Sonia Gandhi From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sonia Gandhi Chairperson of the National Advisory Council Incumbent Assumed office 29 March 2010 Preceded by Position reestablished In office 4 June 2004 – 23 March 2006 Preceded by Position established Succeeded by Position abolished Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance Incumbent Assumed office 16 May 2004 Preceded by Position established President of the Indian National Congress Incumbent Assumed office 14 March 1998 Preceded by Sitaram Kesri Leader of the Opposition In office 19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004 Preceded by Sharad Pawar Succeeded by L. K. Advani Member of Parliament for Rae Bareli Incumbent Assumed office 17 May 2004 Preceded by Satish Sharma Member of Parliament for Amethi In office 10 October 1999 – 17 May 2004 Preceded by Sanjay Singh Succeeded by Rahul Gandhi Personal details Born Edvige Antonia Albina Màino 9 December 1946 (age 66) Lusiana, Veneto, Italy Political party Indian National Congress Other political affiliations United Front (1996–2004) United Progressive Alliance(2004–present) Spouse(s) Rajiv Gandhi (1969–1991) Children Rahul Priyanka Residence 10 Janpath, New Delhi Signature Sonia Gandhi ( pronunciation (help•info); born Edvige Antonia Albina Màino,[1][2] 9 December 1946)[3][4] is an Italian-born Indian politician, who has served as President of the Indian National Congress party since 1998. She is the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi who belonged to the Nehru–Gandhi family. After her husbands assassination in 1991, she was invited by Congress leaders to take over the government; but she refused and publicly stayed away from politics amidst constant prodding from the party. She finally agreed to join politics in 1997; in 1998, she was elected as President of the Congress. She has served as the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha since 2004. In September 2010, on being re-elected for the fourth time, she became the longest serving president in the 125-year history of the Congress party.[5] Her foreign birth has been a subject of much debate and controversy.[6][7][8] Although Sonia is the fifth foreign-born person to be leader of the Congress Party, she is the first since independence in 1947.[9] Early life Sonia Gandhis birthplace, 31, Contrada Maini (Maini street), Lusiana, Italy (the house on the right) She was born to Stefano and Paola Maino in Contrada Màini (Maini quarter/district), at Lusiana,[10][11] a little village 30 km from Vicenza in Veneto,[12] Italy, where families with the family name Màino have been living for many generations.[13][14][15]She spent her adolescence in Orbassano,[16] a town near Turin, being raised in a traditional Roman Catholic family and attending a Catholic school. Her father, Stefano Maino, was a building mason, who owned a small construction business inOrbassano.[17] Stefano fought against the Soviet military alongside Hitlers Wehrmacht on the eastern front in World War II, he called himself a loyal supporter of Benito Mussolini and Italys National Fascist Party.[17] He died in 1983.[18] Her mother and two sisters still live around Orbassano.[19] In 1964, she went to study English at the Bell Educational Trusts language school in the city of Cambridge. She met Rajiv Gandhi, who was enrolled in Trinity College at the University of Cambridge in 1965 at a Greek restaurant (the Varsity Restaurant) while working there as a waitress to make ends meet.[20][21] Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi married in 1968, in a Hinduceremony[22] following which she moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.[23] The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi (born 1970) and Priyanka Vadra (born 1972). Despite belonging to the influentialNehru family, Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement in politics. Rajiv worked as an airline pilot while Sonia took care of her family.[24] When Indira was ousted from office in 1977 in the aftermath of the Indian Emergency, the Rajiv family moved abroad for a short time.[citation needed] When Rajiv entered politics in 1982 after the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash on 23 June 1980, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided all contact with the public.[25] Political career Wife of the Prime Minister Sonia Gandhis involvement with Indian public life began after the assassination of her mother-in-law and her husbands election as Prime Minister. As the Prime Ministers wife she acted as his official hostess and also accompanied him on a number of state visits.[citation needed] In 1984, she actively campaigned against her husbands sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi who was running against Rajiv in Amethi. At the end of Rajiv Gandhis five years in office, the Bofors Scandal broke out. Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian business man believed to be involved, was said to be a friend of Sonia Gandhi, having access to the Prime Ministers official residence.[26] In 1980, her name appeared in the voters list for New Delhi prior to her becoming an Indian Citizen, when she was still holding Italian Citizenship.[27] It was a violation of Indian Laws.[28] When she did acquire Indian Citizenship in April 1983, the issue cropped up again, as her name appeared on the 1983 voters list when the deadline for registering had been in January 1983.[29][30] Former senior Congress leader and the currently the President of India Pranab Mukherjee said that she surrendered her Italian passport to the Italian Embassy on 27 April 1983. Italian nationality law did not permit dual nationality until 1992. So, by acquiring Indian citizenship in 1983, she would automatically have lost Italian citizenship.[31] Congress President With the then President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev during his State visit in December 2010. After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and her refusal to become Prime Minister, the party settled on the choice of P. V. Narasimha Rao who became leader and subsequently Prime Minister. Over the next few years, however, the Congress fortunes continued to dwindle and it lost the 1996 elections. Several senior leaders such as Madhavrao Sindhia, Rajesh Pilot, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Arjun Singh,Mamata Banerjee, G. K. Moopanar, P. Chidambaram and Jayanthi Natarajan were in open revolt against incumbent President Sitaram Kesri and quit the party, splitting the Congress into many factions.[citation needed] In an effort to revive the partys sagging fortunes, she joined the Congress Party as a primary member in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997 and became party leader in 1998.[32] In May 1999, three senior leaders of the party (Sharad Pawar, P. A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar) challenged her right to try to become Indias Prime Minister because of her foreign origins. In response, she offered to resign as party leader, resulting in an outpouring of support and the expulsion from the party of the three rebels who went on to form the Nationalist Congress Party.[33] Within 62 days of joining as a primary member, she was offered the party President post which she accepted.[citation needed] She contested Lok Sabha elections from Bellary, Karnataka and Amethi, Uttar Pradesh in 1999. In Bellary she defeated veteran BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj.[34] In 2004 and 2009, she was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.[35] Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi welcomes U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to her residence, 10 Janpath in New Delhi, India, 2009. She was elected the Leader of the Opposition of the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.[citation needed] When the BJP-led NDA formed a government underAtal Bihari Vajpayee, she took the office of the Leader of Opposition. As Leader of Opposition, she called a no-confidence motion against the NDA government led by Vajpayee in 2003.[citation needed] She holds the record of having served as Congress President for 10 years consecutively.[citation needed] 2004 elections and aftermath In the 2004 general elections, Gandhi launched a nationwide campaign, criss-crossing the country on the Aam Aadmi (ordinary man) slogan in contrast to the India Shining slogan of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance. She countered the BJP asking Who is India Shining for?. In the election, she won by a large margin in the Rae Bareilly constituency. Following the unexpected defeat of the NDA, she was widely expected to be the next Prime Minister of India. On 16 May, she was unanimously chosen to lead a 15-party coalition government with the support of the left, which was subsequently named the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The defeated NDA protested once again her foreign origin and senior NDA leader Sushma Swaraj threatened to shave her head and sleep on the ground, among other things, should Sonia become prime minister.[6] The NDA also claimed that there were legal reasons that barred her from the Prime Ministers post.[36] They pointed, in particular, to Section 5 of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1955, which they claimed implied reciprocity. This was contested by others[30] and eventually the suits were dismissed by the Supreme Court of India.[37] A few days after the election, Gandhi appointed Manmohan Singh as prime minister. Her supporters compared it to the old Indian tradition of renunciation,[38] while her opponents attacked it as a political stunt.[39] UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi speaking at World Economic Forums India Economic Summit 2006 On 23 March 2006, Gandhi announced her resignation from the Lok Sabha and also as chairperson of the National Advisory Council under the office-of-profit controversy and the speculation that the government was planning to bring an ordinance to exempt the post of chairperson of National Advisory Council from the purview of office of profit.[40] She was re-elected from her constituency Rae Bareilly in May 2006 by a margin of over 400,000 votes. As chairperson of the National Advisory Committee and the UPA, she played an important role in making the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act into law.[41][42] She addressed the United Nations on 2 October 2007, Mahatma Gandhis birth anniversary which is observed as the international day of non-violence after a UN resolution passed on 15 July 2007.[43] Under her leadership, India returned the Congress-led-UPA to a near majority in the 2009 general elections with Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. The Congress itself won 206 Lok Sabha seats, which was the highest total by any party since 1991. Personal life Sonia Gandhi in 2009 Sonia is the widow of late Rajiv Gandhi, elder son of Indira Gandhi. Sonia has two children, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi. In August 2011, she underwent a successful surgery for an unspecified ailment in the United States. It has been widely speculated in the media that the surgery took place at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Newspapers reported that she returned[44] to India on 9 September after her treatment. Speaking on 18 July 2012, about her son taking a larger role in the party, she said that it is for Rahul to decide.[45] Sonia was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by the Guardian in March 2013.[46] She follows the style quote Simple is Stylish and looks no further than mother-in-law Indira Gandhis innate sense of fashion.[47] Honours and recognition Gandhi was named the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine in the year 2004[48] and was ranked 6th in 2007.[49] In 2010, Gandhi ranked as the ninth most powerful person on the planet by Forbes Magazine.[50] She was also named among the Time 100 most influential people in the world for the years 2007[51] and 2008.[52] The British magazine New Statesman listed Sonia Gandhi at number 29 in their annual survey of The Worlds 50 Most Influential Figures in the year 2010.[53] Year Name Awarding organisation Ref. 2008 Honorary Doctorate (Literature) University of Madras [54] 2006 Order of King Leopold Government of Belgium [55] 2006 Honorary Doctorate Brussels University [55]
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