Lasting Rose

It was  a question of when and not if the name of Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Indian National Congress party and one of the most powerful and influential women in the world as per the Forbes and Time Magazine lists, will be dragged in the messy affair of Enrica Lexie.

The inevitable has now happened and everyone is delivering their hidden punches saved since the Italian saga unfurled on the Indian shores, at the unfortunate widow of Rajiv Gandhi.

If Enrica Lexie was flying another flag, chances are it would have been released  and home and dry long time back. The problem is it is Italian like Sonia Gandhi was before she became an Indian citizen.

From the beginning, it was pretty clear that if Enrica Lexie, lured and forced to remain anchored at the Idyllic Port of Kochi in Kerala, a southern state of India, it was not the weight of its huge iron anchor but the immense political weight of the Indian political leader Sonia Gandhi was to be blamed. It was clear that any attempt favouring the Italians would be seen as orchestrated by the Italian born Sonia.
The reason is nothing but the Italian origin of Mrs Gandhi, and the paranoiac mindset of the Indian political system, still suffering from a sort of inferiority complex despite successfully test firing an inter continental ballistic missile.
The truth is, if the tragedy of the Titanic were to happen near the Kerala coast, the narrow minded politicians of Kerala, especially its ridiculous communists, would have made some political capital out of it before even thinking about sending a boat for the rescue. Since the Titanic was a British ship, there wouldn't have been any rescue attempt at all.
Things have hardly changed in a hundred years. They still must get some political mileage if they can, out of even the tragic death of the two poor fishermen who died in the incidence.
A lawyer representing the central government, under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi has argued, perhaps rightly, in the supreme court that the action of the State of Kerala in the whole affair was not legal as per international law.
This was sufficient for the politicians of Kerala to cry foul and raise accusations of an Italian conspiracy by the Italian born Sonia to favour Italy, something they were waiting to jump at all along.
It was clear that for the state government of Kerala headed by Sonia's congress party and facing a crucial by election, any attempt for a reasonable settlement would have lead to same accusations, which explain the stiff handling 'as per law of the land'.
You can't blame kerala's politicians not to know or understand the intricacies of International law. After all, international law doesn't apply to Kerala, deemed "God's Own Country" because no one is ever taught.
In any case, for many of Kerala's political leaders the closest to education was the time they spent under the roofs of its schools only to escape the occasional torrential rain. You really can't blame them for what they don't understand.
If anything, it is the captain of Enrica Lexie to be blamed for taking his ship in to this disaster zone. It is clear that he has no interest in History or current affairs and politics.
If he had any notion of the narrow political mentality and complex religious influence in the lives of the people of the beautiful state of Kerala, he would have been happy to welcome the Somali pirates he was trying to avoid, abord his ship instead of taking his ship anywhere near it.
At least the Italians now know what is meant by the English saying "between the devil and the deep sea".
Article first published as Sonia Gandhi - The Hapless Italian Anchor of The Enrica Lexie Affair on Technorati.