Asia Times: Indian election campaign turns racist, sexist



	September 01, 1999	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Indian election campaign turns racist, sexist
By Ranjit Dev Raj

NEW DELHI - A week before polling begins for India's general election, the campaign of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has acquired racist and sexist overtones focused on Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of the opposing Congress party.

A visibly pained Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill has been compelled to announce publicly, ''We want a campaign of a high standard, away from personalities and one which deals with real issues facing the people.'' The commission, a constitutional body with wide powers once elections are declared, has been inundated with complaints from the Congress party that it's leader and her family are under vicious personal attack.

In particular, the Congress party has objected to Defense Minister George Fernandes' remark at an election rally in Bellary in southern Karnataka state that Gandhi's sole contribution to the country was to have given birth to two children. Congress party spokesperson Kapil Sibal responded to Fernandes' remark by calling it a slur on motherhood. Bellary is one of two parliamentary constituencies which Gandhi is personally contesting, the other being Amethi in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

On Sunday, a Congress party delegation of its top leaders asked Gill to intervene and put a stop to the ''highly improper and intemperate campaigning by the BJP and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance [NDA]''. The delegation, which included former cabinet ministers in previous governments Pranab Mukherjee and Arjun Singh, later told the media that the ''gutter-level tirade'' had to stop.

On Sunday night, Gill sought to shame concerned parties in a nationally televised interview. ''If anyone is going to make cheap jokes about women then what sort of country are we? What sort of people are we? What sort of campaign is this?'' Gill, under attack himself from BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley for ''overstepping his bounds'', said the commission would pronounce on the issue after a formal meeting but said he hoped the contesting parties would ''regulate their own behavior''.

Several women's organizations have also petitioned the Commission demanding a ''gender-sensitive code of conduct'' that would stop the ''demeaning and sexist references to women in election campaigns''.

Said Brinda Karat, general secretary of the All-India Women's Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), ''Making personally derogatory comments about Jayalalitha, Rabri Devi or Sonia Gandhi has been going on for far too long.'' Jayalalitha, who leads the powerful AIADMK party in southern Tamil Nadu state, and Rabri Devi, who is chief minister in eastern Bihar, have electoral alliances with Gandhi's Congress party.

Karat said sexist remarks made during public speeches have wide impact. ''These snide remarks and nasty innunendos are supposed to be humorous but they are very demeaning.'' She was referring in particular to a comment by Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan comparing Sonia Gandhi to former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

But Mahajan, in a statement containing an apology, stuck to his point that Gandhi could never become prime minister because of her foreign origins. If she did it would be an ''insult to the Indian nation, including Indian womanhood''.

Mahajan's remark prompted several prominent women academics to sign a statement which said that the remark ''reflects the mindset of the BJP leadership and their mentors the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - a Hindu religious organization] who hold the view that women who oppose their politics and have the courage to confront them are objects of abuse''. The RSS, whose members sport khaki knickers and attend military style drills armed with wooden staffs, has been banned several times for its often violent attempts to establish a Hindu state in India which, constitutionally, is secular.

Gill said he wished to avoid controversy and he expected parties to follow the well-established code of conduct. As for gender-sensitivity, it was for lawmakers to make appropriate changes, he said. But Gill has a tough week ahead, with Gandhi asking for and giving no quarter. In election speeches she has accused Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of corruption.

Gandhi has repeatedly challenged the BJP to come out with proof that her late husband and former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, had benefited from kickbacks in a billion dollar deal to purchase Swedish Bofors artillery in the mid-eighties. So far, the BJP has limited itself to publicizing documents tracing links to a friend of the Gandhi family, an Italian businessman named Ottavio Quattrochhi.

The only other electoral issue is India's recently concluded border conflict in the Kargil area of disputed Kashmir, with the BJP claiming to have led a military victory over Pakistan. Gandhi has said in her election speeches that rather than claim any credit, the BJP ought to admit that it had made a blunder in Kargil that resulted in the loss of many lives. The election commission has expressedly asked political parties to refrain from making any ''comment and criticism'' on Kargil. ''Why unnecessarily drag the armed forces into it?'' querried Gill.

But the stress remains on Gandhi's foreign origins. Her rival candidate in Bellary, Sushma Swaraj, said the main issue was one between ''swadeshi'' and ''videshi'' (local and foreign). The joint manifesto of the BJP and its allies in the NDA promises legislation to ensure that people of foreign origin do not get to hold high office in India.

Vajpayee said there can be no disputing Gandhi's foreign origins, a remark which has led Congress leaders to accuse him of racism since Gandhi has acquired Indian citizenship.

(Inter Press Service)

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