NEW DELHI, 20 May 2004 — Consumed with anguish over Sonia Gandhi’s decision to reject the job of prime minister, thousands of Congress party supporters surrounded her home yesterday and implored her to reconsider.
Bellowing, “We won’t accept anyone but Sonia,” the sea of humanity surged around the sprawling colonial bungalow in the capital, holding aloft posters of the dark-haired politician.
Emotions reached fever pitch as angry Congress members smashed window in the party office while dozens marched down a tree-lined avenue shouting “Sonia Gandhi se pukar, jaldi banaye sarkar” (Sonia Gandhi should form a government soon).
Groups of hunger strikers sat under trees covered with photographs of the Gandhi family as vendors selling everything from bananas to colas hovered around.
As one kurta-pyjama-clad man lay listlessly on the ground, bystanders said he hadn’t had a drop of water in 36 hours and would give up his life if Sonia did not become prime minister.
“Without the Nehru-Gandhi family there is no Congress,” said an emotional Shafiq Ahmed, who came all the way from Ghazipur in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh when he heard of Sonia’s decision.
Tensions rose as police battled to hold back the crowd, some of whom tried to clamber over barricades blocking the way to her home where party leaders were meeting to discuss who should be premier. Sonia was widely tipped to back former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, 71.
“What we’re seeing is a huge outpouring of emotion by ordinary Congress workers,” said Congress spokesman Abhisekh Singhvi. “This is something that’s a human issue — a genuine outpouring.”
Demonstrators cried “Down with the Bharatiya Janata Party,” referring to the outgoing Hindu extremist BJP government whose members ran a virulent campaign attacking her foreign origins after the party’s surprise defeat.
Some demonstrators burned effigies of Sushma Swaraj, the outgoing parliamentary affairs minister of the BJP who had vowed to shave her head in a traditional sign of Hindu mourning if Sonia became prime minister.
Others lay in silent protest on the baking road under a scorching summer sun as ambulances stood by to take away anyone falling ill. Sonia, torchbearer of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty — seen as the Indian equivalent of the US Kennedy family — stunned Indians Tuesday when she said she would “humbly decline” the job, saying her responsibility was to provide India with a secular, strong and stable government.
In doing so, Sonia, widow of former Premier Rajiv Gandhi, assassinated in 1991, shielded her party from attacks by BJP members, outraged at having a foreign-born ruler, even though she holds Indian citizenship.
“We’re really angry with the BJP leaders. They’ve crossed all limits to insult madam (Sonia Gandhi),” said Congress youth leader Dharmendra Shukla.
Supporters young and old, rich and poor streamed on foot yesterday down the blocked-off road to her house. “This is a reflection of the sentiment of the people of India,” said Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni.
Congress worker Satbir Singh Premi said he would only accept “a Nehru-Gandhi prime minister. They’re the ones who sacrificed for the nation (in the independence struggle from Britain). No one else did.”
Meanwhile, Congress workers took to the streets in the Gandhi constituency stronghold of Amethi in northern India, shouting anti-BJP slogans, in a bid to persuade her to change her mind. Shops and businesses closed in solidarity.
Elsewhere, in the western state of Gujarat, rocked by deadly Hindu-Muslim riots two years ago, over 70 Congress supporters signed a letter written in blood urging to reconsider.
