the Congress party, was shown off to the world.

Both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh have said they would have loved to come, but can’t because of the election situation at home. Maldivian President Abdul Gayoom is coming, and so is Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka. Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf wasn’t invited, but Asma Jahangir was (besides Asfandyar Wali Khan) and she’s coming too.

Minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma, whose interest in South Africa, the ANC leadership and its people has survived the end of the Cold War, is the convenor of the conference’s star-studded organizing committee.

Other committee members include Sonia’s political secretary and trusted aide Ahmed Patel, ICCR President Karan Singh, Defence minister A K Anthony, Tourism& Culture minister Ambika Soni.

Whatever it is, barely weeks after George Bush’s America gave India a leg up to become the world’s sixth nuclear power in everything but name, Cold War jargon will have a field day at the Vigyan Bhavan.

The conference’s four-point programme is the following : A non-violent approach to conflict resolution and peace-building, the Gandhian philosophy for poverty eradication, education and people’s empowerment, dialogue among peoples and cultures and, towards a nuclear weapons-free and non-violent world order.

ENDS